How to breed working dogs?

This is a question I have made to myself since my breeding career started in 2001. At that time it was much more difficult to get information of different males and their families and the breeding based more on information you got directly from other breeders and dog owners. The first male I used for my bitch Sateenkaaren Thunderbird was a Finnish male C.I.B FI & EST CH JK3 BH Hayaklause Caro a son of a bitch I had waited a puppy for two years both that bitch and her son had working dog test results in the highest class (HK3, JK3). Working dog test results were significant criteria for me already in the beginning. I had been interested in horse breeding since I was a child and have learned from there the importance of the results.

Then in year 2003 I wanted to use a German male for my BH Sateenkaaren Thunderbird to get our B-litter and wanted that dog to have at least VPG2/IP2 result. The suitable male candidates were surched by breeding advisors in Finnish and German RZV Hovawart Clubs. More information from the male Gigur vom Griessesch I got when I arrived to Baden-Baden. After B-litter was born Gigur became also International champion and got VPG3. About his ancestors in his pedigree I got information only when I saw the pedigree.

For our C-litter and the bitch Tallivahdin Bäuerin in 2006 I asked help again from the breeding advisor of Finnish Hovawart Club and he recommended a male BH Bedlam Yunior that had no working test results nore did his parents have. About this time Finnish Kennel Club had found a breeding data basis with all pedigrees and results of dog registered in Finland. That was a great tool for a breeder and I started to study the pedigrees and results of hovawarts and compare them to other breeds. And I learned that in breeding good working dogs the pedigree and results of ancestors were more important than the dog itself. As I did not find then suitable working males from Finland I wanted to have a German male again for my D-litter.

Our D-litter was a disaster even though RZV breeder advisor found a very nice German working male VPG3 FH2 BH Cid vom Alten Schulweg for TK2 BH Tallivahdin Busenfreundin. But because of some unfortunate accidents we did not get any living puppies at all. I skipped the whole letter D and moved to E directly. There we missed 1,5 years in trying to breed BH Tallivahdin Bildschön twice with the best Finnish working male there was with no result. Just afterwards the male was tested and he was unfortunately infertile. Then I found a very young nice male Hayaklause Fidato and we got our E-litter in the beginning of 2008. His mother was a great bitch with highest class working dog test result also and his father was a German male. Fidato got VK2 result in working dog test and became C.I.B. in couple of years after puppies were born.

Then I wanted to use Cid again to get our F-litter and we mated Tallivahdin Capriole with him but Capri remained empty. Then we mated him with my Sissi, C.I.B FI & SE CH JK3 FH2 BH Tallivahdin Cremefarben with Cid and got our F-litter in 2010. It was the fifth litter of Tallivahdin.  I joined to working-dog.eu database same year 2010 and that tool gave me the possibility to find much more information also from the foreign males. I realized that there is real working hovawart breeding in RZV Germany and not just some breeders but several ones. And I have studied a lot and not only hovawarts but every working dog breed there is in that great database. Since that I have been able to calculate for example the working dog percent of my litters up to 6-8 generations. And with this information I have been able to find suitable working males for my bitches and after that ask the possible health risks behind the males and breeding permission from the Hovawart Club. In these 5 last litters G-litter (f. German working male VPG3 IP3 BH Delano von Andwari – m. FH2 BH Tallivahdin Englein), H-litter (Poland imported f. C.I.B C.I.E MultiCH FH2 IP2 JK1 TK1 BH Asher sus Armoni – m. FH2 BH Tallivahdin Emanze), I-litter (f. C.I.E AU & GER CH FH2 BH Roy von Wienerstadtrand – m. C.I.B FI CH HeJW-11 FH1 PEHA-B BH Tallivahdin Forscherin),J-litter (f. FI CH IPO-FH FH2 EK3 JK1 HK1 BH Lumen Gapo – m. Tallivahdin Fährtenhündin)  have all fathers that have several working test results in highest class either in FH2 or IP3. In G and H litters both mothers have several FH2 results, I litter mother has also now FH2 and PEHA-B that is rescue surching in highest class. In K litter both mother FH1 BH Tallivahdin Genie and father IP2 FPr1 BH Merlin vom Hause Luka are now 4 year old and both will hopefully get their highest class working test results this year.

In Finland and in almost elsewhere than in RZV Hovawart breeding you can normally find that dogs have about 30 % parents with working dog test result in their pedigree in 5 generations. In Germany RZV breeding dogs have normally about 50-60 % but in other Clubs like HZD it is much less about 30 %. Down you see a little statistic about the hovawart breeding at the moment in Finland where I compare my breeding to general hovawart breeding in Finland in 2013 and there were no Tallivahdin litters that year. There were 12/34 foreign males or imported males & bitches used in breeding and 34 Finnish bred ones. 44 hovis were used in breeding (2 males 2 times) and only one imported male had result in the the highest class of working test and 3 that had working dog test result at all. That shows very well how low the appreciation of working hovawarts there is at the moment in Finland. And this year was a very typical year where all the most active & biggest breeders had at least one litter. I am truly very sad of this situation and sad of hovawarts becoming more and more just bred with criteria to support to get show results.

In the future I will concentrate even more to the facts I have learned so far about breeding good working dogs:

1. The pedigree and the results of the ancestors are even more important than the individual itself.

2. In result based breeding all or most of the ancestors have been chosen already as puppies according to their working potential, and working criteria have been the most appreciated also when choosing at least the males for the bitches. So several people have really tried their best in making better working dogs and when this has been done for many generations of dogs you can be quite sure that the working dog potential has increased also in genes. It is very nice when you realize that you really can rely on the people who have also been eager to get good working dogs and have enjoyed to train their dogs to tests.

3. The most successful working dog breeders tend to use only dogs that have only highest class results in tests (IP3, VPG3, FH2) and at least 70 % of all dogs in pedigree in 6-8 generations have test results and you can find almost 100% working test bred dogs in different working breeds and also in hovawarts.

4. I have also benchmarked the successful breeders, dog owners and trainers that have had several dogs they have trained to the highest level. With working-dog.eu site it is easy to find out what they have appreciated in the dogs they have chosen.

5. It takes at least four dog generations to get the working potential so strong that most of the puppies in litter would be nicely trainable to the tests. The genetic potential can also be seen in that the puppies in one litter are more similar to each other in their nature and behavior. Puppies bred with working test results differ from other puppies in that their ability and activity to solve problems is better and they want to complete the tasks they are given. Behind this kind of behavior there are several personality traits and intelligence that are genetically inherited.

6. If you have not information of the working test results of the dog’s ancestors even the dog itself is a nice working dog you cannot know anything about the heredity of the working potential.  I have decided not to use anymore males that have less than 70 % working tested ancestors in their pedigrees and the near relatives like grandparents to have test results are even more important.

7. I am still rising my own working tested dog percent in Tallivahdin pedigrees to 70 % that means that I must also find working dog active owners for my breeding bitches. Then I have decided to import 2 working bred bitches from German RZV to make my bitch lines even more genetically variable.