I have a 7 year old female that has never had a litter, is she too old to breed for her first time?

Hello,

I am trying to determine wether I should breed a healthy German Shepherd female we own. We have bred German Shepherds for 20 years but only have a litter every few years. We have an excellent female we have raised since a puppy from excellent German working lineage. Time has gotten away from us and by the time she will be whelping her puppies she will be 7+ years old. She is third generation from our breeding program and if not breed we will loose that lineage. She has never before had a litter. Do you think she is to old to breed to?

Another consideration is she has a umbilical hernia about the size of a quarter that feels like it is filled with fat. I've read up quite a bit on the genetic versus mother biting off the umbilical cord to close topic. What do you think? Her mother had two litters with no other hernias.

Thanks for the help