Following the Dogs We Breed

Breeding does not end when a puppy leaves. Staying in the lives of the dogs we breed is partly a relationship, partly a duty, and partly the best source of information we have for doing the next litter better.

In practice it means staying available for the whole of a dog's life, and staying genuinely interested. Our families share a group where they can talk directly to us and, just as importantly, to one another, so that what any of us learns is open to all of us rather than kept in separate conversations with the breeder. We want to hear about the ordinary things and the difficult ones, and we would always rather know about a problem early than hear about it once it has become a crisis.

Over time this builds a picture no single litter could give. We can see how health, temperament and working ability actually turned out in adulthood, which early predictions held and which did not, and how the same inheritance played out across different homes. That is where the behavioural inheritance that fascinates me becomes visible: a trait surfacing in one sibling and not another, or skipping a generation and returning, while we stay careful not to mistake a family resemblance for a proven cause. The dogs are never reduced to data points. They are individuals we care about, who also happen to teach us a great deal.

All of it feeds the same loop: choosing dogs, planning a mating, raising a litter, matching puppies to homes, then following those dogs into adult life and letting what we learn shape the next decision. It is a slow loop, measured in years and generations, and the slowness is exactly why breeding rarely and staying close to the dogs matters so much. There is more on the thinking behind it in Doing right by the dog.