Well, essentially, a whole book could be written as to the potential depth and scope of your question/observations ... and in fact I wrote it: The Pit Bull Bible

In a nutshell, I agree, it is very hard on a bitch to be expected both to have a match career and to deliver pups, as each can take a lot out of her. Since I personally am a breeder, I tend to favor breeding good bitches rather than matching them, LOL, but even if I were a competitor there are still reasons to favor the use of males over bitches. The most obvious reason, of course, would be avoiding having to worry about heat cycles during a keep.

However, regarding breeding dogs, I feel making sure your BITCHES are the best is more important than your males. You can have the greatest male in the world, but unless you have equally-great bitches, you're breeding down in quality by using him. By contrast, if you have a great bitch it doesn't matter what your male/s is/are like, because you can take her and breed her to a great male.

My most famous dog, Poncho, might have been a male ... but I produced him by breeding my inbred brood bitch to the outside stud Mason's Ch Hammer :ugeek:
My favorite stud dog now, Silverback, might be the dog of mine a lot of people are looking at now ... but, here again, I produced him by breeding Poncho's sister Missy to the outside stud Ouch!

Therefore, IMO, the most important thing anyone can do in the management of their bitches is to make sure they breed her to the most genetically-compatable males they can in the pursuit of excellence.

Jack


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