Breeding Dogs Discussion

Back when I first got into Plotts, I was to busy hunting them to worry about breeding them & did not want to lay a female up. I lost some very good blood due to not breeding them. I got a Weems bred gyp named Lucy & she had everything I was looking for. Had it all but she died at 2 without me breeding her. I went back & got a sister to her.(same cross different litter) She made the same kind of dog. I was living in MN. at the time & bearhunting in Wisc. Altho I hunted with some good Plotts there, they were not equal to that Blackie gyp in the nose, speed or grit department & I felt like I would be breeding down. Called Steve Fielder up as he had a littermate to her with the full intention of breeding her to her full brother. He talked me into breeding her to her 1/2 brother Roper. They had the same sire Soloman. I made this cross with extremely good results so I started looking at the family of dogs that created the Soloman dog. When I moved back to La. I was going over to Fla. to bear hunt & a friend of mine had a dog (Dummy)that could run with Blackie & was very cold nose. Come to find out, his Grandmother was a littermate to the Soloman dog & the rest was Leroy Haug breeding. (swampland) Made that cross twice with very good results. I also had another female named Bell with Swampland breeding & bred to the Dummy dog & got some nice dogs. Then I was crossing Bell offspring to the Blackie offspring & that is what I have been doing for years. The Soloman dog was Weems bred. Leroy Haug started his line of dogs based off of Weems bred dogs. I guess what I am saying is I thought I started with breeding around my female Blackie but then concentrated more on her sire Soloman. Bottom line it was a family of dogs that I was breeding around that kept producing. Yes, there were a few culls but the majority made very usable dogs & they got very consistent when we were stacking Soloman in the pedegree.