Long term success in any endeavor does not just happen by having dumb luck. One must have a clear picture in their mind of what they want to achieve in their breeding program and formulate a plan on how to do so. Step one is to start out with workable breeding stock. I feel that up to this point, most everyone would have to agree with what I have said. Where the differences in opinion arise is in what is considered to be good breeding material.

I believe that one should select their breeding stock in the same manner that a good judge selects their winners. Stud dogs and brood bitches should be selected for their virtues not for their lack of faults. The reason I say this is that some breeders select their breeding stock solely by eliminating dogs for their faults while ignoring the strong virtues in that very same animal. This is a common pitfall of the idealistic, less experienced breeder. The results in many of these breedings is mediocre puppies because one is breeding to the lower end of the spectrum. Just because a dog lacks certain faults doesn't necessarily mean that it is an outstanding representative of the breed.

Case in point. The question has been asked on numerous occasions, "would you breed an over sized bitch?" Some of the responses to this question were no because being over sized is a disqualifying fault. As credible as this sounds, the fact of the matter is that the top producing brood bitch up to this point in time is still Pittore's Flamenco Dancer. According to Patricia Pittore, her breeder and owner, she weighed in at 7 lbs and was long in body. This bitch was bred correctly and the proof is in the record book. I have also seen on several occasions where breeders had eventually lost the size in their bitches because they bred them down too small by not going to a larger bitch from time to time.

I too had been guilty of overlooking good breeding stock in my own kennel in the past. My second home-bred champion is Ch Maestro's Opera Buffa, "Bonkers." Bonkers finished in 11 shows as a puppy out of the bred-by class picking up both of his majors while the national was in town and had also gone up over best in show competition from the classes. He is a moving machine with a dead level top line, perfect tail set, picture book front and shoulder assembly, strong rear, and his tan markings looked as if they were painted on him by an artist. However, he had one fault that I had a difficult time getting past when it came to using him in my breeding program. The lower left side of his jaw is a bit crooked, causing his canine to slightly jut out allowing he tongue to hang out. I had overlooked him as a stud dog for several years because of this until one day, I took another good look at his virtues and decided to give him a try.

Since that time, Bonkers has been my top producing stud dog. One of his daughters was the #7 long coat in breed and #9 in all breed in 1998 according to the Canine Chronicle and went of to be #8 in breed and #7 in all breed in 1999. Another one of his daughters was the Smooth Coat Best Of Winners at the 1999 Chihuahua Club of America Rotating Specialty out of the bred-by class. The following year, one of his sons went BISS at the Chihuahua Club of Maryland Specialty. All 3 of these dogs have perfect scissors bites. They were also owner handled. I have done several breedings where I have doubled up on him and have had very few bite problems. In fact, the worst bites that I had ever gotten were from breedings where both the sire and dam had perfect scissors bites for several generations back.

In no way am I advocating breeding a bitch just because she is large and has functional ovaries nor would I suggest breeding something with serious structural faults or medical conditions. I will breed an oversized bitch if and only if I feel that she has qualities to offer to my breeding program. The same goes for an animal with a less than perfect bite or a somewhat soft temperament. My whole point is that a good breeder looks for the outstanding characteristics of a particular dog in genotype as well as the phenotype and doesn't focus on one particular cosmetic fault. In other words, we need to look at the big picture. One needs to know what works well within their own blood lines and know when to take calculated risks in outcrossing to bring desired characteristics into their bloodline. Just some food for thought

John Cipollina
http://www.bealenet.com/~maestro/