I always relied on my dogs pedigrees, going back at least 9 generations....and I still occasionally ended up with a "throw back" that matured into a "teapot", weighing in 11-16 lbs! When you are familiar with the lines you are breeding, and you continue breeding these same dogs, same lines, generation after generation, you have a pretty dependable road map of what to expect in your litters from any given breeding pair....it is in the blood. You get an occasional "throw back" or "out throw", but you pretty well know what you will get from a breeding pair. If you are breeding two dogs, and you can not confidently predict with 90%+ accuracy, what your litter, what the puppies, are going to look like, in MY pinion, you are playing Russian Roulette.....you are walking through a mine field with possible genetic issues.
In MY opinion, it is an unforgivable sin against mankind, to produce puppies that you have NO idea what is MORE THAN LIKELY going to happen with organs/bones/joints/personalities, etc inside them, their livers, their muscle development, their bones and joint stability, eye sight, hearing, hearts, etc, etc, etc, that you then pander off on an unsuspecting soul that has fallen in love with this precious bundle of joy......that ends up either costing them a fortune to keep alive, or it costs them a fortune, only to have it die on them. Everyone looks for the "great deal on the puppy" the $500.00-$800.00 deal....but that does not cover the cost of producing a puppy for 10-14 weeks of age, that can be guaranteed by a breeder, to be healthy and happy and well adjusted and long lived. They may luck out and find such a baby, and it survives for 12-17 years in spite of the Russian Roulette approach to breeding, but it does not happen often. And when it fails, which is the majority of cases, the baby and the new puppy owners are the ones that suffer the heart ache and heart break. |