Picking Nina’s Boyfriend
Since I am sitting here sick (evil cold virus, why me?), I have been reading a lot on the intarwebs. Joanna at Ruffly Speaking is one of my favorite dog-bloggers, since she is clearly a very smart and educated lady and is willing to be upfront about many things that others in the dog breeding/showing world are not (I don’t agree with her about everything, but I really respect her and agree more often than not). Anyway, she has a post from December last year in which she discusses choosing a stud for her two Cardigan girls. So I thought I’d muddle through something similar.
I’ll use two pictures of Nina to pick on her:
This is Nina taking Best of Winners at the supported entry in Massachusetts last year (and is the ONLY good win picture I have of her…this dog free stacks like a dream, hand stacks on the table wonderfully, but hates being stacked for pictures (she knows when there is a camera there, I swear), and when they toss a toy to get expression, she wants to chase it, so I have numerous show pictures of her with her hind legs tucked under in preparation for chasing that toy…).
Nina One Year Old
This is my favorite stacked picture of Nina, taken on our muddy deck when she was one.
Joanna’s Step 1: Health Testing. Nina is OFA good, CERF normal, and has normal elbows, patellas and heart. She is actively competing in agility (we go to classes three days a week and are competing every other weekend on average), she plays HARD with her brother and any other dog she can talk into playing with her, she is a high-energy active dog and is sound, sound, sound.
Since I am, in reality, breeding MY next dog here, I will go through what I want to keep and what I hope to improve on (I wish dog breeding was as simple as that, but the best we can do is try):
Joanna’s “What I Must Keep”.
Must keep temperament at all costs! Nina’s loving, sweet, friendly temperament is the reason I chose her (after prying her from Ulla’s arms) in the first place. Nina just wants to be on everyone’s lap, giving kisses and getting cuddled. She occasionally takes a few minutes to warm up to some people (mainly when Rakki is there telling her how dangerous they are), but in general she has never met a stranger and there is not much about her temperament I would change. She LOVES children (she will actively seek them out), she LOVES other dogs (unless they try and eat her through their crates, which has happened enough times at agility trials now, thank you), she is never looking for trouble from anyone or anything. She has a work ethic and drive to die for, she runs at 110% every time she’s asked, and she can herd, too!
Must keep head type. Nina has her daddy’s beautiful head, with a well-defined stop, correct ear size and placement, correct and dark eye, and correct planes. She could have a bit more width to her muzzle, but her white snip works against her in that it makes her muzzle look finer than it actually is.
Must keep front. Nina has a sound front, with nice shoulder layback, correct feet pointing forward, slight curve to forelegs (no terrier front here).
Must keep rear angulation. This is a moderately angulated breed, so extremes at either end are to be avoided.
Must at least keep but hopefully improve topline.
Must keep movement.
Must keep markings. Nina has lovely clearly-defined markings, especially on her head.
Joanna’s “What Must I Fix”.
Nina needs more size in every respect. She is a hair over 11 1/2″ at the withers (as officially measured at a TDAA trial last weekend), so she is at the bottom end for bitches. Her bone is appropriate for her size, she would look coarse with more bone, but she is definitely at the lighter end of correct. I don’t want tanks, but more substance would be nice.
Must fix rear. Nina has correct rear angulation, but she toes in in the rear (preferable to being cowhocked, in my world, but not correct).
Must fix neck. Nina’s neck is short. It has a lovely arch, but it’s short.
Joanna’s “What Defines Me As A Breeder?”
Since this will be my first (properly bred) litter, I can only speak in “I hopes” and “I plans”. I hope to produce dogs with sound temperaments and sound bodies, who can do whatever their owners want them to do, whether it’s agility or herding or cuddling on the couch. I plan to stand behind my dogs, I can’t guarantee that they won’t ever have a problem, but I CAN say I will be there for the owner if they do.
I have two potential studs in mind. One is a proven, older male who has most of what I want for Nina. The other is a very young, unproven male who has all of what I want for Nina, but using him would entail breeding on preliminary hip tests (less of a concern for me than it might be for some in this case, since his pedigree is nearly 100% hip tested for at least 3 generations, with no problems anywhere), and some people feel they would never want to do that (what’s the rush? The rush is that every litter counts!). Breeding decisions are pretty touchy subjects, as I am coming to learn. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is sure that their opinion is right and that nobody sane/ethical/whatever would ever disagree. One other thing I learned from Joanna is not to be so quick to judge other people, which is something she says she learned over time, and she is embarrassed now by some of the judgments and opinions she held when she was less experienced. It would be difficult to be less experienced than I am, but I am at least trying my best to do a good job of this.
You are always taking a chance. There are no real guarantees. You never know what you will get. What I do know is that I don’t want to be kicking myself over my choice. So it remains to be seen who will be the chosen one.