Searching For Mr. Right
The Pursuit of the Perfect Stud Dog
By Michele Wrath
I

love solving puzzles. My husband has accused me of buying the Sunday paper just for the
puzzle page. Half of the time he is right. From the traditional crossword to word jumbles to
Sudoku, there is something terrifically rewarding about solving a puzzle and getting all the pieces to
fit. That is how I feel about breeding dogs.
Searching for the right stud dog is a process. We all go about it differently. When we first got
started in dogs I spent a lot of time observing how people made their breeding decisions, what
their approach was, and the criteria they used to base their decisions on. For every breeder out
there, there is probably a slightly different method. Some believe strongly in the marriage of pedi-
grees over all else. Some breed entirely animal to animal. Others breed to the dog everyone else
is using and the truly brave strike out in hopes of discovering the next great producer.
Everyone around me shudders when I start the stud dog selection process. When I say process
I mean process. It takes me roughly 9 months to decide on a breeding. I am an analytic at heart
and when there is more than one choice I need time. Just ask my husband – making a dinner
selection off a menu with lots of options can be a painstaking process – and one made not without
a round of questions soliciting the waitperson’s favorite entrées or choice between two entrees –
usually completely different. And once the waitperson has weighed in with their recommendations
it often doesn’t change what I was about to do anyway but I feel better for the asking. Breeding
dogs can be a lot like that!
I have some basic rules that I follow when I begin my search. First and foremost, I get very clear
about the strengths and weaknesses of my bitch and what my objectives are for doing the breed-
ing. It doesn’t matter what I want her strengths to be, it matters a lot that I am honest with myself
about what they really are. If you know your line well, you have a good sense for what you can
cover and what you cannot. This becomes very important later and I find it to be one of the best
tools to speed the sorting process.
Next, I separate my emotions from the animals sitting in front of me. Gladys Knight had a popu-
lar song entitled “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. I think this should be every breeder’s anthem.
Love has everything to do with the relationship we have with our dogs, with the time we spend
with them, with the feelings we have for special dogs owned by others. It is our love of dogs that
causes us to be in the sport of dogs but it has nothing to do with why individual dog should be
bred or used in a breeding program. Some of my favorite dogs are those that were absolutely not
the right choice for the breeding I was planning. It doesn’t change how I feel about those dogs; it
just means that my bitch did not have the attributes that made her a great match for any of them.
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34