Old School: Frozen semen may not produce as good of offspring as a natural breeding.
New School: The breeder's of dairy and beef cattle have been using frozen semen for years, and their prize bulls command the best prices for
frozen semen. Now the same holds true with dogs, with pups out of champions conceived through AI commanding sometimes twice as much as natural-bred pups from lesser breedings.
Neither theory has been proven correct, however, nor will they ever.
The bottom line is the odds of getting a "mirror image" dog are quite low, either way. You just get a few more good dogs out of the great champions because they are simply bred much more than other dogs. The buyers of their offspring, too, are much more likely to campaign these dogs and train them well, therefore giving them the greatest chance of success.
I personally have seen several "meat dogs" that are every bit as talented or more so than some pretty darn good trial dogs. They are just not campaigned, and usually not trained very well, either. Bottom line: A good pup can come from any good breeding. So can a lousy one. Your odds of getting a lousy one go up exponentially if the breeding is not well thought-out or the parents are lousy birddogs.
Sounds like you are a horseback field trialer, from the breeding you're considering. I run in foot-hunting trials only but I've been to a couple of Shooting Dog and All-Age stakes. Fun game, but I couldn't stand to lose my dogs like that. It would drive me crazy! <img src=icon_smile_shock.gif border=0 align=middle>
Good Dogwork and Good Hunting
Edited by - seattlesetters on 01/22/2003 00:38:28
? regarding a Sire's age & Frozen Semen
