What about show costs (entry fees, handling fees, travel expenses, etc.)? In the natural course of things when one strives for perfection, we want to compare our efforts with those of others. Although showing is not always necessary for reward in your breeding program, most are wise enough to know that you must play the game to some extent. Showing is an expensive proposition.

Ask yourself and answer all the above questions honestly before you consider breeding. Not everyone who owns a Boxer is cut out to be a breeder or an exhibitor. That doesn't mean you love them any less if you never breed, in fact, many of those who take puppies home want them to love and to share their lives, not to breed or parade around the show ring. As responsible breeders we should insure that there are good quality, healthy puppies available for them as well as ourselves.

In Part II of this article I will endeavor to share information on heredity (genetics), pedigrees and breeding systems. Before I describe the various breeding systems, I would like to offer you the following food for thought:

1. Be prepared to start over. If your breeding stock doesn't measure up to the standard or there are health problems, spay, neuter and place them as pets. You must ask yourself, "Are they worth breeding?"
2. It is better in the long run to breed a high quality bitch with one "major" fault than to attempt to correct a lot of little faults in a run of the mill bitch. Major faults are caused by an homozygous gene and can more easily be controlled in future breeding stock. Attempting to breed dogs with a number of faults is a long hard road which may never reach the desired destination.
3. Until you have had considerable experience (several litters) do not attempt to do close breedings such as inbreeding or strong line breeding.
4. Don't mate two dogs with the same fault. Remember two wrongs don't make a right. This should include dogs you know carry the faulty gene, even if they don't themselves exhibit it.
5. Use inbreeding and out crossing carefully and only when necessary. When you do out cross, use a distantly related stud dog or a closely line bred or inbred stud; in other words look for a good tight pedigree,
6. When you out crops, select the best puppies and mate them back to their parents or grandparents. Faults and virtues do not usually show up genetically from such breedings until the 2nd generation.
7. Breed to correct one fault at a time. Breed to improve one quality at a time. Good things are worth waiting for.
8. Don't rush out to breed to the top winning dog. Investigate his qualities, study his faults. Look at his puppies and when at all possible, get your own hands and eyes on the dog -- a picture may be worth a thousand words but in cannot always be counted on to provide the whole story
9. Look for producers, not only the winners. Many times if you like something in a particular dog you should look to his sire for those qualities. Remember champion to champion does not always guarantee success. It certainly increases your chances but is not always fail safe. When you find two dogs with equal pedigree and one is a champion and one is not, by all means breed to the champion; however, don't overlook the non-champion dog with an outstanding "producing" pedigree. The show ring is supposed to represent the best of our breed but we all know that is not always the case. There are many instances where a dog worthy of showing and winning in the ring is not shown while a dog with less quality is shown and more often than not will finish.
10. Set your sights and your goals high and don't waver. Don't give up if success does not come easy, re-evaluate and try, try again.

BREEDING SYSTEMS
Breeders in general use several forms of breeding systems. My own understanding of these individual systems is as follows:

1. INBREEDING -- Breeding of closely related individuals who are no further apart than one generation is considered Inbreeding. Examples are, a brother to a sister, a son to dam, a sire to daughter or half-brother and half-sister. Inbreeding concentrates the genes of one or more dogs and reduces the overall different heredity combinations. If the genotype (genetic makeup) of a dog who appears in the pedigree more than once consists of desirable traits then it stands to reason that the gene bank has quality. However, if the genotypes present represented undesirable traits, they can only produce the same. If you have a combination of both desirable and undesirable traits, all are deposited in the gene bank. Inbreeding can concentrate both good and bad in the same litter. Puppies receive a double dose of genes and whether they are faults or virtues, these puppies are capable of being prepotent (dominant) for these qualities and will in turn pass them onto future generations. Inbreeding fixes type more quickly than any other. The dogs involved in such a program should be of the highest quality for your can set faults just as easily as you can set virtues. I do not recommend this for the novice breeder unless they are continuing a program developed by an experienced breeder. The system is not to blame when Inbreeding fails, it is the quality of the stock being used. As I explained to you earlier, my own type was fixed early in my pedigree quite by accident. One of our dogs bred his own mother by accident. As much as I would like to take credit for this "discovery," I must give credit to my dogs who accomplished this "perfect match" on their own. I was fortunate that they possessed traits that were desirable and although neither of them was a champion the quality of their breeding was evident. I had purchased the dam and her son's sire from a breeder who had done her homework and my early efforts benefitted from her experience.
2. LINEBREEDING -- When you breed dogs further removed than one generation this is called line breeding. Most serious breeders seem to favor this system. It takes longer to set your "type" but the results are just as rewarding. Quite simply, linebreeding is the system of mating dogs who have common ancestors in their pedigree, but are little if at all related directly to each other. There should be at least one ancestor in the pedigree common to both the sire and dam. Examples are a sire to a granddaughter, cousin to cousin, an uncle to a niece, a great grandson to a great granddaughter, grandmothers to a grandson, etc. If line breeding. is not continued it will only be a matter of 3 or 4 generations before the genetic contribution of the outstanding ancestors will be reduced. Examples of some kennels who use line breeding are Salgray, Treceder and Turo. There are many other kennels following this practice too numerous to list.
3. OUTBREEDING -- Please to not confuse this term with out crossing When two dogs who are not related in any way are mated this is considered outbreeding. This type of system is generally found to be used by the inexperienced breed with little or no knowledge of genetics. Most puppy mills are the result of such breeding practices, just simply Boxer to Boxer. Because of the percentage of luck I already quoted you (75%) every once in a while a fairly good dog may be produced; however, the ability of that dog to reproduce is definitely inferior to a dog obtained by an intelligent breeding program.
4. OUTCROSSING -- Dogs who are bred with no common ancestor within five generations are considered to be out crossed. Usually an out cross, is the combining of two different lines or families. The two reasons most breeders select this breeding technique are to (1) introduce genetically into their own line one or more desirable traits and (2) to increase vigor. The first reason is obvious the second is based on the theory that most desirable genes, whether recessive or dominant, will be continent and express themselves in the first generation. Two lines that are closely inbred should increase your chances of desirable qualities. One of the most outstanding examples I can think of along these lines is the combining of Turo with a Cross Bars bitch which produced Ch. Turo's Cachet. Cachet's sire, Ch. Marquam Hills Trapper of Turo represented the best of the Fashion Hint Line and her dam. Turo's Katrina of Cross Bars represented the best of the Cherokee Oaks line previously combined with Turo -- Katrina's sire being, Ch. Turo's Native Dancer. Katrina was then bred back into the Turo line thus producing Cachet. As should be done in out cross breeding, the offspring of the first out cross, were taken back to one side of the pedigree (this can be either the sire or dam's side). My own success has resulted a great deal from out crossing and although when one looks at my pedigree you would think that this is the only breeding system I use you must remember the "type" setting first accomplished by the line breeding done earlier in my breeding program. My bitch forces are a direct descendent of that "locking in."
5. NON-GENETIC BREEDING -- Some breeders feel that you should only breed phenotypically; that is type to type. To them genetics and pedigrees are of little consequence. Again, one may have some success with this type of breeding program, but one should possess a very good "eye" for a dog. Novice breeders, avoid at all cost!
6. DIVERGENT BREEDING -- This is the breeding of dogs to correct faults by breeding to the contrasting virtue. Examples are shot legs to long legs, long necks to shot necks, a roached back to level topline, etc. Novice breeders should avoid this also. Without a good understanding of what faults are and where they come from in your particular breeding stock, one could get into trouble quickly.

