Out A Line

There is much said about “Inter-breeding”, this should not be confused with “Line Breeding”. Interbreeding should be discouraged by all responsible breeders, mating brother to sister, father to daughter etc, is not a good idea and can only produce the sum of those two dogs, faults will be magnified and health problems intensified so what is the point? Some may say it helps to keep “type” but I don’t think you have to do this sort of breeding to keep type. Maybe those people that do it think it is a good idea for some reason and maybe some of the people that do it are irresponsible people that just breed anything to anything as long as they get puppies to sell, who knows what makes folk tick.

I know some people will disagree with me but in most breeds there are enough boys and girls to be able to choose not to mate siblings, just look at some of the problems in many breeds to see why we should be so careful with what we do, perhaps in some breeds they will say they do it to keep control of problems, not sure how that would work.

Line breeding is totally different, this is done to keep type, related dogs are mated to girls that carry similar traits, carefully choosing the right “husband” to suit your girl takes years of experience and a true love of the breed, making sure you try and keep all the good things about your dogs and trying to improve in the areas that are not so good, at the same time trying to reduce as much as possible those strong hereditary faults that keep cropping up when you least expect it, If you are getting this right most of the time then over the years your dogs should be very similar to look at, this is what you should be aiming at when breeding and always making sure you remember the most important thing which is temperament.

Most of the puppies that you breed will become family pets and no chances should ever be taken with temperament, it is easy to lose sight of the basic things when breeding for the show ring, it is always a thrill when that elusive puppy emerges as your litter develops and shouts “show me”, but the rest of them have to be as fit, healthy and happy as the one you keep, we are responsible for bringing these beautiful dogs into the world, we should be doing our best not only in choosing our dogs for breeding but more importantly when we place them into their new homes, it is all to easy for Puppy Farmers and Traders to get hold of a puppy so make sure it is never one of yours.

Here you can see what “Line Breeding” is about, look carefully at these girls and boys and you should see that they are of a “Type” showing quality in abundance, all winners at all levels and to me proving my years of hard work and dedication to this breed have been worthwhile.

Della, seen above left, was mated to Theo and between them they produced the stunning dog below. Forest’s photo was taken at Cruft’s when he was 7 years of age, it takes total dedication and hard work to present a dog in this condition at his age, his owner has my deepest gratitude for taking such care of my boy…

Della had a terrible start in life so for her to become a Champion was very special to me, she loved life and always showed her self beautifully… you can see her story on my site..

Theo was a real showman, his greatest triumph was winning Best Of Breed at Crufts some years ago, long since retired from showing, he helped to produce some superb puppies at my kennel. His qualities live on in his decedents…

CLARAMAND UP FRONT

Forest in his turn produced for me my wonderful International Champion Chico.. *Claramand Serious Black* Sadly Forest was given sleep in 2011.

CLARAMAND CHICO TIME

Int. Ch. CLARAMAND BACK IN TIME