If you’re the owner of that stud dog who is the father, how does that make you feel? Are you mad? Do you disagree? Do you point out all the reasons that the father is better? Or do you thank them and agree knowing it’s the truth and be happy about it? There’s no correct answer to that question because everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you’re a smart breeder, you’ll know that that is probably one of the best compliments your stud dog could receive! You have in your hands and own a prepotent stud dog! Congratulations!
A prepotent stud dog is one who exhibits genetic prepotency. For a dog to produce as good as or better than himself is what most breeders can only dream about. What good is a dog that does a lot of winning and is a gorgeous representative of the breed but never produces it? The same thing holds true for a bitch. There have been some beautiful Selects and GV/GVX who never produced any great quality. And most of the times these are the dogs and bitches who are afforded the best opportunities when it comes to breeding. On the other hand, some people don’t care if you ever use their stud dog or buy a puppy from their bitch. They’re just happy showing and winning with their dog. That’s fine as well. We’re all in this breed for different reasons.
In my opinion, there is nothing better for a German Shepherd who is used for stud or whelping litters than for them to acquire their ROM (Register of Merit) titles. To me this is the ultimate achievement when talking about breeding animals. Some champions never achieve this goal.
So you have this dog that is a better dog than his father. Do you breed to this better quality dog or do you breed to his father? I would breed to the father because he has already proven that he is an excellent producer. The young stud dog has yet to prove that.
Hopefully the father will have passed on his excellent producing genes to his sons and daughters, but here too that is not always the case because you have to factor in the bitches line that he’s being bred to.
An excellent example of a dog producing better than him and passing his producing abilities on to his kids was Dallas. I saw the dog in his stud dog class at the 2005’ National Specialty show. Was he my favorite dog in the world? No. In fact he wasn’t my type of dog at all except for his marvelous disposition and he was a handsome boy. But in his favor, I must say that his offspring are producing like mad! Every time I pick up a Review, I always look in the back pages to see the winner’s classes. I would say that 85% of the time, they have been sired by the well known Dallas son, known as Bailey. He has produced some really nice animals. Then to take it even further, take a look at his son Oscar. Here is another fantastic producing dog. He’s already made his ROM. Another Dallas son known as Danny Boy also made his ROM without having a ton of bitches bred to him. Now as I said I wasn’t a fan of Dallas, but I’m a fan of some of his wonderful producing offspring.
I never saw the great producing GV Ch Lance of Fran-Jo ROM. He was a little before my time. Looking at pictures of him however, I wouldn’t necessarily call him a breath taking dog although many times he was the father of many breath taking dogs. One of my all time favorite dogs was a son of Lance known as GV Ch Mannix of Fran-Jo ROM. Now here was a magnificent looking dog, but I didn’t think he was a magnificent prepotent stud dog. Oh, he made his ROM, but in my opinion he never produced anyone that looked like him or that was better than him except for maybe his son GV Ch Scorpio of Shiloh Gardens ROM. I don’t know if he was better than Mannix, but he was a great one. Never having seen either one of these beautiful dogs except to gaze at their pictures, I couldn’t determine that. Scorpio never lived long enough although made his ROM in a short amount of time.
When you have a dog that is as gorgeous looking as Mannix was, how would it be possible to produce one who looked better than he did? He had the head, he had the front, he had the rear and he had the plush coat. Oh yeah, let’s not forget his magnificent side gait. So it is a mighty tall order than for a dog of this exceptional quality to produce better than himself.
Sometimes when you breed a wonderful dog or bitch, they may produce champions but they don’t resemble the sire or dam. My BIM Ch Arbar’s Xanadu ROM was a case in point. Xanadu didn’t produce what she looked like. The sires were the one’s who dominated her litters in breed type. She however, excelled at producing her beautiful side gait (which was one of her most outstanding attributes) and her exceptional oval shaped bone so I was more than satisfied.
So next time someone looks at a young offspring from one of your dogs and says the youngster is better, thank them. They may have not meant it as a compliment and they may have even said it with sarcasm, but whether they realized it or not, they just gave your dog a compliment!
Have a great week-end everyone!
My rating: prepotent stud or bitch: (4), ROM’s (4)
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