Kane and Roxie produced a litter a few years ago that did quite well, all the pups are doing club level work and all the owners are happy with their dogs. What are the odds that Kane and Roxie will produce another nice litter of working line GSDs?

You got me...but I sure do wish you all the luck with it, Dennis!

leih

I'm not a breeder...but they will often do repeat breedings of pairs that produce the quality pups that they had hoped for with the original breeding. Hopefully this will be the case with this repeat breeding of Roxy.

Maybe Ed or Cindy with all their years of experience, will coment on this thread.

Dennis, I just want to applaud the level of responsibility and dedication you are showing to your breeding.

Waiting until the pups have reached adulthood and have proven themselves quality additions to the breed is something I wish more breeders would do.

I think it can be a crapshoot. Frost is from a repeat breeding and her breeder has remarked to me that she feels that Frost's litter was better than the first breeding (and that was a really nice litter as well). On the other hand, I know someone who had a littermate to Ivan's Django and she says that Ivan repeated that fantastic "D" litter and the second breeding had nowhere near the success that the initial breeding had.

With that said, if the initial litter was proven successful I would feel that you have as good or better chance at having a successful litter than if you did a new cross that is unknown.

Just the opinion of a backseat driver :-p

I consider repeat breedings like really creating one large litter. It doesn't mean that the litter is guaranteed success but it does enlarge your information pool for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a sire and dam combination. I think often times breeders repeat a breeding expecting the same results but genetics and living variables are not often that kind to produce the same results except in cases of severe linebreeding.

A few of the rules I have always found to be true in breeding animals.

No repeat breeding or line breeding will produce an animal just like one that is already alive. It's impossible.

Never acquire an animal or breed another animal to be just like one already existing. The variables of life that created that animal cannot be duplicated in most real settings.

When selecting sire/dam breed for an average between the two animals you are using.

Never breed the same fault together.

Two exceptional animals with exceptional pedigrees doesn't mean that they are an ideal pair. If you didn't know the titles and didn't know the pedigrees would the dogs still be an ideal match? If the answer is no, look for another dog.

Be willing to call off a pairing if something doesn't feel/look right.

 Quote: Dennis Jones

Kane and Roxie produced a litter a few years ago that did quite well, all the pups are doing club level work and all the owners are happy with their dogs. What are the odds that Kane and Roxie will produce another nice litter of working line GSDs?

This sounds like a word problem from my Junior High math class.

Answer: There is a 75% chance that all the pups in the litter will be as capable as the last litter. The answer may be correct but I will get marked down because I didn't show my work.

My last litter was a repeat of one that was 2 years old. Both litters had 6 pups.

Drive and nerve wise I would say the litters are about equal along with appearance.

The only major differences I see in the second litter to the first is that the second one is more social overall then the fist one. I attribute this to Annabelle being a more experienced mom. The first litter she did not want anyone near them, and was not even happy with me handling the pups the first couple of days. The second litter she was very relaxed so the pups were handled more by my husband and I and exposed to other people at a much earlier age.

Her litters are pretty uniform and the sire does really seem to leave his stamp on the pups. So I would lean towards the more uniform the first litter the higher the chances are of a uniform second litter. And of course the bigger the litter the more chance of this being correct!

But then you always have to factor in the Genetic Gods that just love throwing a wrench into our careful planning and watch us scratch our heads.......

And of course when this last litter is about 2 years old I would have a much more accurate picture. You know, just about the time I'm getting ready to retire Annabelle from breeding.