Now that you have a basic understanding of the importance of starting out with quality foundation females as brood stock, as well as the importance of selecting a Stud that’s proven as a Producer, the next step is to establish a breeding plan. Doing this alone will set you apart from the competition. Trust us when we tell you, they’re not doing this.

Breeding a litter of pups is not the same as becoming a breeder and developing a bloodline.

We have within our breed bloodlines that are known for producing great dogs as well as bloodlines that are known for producing mediocre dogs with certain problems, i.e. conformation faults, health issues, temperament faults etc.

The newcomer that is interested in developing a’ bloodline’ must understand that it is more that having your name carried as a part of the registered name of the dog. It is the development of a family of dogs that breed true for breed characteristics that you deem as essential and desirable, and that have been selectively bred into your family of dogs.

STEPS TO BECOMING A BREEDER

I. ESTABLISHING A BREEDING PLAN

A) Number one is to identify those breed characteristics that you want to see reproduced in the dogs that you will produce. Identifying your individual list of characteristics that you want to develop in your bloodline requires that you are familiar with the breed character and are knowledgeable about the breed standards that have been established. You will also need knowledge about structural soundness and genetic health issues within the breed.

B) To develop an eye for a dog, to be able to evaluate one dog from another in terms of those traits that you are breeding for.

II. SELECTION OF BROOD STOCK

Once a breeder has developed a breeding plan, an evaluation of the brood stock that you are going to be using is the next step. First and foremost, the individual stud dog or brood bitch must possess the outstanding traits that the breeder is looking for in the offspring. The mating of animals with similar characteristics tends to produce offspring that resemble themselves. This is known as like-to-like, type-to-type or positive assortive mating.

“Pedigrees are great, but they don’t mean jack if the two dogs being bred don’t carry the desired look/traits. Look at the dogs in front of you.”

– Double L’s Ty Lumley

It is obvious that breeders should avoid mating animals with the same faults, as this type of mating will also tend to produce offspring with those faults set within the family of dogs.

III. PEDIGREE ANALYSIS

An analysis of the dog’s pedigree is the third but equally important step that must be considered in the selection of brood stock. For novices, a dog’s pedigree is usually meaningless. For the experienced fancier, the pedigree is a profile of genetic potential, containing an unlimited amount of information. Knowledge about the individual dogs in the pedigree can be obtained firsthand from the dog’s breeder.

Pictures and information on the dogs can frequently be obtained from the numerous breed magazines and breeders websites. Conformation titles on the individual dogs can also be used in compiling your database of information on the dog’s pedigree. After a number of years into a person’s breeding program, the breeder will have first hand knowledge of the dogs making up the pedigree of the breeding stock.

Also a database of information concerning the littermates as well as offspring from repeat breedings should be available to the breeder. This first hand information will always be the most reliable if the breeder remains objective. You can find the offspring a dog has produced in online pedigree databases such as Bullypedia and BullyPedex.

“You will want to become familiar with these. You’re going to want to add your own productions once you start having them. But perhaps more importantly, you can research which breeding pairs and bloodlines produced top dogs. There is almost unlimited information at people’s fingertips, but most are too damn lazy to use it.”

SHOWS & EVENTS

Attendance at shows and conformation events, having discussions with successful breeders and talking to judges and exhibitors about the breed can also enhance one’s understanding. A study of the literature available about the breed and about dogs, genetics and breeding in general is also essential. The breeding of fine dogs is an art, with a strong scientific basis.

What a breeder seeks to produce, the ideal that he formulates, is his or her self expression — the fulfillment of the creative urge. That lies the joy of breeding dogs. The emphasis a breeder places upon soundness, a great head, correct fronts or backend declares his own nature.

The breeder who would achieve a consistent color or size at the cost of breed type or honest structure is a different kind of person from one who prefers a correctly made dog.

Read that again out loud.

All quality bloodlines have been established by incorporating quality brood stock from someone else’s bloodline. It is not often that you will be able to incorporate a pet quality bitch or dog into your breeding program and expect to produce consistent quality pups.

THE FATHER OF MODERN GENETICS AND THE MAN WHO APPLIED IT TO ANIMAL BREEDING

Although Gregor Mendel is the father of modern genetics, Jay Lush is the fellow who brought genetics to animal breeding. Lush was a student of Sewall Wright, who devised the coefficient of inbreeding, and a background in both genetics and mathematics allowed him to develop animal breeding into a quantitative science.

Perhaps his most important contribution is a book first published in 1937 called Animal Breeding Plans, in which he laid the foundations on which the scientific breeding of both animals and plants still rest today. While parts are necessarily outdated now, much of what he wrote is as useful today as it was then.

