Choosing a Mating

Before I think about which male to use, I have to decide whether I want to breed the bitch at all. Loving a dog is not enough. I need to be comfortable with what I know about her health, structure and temperament, what I see in her family, and what I might be multiplying by breeding from her.

The bitch also influences the puppies in ways that go beyond contributing half their nuclear DNA. She provides the prenatal environment and, after birth, maternal care during a period when the puppies' physical and behavioural development is unusually sensitive. Her own temperament, how she responds to stress and what she is likely to be like as a mother are therefore part of the decision for me.

Once I have decided that I do want to breed her, I look at what I would like to preserve and what I would rather not intensify. I pay particular attention to weaknesses. Some of the qualities I admire in an adult dog may have been strengthened by training, handling or experience, so I cannot assume they will reproduce themselves neatly in the next generation. If there is something I already know has required work, or a characteristic that appears repeatedly in the family and would be difficult if it became stronger, I would rather choose my battles carefully than double up on it and hope for the best.

There are different kinds of decisions in that process. Some are welfare constraints for me. I will not compromise on things that I believe create an unacceptable risk to the dog's physical or behavioural welfare, however much I may like the dog in other respects. Other decisions are questions of risk: which possible outcome would I rather deal with if the puppies fall further towards one end of a range than I hoped? I am more comfortable, for example, with a slightly cautious dog than with one who has very little sense of self-preservation. I have lived with the latter, and I know which problem I would rather have. Then there are preferences that are simply mine. I like athletic dogs and tend to prefer a somewhat lighter type within the healthy range. Another breeder may prefer something different.

Knowing the individual dogs is only part of the picture. I want to know their families too.

The Polish Hunting Spaniel is still a small breed with a close community, which makes that unusually possible. I have met both of Grace's parents and many of her relatives, and I know their owners. I met Hunter, Astra's father, before choosing him, and I have met dogs from his family as well. Through the breed community we also see a great many photographs and updates from dogs across different litters and generations. Kennel names make sibling groups fairly easy to recognise, and pedigrees let us trace how those dogs are related. Over time this gives me quite a lot of phenotypic information about different families, rather than only names on a pedigree.

Our first litter has already shown me why that is useful. Astra has a rather distinctive habit of being completely quiet and then suddenly producing an enormous bark. None of her five siblings does the same thing. Hunter is not known for it either, but his mother, Kawa, apparently does exactly this. It is only an observation, not proof of a particular inheritance pattern, but I would never have found that information by looking only at Astra's parents.

The coats in the same litter tell another version of the story. Two of the puppies resemble Grace in both their colouring and coat texture, while three resemble Hunter more closely in both respects. The sixth looks different from either parent in those characteristics. Parents obviously tell you a great deal about a litter, but they do not contain everything that can reappear in it.

That is also why I want to meet a prospective sire rather than choose him from photographs, results and health records. I want to see how he behaves, how he moves through the world and what he is like to spend time with. I have a fairly personal test as well: if I kept a puppy who grew up very much like this dog, would I actually want to live with them?

That question has become more concrete since our first litter. Astra grew up remarkably like her father, Hunter, while her brother Atlas is, in many ways, a male version of Grace. Puppies do not always reproduce their parents so neatly, but I have seen enough in my own litter to take the possibility seriously. When I chose Bueno for Astra, I was very conscious of whether I would be happy to keep a puppy who turned out strongly like him.

Health information and genetics are part of the same decision, but they do not reduce it to a checklist. Some test results give fairly clear answers. Others change probabilities and need to be considered alongside the individual dog, the proposed mating and the wider population. In a small breed, selecting away from one known risk can also have consequences for genetic diversity, so the apparently safest choice for one hypothetical puppy is not automatically the healthiest choice for the population over time. I have written much more about how I interpret genetic tests, coefficient of inbreeding and population risk on BusyDoggie.

I also do not make these decisions entirely on my own. Grace's breeder has been my mentor since I started breeding, and I discuss prospective matings with her. She has far more breeding experience than I do and knows Grace's family over generations, so there are things she can see in a proposed combination that I might not.

In the end I am choosing between imperfect possibilities, because every dog carries things I would like to preserve and things I need to think about. I can gather a great deal of information and reduce some risks, but I cannot know exactly which combination of characteristics each puppy will inherit. What I can do is make the choice with as much knowledge as I can reasonably obtain, understand the risks I am taking, and then pay attention to what the puppies actually become.