While reading the Lord topic I started asking myself; Do we (those in the USA) have the ability to know how a top stud dog is producing when we see very few of his produce? Are we getting so much of the junk that we are basing our opinions on the wrong dogs?

Even dogs that are breeding here. Do we get to see enough of their pups working to evaluate what they are producing?

Just thinking out loud.

I think your question is a good question. As a breeder I think it is a mistake for people to breed to dogs just because a dog won a sport dog competition, or just because they saw a flashy add in a magazine or because of gossip at the clubs.

One only needs to read the posts on this discussion board to realize the old saying "Everyone in dogs has an opinon but very few have the exerience to back up their opinions"

Not everyone can own a stud dog but this is by far the best way to run a breeding program. Then you know exaclty what you have. Keep your females from this stud and breed them to a new stud dog (or a dog that you know personally)

Peronally I would NEVER breed a dog that I have not seen. To do so would be crazy. It is OK to keep your ears open and try to learn bloodlines from others. But when the time comes to get a stud dog - go and look at it before you buy it. If you buy a dog sight unseen and get sent a piece of crap all of a sundden a flight to Europe would have been cheap money when compared to what you wasted.

I will also say that just because you go to look at a dog does not mean that you are not going to have problems, but al least then you can get kissed before you get screwed.

Breeding is a gamble, why not cut your odds and nail down as many variables as possible before jumping off the bridge.

That is a good point. Unless you see the whole picture it is hard to judge. I agree with Ed, keep your ears open but look with your own eyes.
Unless you have total control over your breeding program like Ed, it is really quite difficult to see what your or any stud is really doing. Even then you will have mistakes but it does norrow the odds a bit. I guess it boils down to one's goal of what they are breeding for.
A trainer in Germany said he does not really like the MInk line because they are abit nery? I have not really found this with breeding them, but again it comes down to what one wants to produce. He did not run the line down because he aggreed that it has it's good points, but that was his opinion on the matter.

Ed,

wasn't what you had a litter mate to the bitch I had? Line bred 3-3 on Lord.... I have heard many times before that line breeding on Lord can bring nerviness and small, fine boned dogs. I sold the bitch, she is a SchH 3 now, but she is nervy. She has enough prey drive to overcome it, hence the title. Not my kind of dog, though. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Have you heard anything about Lord throwing undescended testicles? I have just heard that recently, I was wondering whether anyone has had any experience with that.

Somehow my post landed under the wrong topic My first post to this BB... oops.