Dog breeding

One of the three vital considerations needing to be assessed, and arguably even THE most important, is the quality of the dogs' temperament. Nothing is worse for a pet loving family than to be continuously in fear that their dog may bite them or someone else. And these situations are seen daily in every animal hospital all across the country. Temperament IS strongly associated with genetics. A fearful, ambivalent, or aggressive dog is much more likely to produce offspring that share those characteristics than to produce mellow, self-confident and biddable offspring. Again, let's listen to Ginger's good advice:

"Before you begin to breed, you need to question yourself if you truly have a breedable dog. The goal of breeding is to improve the breed. Just because your dog is AKC registered doesn’t mean it should be bred. To me temperament is the first; to ignore that attribute is to do a grave injustice to the entire breed. The dog’s personality should be true to breed, for instance a Great Dane, the Apollo of dogs, should be gentle, with a calm and noble stature, never fearful or aggressive. Temperament is such an important aspect of breeding that I can’t express it strongly enough. Please be conscious of this and if you are unsure, just don’t breed this dog! Too many dogs are being euthanized every day because of intractable personality and temperament disorders. This dog breeding business IS serious stuff.”

Establishing a kennel, watching it and the "family" grow, and seeing your goals gradually attained through careful, consistent planning can have rewards far beyond simply monetary benefits. Take a lot of pictures, too. Years down the road you won't believe how fast the time flew and the photos will bring all those happy days back again.