Females - Page 2

 "IMO it is the female who contribute more than the male.  I was always told to start with the best female you can possibly afford because she will be your foundation.
"


I think it is not necessarily exactly 50-50. Some genes are tied to sex.

The reason to start with a female is not that it contributes more.

The reason is that you can get a great stud for an OK female with great genetic background. No great female owner would ever consider an OK stud of great background.

Males either win and get most or lose and get close to none.

A female, no matter how great, only has much small impact on a breed than a super stud, which can sire 10-100 times as many pups as a female bears.

some male dogs on here who have 1,000+ registered offspring, examples:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=268

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=13891

that said though, I do feel the female is more important

Each dog receives EXACTLY one half of each gene from the sire, the other half from the dam. How those genes are expressed is determined by many variables - some are dominant, some recessive, some sexlinked, some incomplete penetrance, some determined by modifiers and so forth. It's complicated.......


 

The female is the most important for the breeder, the male is more important for the breed.

Ibrahim

A few things that come to mind are, one, that so many breeders just get a SchH 1 on a female and a minimum G show rating and then they are bred over and over.  Even if good studs are selected, the results are usually a mixed bag and not very predictable.  Few are the breeders of working dogs who train the female to SchH3 with respectable scores, have her koered and show rated minimum SG and THEN and only then choose a stud for her based on an in-depth analysis of the character, structure and accomplishments of both parents, health of the bloodlines and what they carry and what they bring, and the desired characteristics of the offspring to be produced, ie, hard working dogs, dogs that can be handled by most novices, world potential, or what...
Even such an analysis is a crapshoot, but it is better than a complete shot in the dark.  The breed is so beset by character and health problems that a great amount of due diligence should be incumbent upon breeders to produce the best they can by consciensious analysis and deduction...

The female's background is very important.

There is phenotype and genotype.

I would prefer an OK female from a great background over an excellent female of OK background, what ever characteristics (phenotype) I value.

Best is of course excellent female with great background, but I think the difference is not as great as some suggest.

A stud must be excellent phenotype from a great background.

It is nice to also find a male that will improve upon the female,

in other words, the offspring should be just as good looking and talented
as the sire and dam, if not more so!