[rottcrazed]

When I keep a puppy that I have bred in order to carry on showing/working, I can certainly tell you that by 7 or 8 months of age there is NO WAY I will say forsure whether or not they will ever be bred, health clearances aside.

I currently have a 8.5 month old male who I am showing and working who was out of my last litter. He is lovely, but I have no idea what the 'final product' is going to look like .... so when people ask me if I am going to breed him, I always tell them that I don't know because there are too many things that can change in the next 18 months to know forsure.

I am preliming his hips and elbows in the next few months, more because he is training with low jumps right now than any other reason.

I love him dearly, but who knows what his stud career will be, if anything at all.

This is probably why a lot of people get up in arms when they read posts like this, myself included. For those of us who do breed, who do show, train, health and temperament test their dogs, posts like this are 'painful' to read, answer and repeat (because you know darn well someone else will come onto this site next week and say the same things .... it just does).

Breeding is a serious thing to do. You are bringing life into this world and in 8 weeks sending them out on their way with what you HOPE are responsible owners. It is just not an easy thing to do .... please make sure you are ABSOLUTELY well versed in everything from whelping, to contracts, screening people, etc... the list is too long to go into now. It is SOOO important and if you do truly care about this breed, you will want to do that before even considering breeding your dogs.

Kristi