INBREEDING VS LINEBREEDING

Most breeders know about inbreeding and linebreeding but find it difficult to clearly distinguish between them. Usually inbreeding is considered to be breeding among first-order relatives (e.g., sibling to sibling, parent to offspring), and linebreeding is a fuzzy version of “not as close as inbreeding”. When Lush discusses linebreeding in his book, though, he clearly distinguishes between linebreeding and what he calls “other forms of inbreeding”, which he simply defines as breeding between relatives.

For every generation that passes between the ancestor and the present, its influence is reduced by half. To avoid this progressive dilution, “linebreeding takes advantage of the laws of probability as they affect Mendelian inheritance to hold the expected amount of inheritance from an admired ancestor at a nearly constant level. “Linebreeding provides, so to speak, a ratchet mechanism for holding any gains already made by selection, while attempting to make further gains.”

CARRYING THE TORCH

Any time that a significant advancement in any field is made (especially science) it is often left at the feet of the next generation. Equally important are the ones who pick up the torch and expand upon the point where the previous generation’s research left off.

By the early 1950’s, Lloyd C. Brackett had become a legend in his own time. In part because of the quality of the dogs he produced and in part because of his candor when addressing problems related to the breeding of canines. He had much to say about the selection of sires, how to correct problems and how to make improvements. Brackett was considered one of the fathers of the German Shepherd breed in the United States.

90 CHAMPIONS OVER 12 YEARS

At the time of his death he was the oldest living continuous fancier of the breed (since 1912). His kennel was called Long Worth and he is remembered throughout the dog world for his theories about breeding methods. Brackett was well read and a quick learner. Through his writings he shed light on the confusion and misunderstandings associated with line and inbreeding. One of his greatest achievements was to have produced over 90 champions in twelve years.

All of his methods and ideas were not new. For example, he combined the study of pedigrees with the results they produced. After years of watching what combinations produced the better offspring he refined his ideas about how to select breeding partners.

BRACKETT’S FORMULA

Out of these experiences came a formula that later he would make him famous. The formula was not new but his ideas about how to use it attracted attention. Breeders of domestic animals had used it for years. It relied on the principles of line and inbreeding. But it was Brackett and his approach to planned breedings that made it well known.

Brackett believed in pedigree analysis, litter evaluation, the use of line and inbreeding and a record system that was easy to use. Those ideas are what set him apart from others who did little more than practice the art of breeding. While Brackett is best known for his emphasis on the use of linebreeding he was not afraid to inbreed if the situation dictated it.

He believed that it made no sense to go forward with breeding before the needed information about the sire and dam had been collected. He placed great emphasis on health, temperament and breed characteristics. His planned breedings were based on the results that occurred in his pups. In other words, he learned from his mistakes.

Brackett understood the value of using quality dogs that were related to each other. This approach allowed him to concentrate the genes needed to produce desired traits. His techniques for reducing error and improving quality focused on the careful selection of breeding partners. They were central to maintaining and improving specific traits while at the same time reducing disease and other unwanted problems.

CONSISTENCY & TYPE

Brackett became famous for breeding quality dogs with consistent type. His strategy relied on a series of breedings using relatives. Often times he was quoted as saying, “never outcross when things seem to be going well, do it only as an experiment or when some fault or faults cannot be eliminated”.

He was careful to study each stud dog and their offspring, eliminating those who did not measure up and those who produced faults. Close inspection of his pedigrees show that many of his sires were themselves inbred or line bred and most were usually related in some way to the bitches in his breeding program.

LINEBREEDING

Brackett’s success helped to make line breeding popular. He demonstrated how to make improvements by retaining a common pool of genes through the use of related dogs. He believed that out-crossing was the least desirable method because it introduced new genes into his pedigrees, which in turn produced differences and genetic variations among the offspring.

It has been well documented that two full-brothers usually do not have the same genetic potential even though they both come from the same two parents. One sibling might inherit one set of genes from his father and the other might get a different set from an uncle through his mother. While each pup always receives half of its genes from the sire and half from the dam it does not mean that they each will get the same set of genes.

This explains why littermates do not always look alike or have the same capacity to produce quality. Brackett kept detailed records on the differences between siblings. He was well read on this subject and occasionally mentioned the works of Aristotle and Mendel in his articles. In practice they all shared similar beliefs.

Brackett was concerned about the future of breeding better dogs and the lack of breeder education programs. He believed that “the majority of dog breeders formulate no breeding plan and seldom if ever, when mating, consider how they will mate any of the resultant produced offspring.”

BRACKETT’S FORMULA

The formula Brackett preferred concentrated genes in a pedigree. He did this by placing emphasis on the sire of the sire.

In Figure 1, notice that the same dog appears on the sire and the dam’s side of the pedigree. Brackett liked to use one important dog and have it appear twice in a three-generation pedigree.

The basic formula he preferred can be stated as follows, “Let the sire of the sire become the grand sire on the dam’s side”. Said another way, “let the father’s father become the mothers grandfather.”