The Ideal Dog Stud

  Your problem is to discover this dominant ancestor and to learn whether his descendant—the stud you are considering—carries most of his characteristics. It is also necessary for you to know whether the pups he will throw when bred to certain bitches of closely related blood lines will be of a higher type. If you can pick out a similar dog on the other side of the pedigree, related to the first dominant dog, so much the better. In line breeding, the dominant dog on both sides may be the same. If so, it is even better than having two separate specimens imparting dominant characteristics to both sides of the pedigree.

  However, dominant characteristics may be either good or bad. The ideal stud is one in which the dominant ancestors passed on desirable qualities which are lacking in the bitch. In other words, when a bitch is dominant in bone structure, eye color, gait, and coat, but has two of these as faults—say eye color and gait—the ideal stud would be one dominant in good eye color and gait, and reasonably so in the other characteristics. He should approximate her as closely as possible, but in the characteristics where she shows weakness he should be exceptionally strong.

  Inbreeding intensifies all qualities, whether good or bad. Remember that! If most of the characteristics are good, inbreeding is an excellent way to obtain uniform type, since each parent is dominant principally in the same qualities. The stud must be dominant in the same characteristics as the bitch and should also be dominant in additional good qualities which appear as faults in the bitch. The greatest stud of all times might not throw good pups with your bitch, even though she be of excellent type on her side.

  "What constitutes a successful breeder?" you may ask. Some would say that the man who keeps a steady flow of puppies going out from his kennels, and is receiving satisfactory returns from their sale, has attained this goal. Others might say that the man who muddles along but occasionally appears with a flyer—an untried dog which goes to the top with meteoric suddenness— is really going places. Still others think that success lies in buying a dog that will take all the silverware from the shows for miles around.

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