THE NICK -- Occasionally nature has a way of doing things her way and she presents us a combination between a certain bitch and a certain dog who create get superior to themselves. This is a NICK. Should you repeat the breeding? Why not? (I might add here that most nicks come when experienced breeders with quality animals just get lucky -every once in a while that 75% hits the jackpot!)

Regardless of the method you decide to use, breed the best to the best and if at all possible start off with the best breeding stock you can find.

BREEDER ETHICS
I cannot finish the first portion of this article without addressing the breeders. If you have read this article then I am grateful for your patients. I would be more grateful if you would deliver your patience, knowledge and experience to those who are less knowledgeable than you. Our job is to encourage not to discourage and the breed needs us to protect and preserve it. To accomplish that we must first be honest with ourselves and then with those who share the love of our breed for whatever reason they may have. Whether an individual wants to buy a puppy to breed, to show or simply to raise as a pet with shier own children, as "the old guard" we need to see to it that they get the quality they deserve. We allow ourselves to become selfish with our possessions and sometimes forget how it was when we first started our own trip down this very same road. Sometimes we are too busy cutting down another breeder to see what is going on in our own kennel.

As a fellow breeder I ask you to consider the following. I in turn will promise to follow my own advice.

1. Guard your breeding stock's health. As you all know from other articles written by me and others, health problems are something we all must govern. We are the ones best qualified to protect the breed as a whole from tragic health problems like fatal heart problems and our old enemy Cancer. Stop worrying about what people will say about your "line" and start worrying about how we can all breed healthier Boxers. Communicate!
2. If we are going to help the novice breeder and novice exhibitor gain ground in breeding and showing better Boxers we must be more reasonable in the prices we demand and the strings we attach to our sales contracts. Stop worrying about being "taken" and start directing your attention to helping the novice acquire a good basis for their breeding programs. How would you like to deal with some of the demands we make on them today? I know myself if I had not been given the opportunity to purchase quality breeding stock at a reasonable price I never would have been able to breed or show. Big bucks were not in the family budget, not when your raising kids and just keeping up with the day to day expenses of living. My heart was in the right place and I was willing to learn. Someone took a chance on me and someone no doubt took a chance on you. Many of us were given good advice, help and support when we were starting out and it is now time to return the favor, not just for our own sakes but for the Boxer. Someday those "novice" breeders will be in our shoes and believe me some of them will make it with or without our help; it is to the Boxer's advantage to see to it that they arrive there with all the help we can provide.
3. Finally, encourage your pet owners to spay and neuter their animals. I know that not every dog I have bred in the last 24 years has been of perfect quality and some of them should never be bred for various reasons. It makes more sense to advise these pet owners to spay and neuter than to take a chance on having a bitch bred by the Heinz '57 down the street every time she comes in season or to have the dog roaming the neighborhood following the call of nature and being crushed in the street by an oncoming car. No matter how carefully we place our puppies, they may show up in the pound and our rescue programs. As breeders we cannot control everything but we can at least see to it that we are not contributing by negligence to Boxers being bred, hurt, abandoned or killed. Spaying and neutering is a responsible first step.

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