A question for the experienced breeders. When is there a better chance that power will be transferred to the progeny; if the bitch were exceptionally strong or the male? It occurred to me that since it's so rare to see truly strong bitches, maybe one such bitch will guarantee strong pups, since strong males so often don't.
For me it comes from both but that doesn't mean you cant get strong dogs from a weaker bitch if the blood is there but for me both have exactly 50% influence on the genes. A certain dog may be dominant in its genetic influence in one area but it will loose then on another. However I owned for a time a very strong bitch (the second strongest of any breed I have seen) and whilst she did produce some good dogs and her genetic influence is still seen in her Grand Children it is not a given that she will produce. This bitch had 3 good litters, all with a good number of working offspring and one absolute disaster litter where the whole litter was rubbish. I still hold 14 sets of papers (yes there was 14 of the little buggers) in my office draw for the whole litter. No one will ever ligitimatly breed from that rubbish. This was a very nice male over a super bitch that produced rubbish.
In the end whilst we as breeders love to take credit when it all goes right "oh yes I produced that dog" there is a solid element of luck in producing any good dog. There is no doubt that the more we know the luckier we get but it only stacks the odds in yoru favour, it is no guarantee.
There is no doubt that a working bitch who producers (they are rarer again) is worth it's weight in gold it certainly isn't any guarantee, then again there isn't such a thing when it comes to breeding.
By rubbish I mean, small bone, snipy heads, nervy, nervy temperaments, handler soft, slow recovery etc etc etc.
We started to see bits quite young but not enough to go "jeez these are not much" but just a thing here and there. Tested ok but not outstanding where our previous litter tested top notch. They were small but there was 14 of them and she had kept them all alive so we put it down to that. Around 12 weeks we started to see the nerve really start to show. I kep pick bitch for myself and at 8 weeks I thought "oh well her heads not that great but the rest should be ok". She should really good nerve, walked passed a running mower that was spitting things are her and never flinched at 8 weeks. Then around 15 weeks I brought a pram into my house and it took her 30 minutes to go anywhere near it. The whole litter was the same.
Imo experience it comes from both of course , but i have noticed dogs to take on more of the ways of the mother than father so i always try to do breeding with the bitch in mind more than male , doesnt mean im banking on that and will breed anything half assed , but the dam's are oh so important for traits .. but overall at the end of the day the only that matters to a breeding is if the dogs being bred produce well ..
From what I've seen you get some that take after the dam and some the sire, if you want a lot of strong pups you need both parents to be strong dogs from a long line of strong dogs. But I will say this, a powerful dog may produce powerful dogs and okay bitches, but a powerful bitch may produce powerful bitches and extremely powerful dogs. Even if it's just a male version of herself. I have a female named Nyx who is all muscle I had to separate her and one of her sisters from a fight the first time she went into heat. She's the strongest bitch I've ever pulled against by far, but she's also 110 of muscle and bone (that's without the extra 30 pounds everyone adds to mastiffs on the internet). She produced two very impressive sons who are still young, but are very powerful for their age.
Also power is only half physical, I've seen some very large muscular dogs that just wouldn't "put out", and I've seen smaller leaner dogs that knew how to give it their all and very much more powerful dogs. The real magic is finding one who has it all.
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Midgard Kennels - Protection bred American Bandog Mastiffs
Dogs: Work with all breeds. My own are malinois and dutchies
Posts: 4
I believe both sire and dam play a major role in what's being produced in the offspring. As Mick said it is still a lot of luck. I've seen strong male bred to strong female and crap produced. I've also seen an accidental breeding at a boarding kennel I worked at between two mals that wouldn't bite it's own fleas. But those pups were one of the best litters I have ever seen.
More so then just breeding a strong sire and dam, I also believe pedigrees need to complement each other. I like both to have similar lines as I am a fan of line breeding. Not that I don't out source sometimes to get new blood. But I almost always go back to the same lines as they are old working lines and I personally like what they produce.
Passing on power, the bitch or the dog?
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