Breeding Pair Selection

Artificial Insemination (AI) Breeding

Most of my breeding is done through artificial insemination, via Transcervical Insemination (TCI) using frozen semen. TCI is a non-surgical procedure requiring no sedation. The female stands while a catheter is used to deliver the just-thawed semen just past the cervix into the uterus.

Timing is critical, since thawed sperm have a fraction of the lifetime of fresh semen. I have had very good results with AI breeding, having found a veterinarian with lots of experience doing TCI. Exact timing and a good thaw are the prerequisites for success. Catheterization can be tricky, but experienced repro vets know just what to do.

Artificial breeding can also be done by surgical implantation, where a small incision (about the same one done for a spay) is made in the abdomen to insert the semen directly into the uterus. Surgical insemination costs more because the female in sedated and it is a surgical procedure.

There are differing views as to whether the results are better with surgical implantation of the semen vs. TCI catheterization. My own impression is that the success rates are similar in experienced hands. Although, the litters tend to be larger with surgical AI than TCI. A litter of 5 or 6 pups by TCI is more than enough for me and I like to avoid invasive procedures.

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Choosing the Breeding Pair

I breed only females whose temperament and work on the field I like. I breed them 1 to 3 times, after their 2nd birthday.

Why do we spend so much time trying to get the breeding right?

A good dam and a good sire does not assure a stellar litter …however, we take care in breeding because good breeding increases the probability that any one pup will have the desired temperament, physical, health and working attributes. There is randomness, in both directions, but there is also structured genetics at work, and that is worth the effort of purposeful breeding.

International Champion Dewi Jenkins in Wales, who knows a lot about breeding, tells me that some studs just ‘click’ better with females and produce better litters. Dogs who win championships or from storied lines or fashionable at the moment may or may not produce top quality puppies.

Proving a stud (or dam) takes years. Too often sires are selected based on what’s in fashion (hot!) or recent trial wins not on a record of producing the best working and/or competitive offspring.

My breeding stock comes from the UK/Ireland because I know the dogs and breeders/competitors there and because there is a stronger, more highly concentrated culture of of using working dogs. Also, my first exposure to working dogs and competition was while I was living/working in England.

The International Sheepdog Society (ISDS) database and Teun van den Dool’s pedigree/query service are excellent resources for breeding UK/Ireland stock.

Most of my pairing is outcross breeding. I line breed when I know the line / dog is successful (as proven by successive litters) and when I want to supercharge certain desirable characteristics.

I first look at the male and female pedigrees to see what dogs the prospective parents have in common. Teun will give me a coefficient of inbreeding (CoI) on each prospective pairing so I know statically how closely related they are. I aim for a CoI6 (six generation coefficient of inbreeding) less than 3.0%, usually MUCH less. I prefer outcross breeding, a CoI6 less than 1.%. When I line breed, the CoI may be 6% or greater. I only line breed when the inbreeding overlap is with known healthy dogs.

I own the breeding females, so I know a lot about them. I try to select males which either complement or enhance what I like about the females. I know the studs from trialing and from the working lines.

Breeders often speak of lines. And that is not an arbitrary concept.

Breeders try to establish lines that produce talented, healthy working dogs. It begins with trial and error (and some successes too). And it can involve some moderate line breeding. It also means purging lines of dogs that can generate undesirable traits (which can often be observed as common to a litter).

Fiery but smooth-styled Nel turned out to be an excellent match for Dewi Jenkins’ strong Clwyd Bob. The pups are confident with strong presence, yet have compliant temperaments. I could tell that all but one was going to be very good on sheep and the outlier is going to be a first class companion dog and maybe a herding dog as he matures. I could easily have kept and been happy with 3 of the 6 pups froths litter. I did the unprecedented and kept 2. Dewi’s Bob and my Nel ‘clicked’, as Dewi calls it.

Nel’s first breeding to another notable stud did not produce any pups I wanted to keep. The stud is/was fashionable and appears in many lines, but the match just didn’t work.

A mating with my lead female Meg and Dean McAuley’s Joe produced a litter of strong-willed dogs …most of them too strong (for me). In this case, two strong and strong-willed parents produced an (over)abundance of pushiness, bordering on and tracking into obstinance and defiance. That mating was kind of like an over-spiked drink.

I keep a stock of frozen semen from dogs I like at Zoetis. I look there first. If there is a dog I really want that I don’t have, I contact the owner to have it collected and shipped over for breeding. Working with stud owners can be tricky because AI breeding is not well-understood or accepted there. So, I am not always successful collecting the dogs I like. It is also costly to collect and ship semen. And not all stud fees are worth it. There are 2-3 dogs I would have liked to import semen from but it just didn’t work out, mostly due to owner resistance and / or not understanding the economics of AI breeding.

My females are full-breed DNA tested. Most of the studs in the UK/Ireland are either full-breed tested now or have the standard ISDS 4 or 8 panel tests, which include collie eye anomaly (CEA). Full breed profiles are becoming more common in the UK. Most often I am steering around CEA or Imerslund-Gräsbeck syndrome (IGS) carriers. TNS or EOAD come up, but less often. The females are all OFA eye certified. They are OFA hip tested if they are going to be bred past 3 years old. Some UK/Ireleand studs are hip tested, most are not.

Things like osteoarthritis and heart issues can be hereditary. They are not testable in DNA profiles. It takes screening of breeders and generations of dogs to see if the tendency is there and if it is diluted over time and breeding. And it is not always possible.

Breeding and selection of the breeding pair is part science, part art, and part luck. I do as much research and planning as I can and then watch (and learn from) what comes.

I would breed Dewi Jenkins’ Jock and Clwyd Bob lines to any high performing female (with good lines) with confidence. Paired with a top-quality female, Bob and Jock consistently produce high quality litters, not just for me but for others. The stud from Nel’s other litter, a Welsh champion, produced rather average pups. The champion stud was a more accomplished trial winner than Dewi’s Bob, but produced inferior pups.

Even with the best planning and research, a selected breeding pair doesn’t always work out as I hope it will. That said, planning, research and experience greatly enhance the probability of high quality litters.