If you had a person who wanted to learn all about breeding, well in advance of breeding, how would you advise they proceed?  Assume the breeding, if there ever turned out to be any, is at least 4 years away.

What would you advise a person to read, experience, see, know, before embarking on a breeding journey.

I always think breeding should be a by-product of something else, nobody should start out wanting to be a breeder, and just a breeder.

So, most people I know bought a pet dog of whatever breed and decided they might show it, after a few years of initially thinking showing is all biased and a set up they realised that their pet dog isn't that great a show dog, so they start looking at buying a dog to show from a successful kennel. They get that pup, do a bit better at shows, maybe book another pup having learned more about the breed and then they decide to breed from their bitch who has done quite well in the show ring but they know there are things they could improve on. That's the basis of a good breeder I think, and by that point they've been around experienced breeders for a few years and picked up tips and hints as they go and made friends to help them.

Of course that's showing related, but it's the same in any sphere I think, obedience, agility, whatever, I think people should 'serve their time' first before breeding.

I can only say what I did, and I 'did it wrong' in that we bought a male first (with no intention of showing although we thought he was the next BIS Crufts!!).   I did venture into the ring early days, in local what were then Exemption Shows but it wasn't a great experience, I was a total novice and he was NO show dog!   After joining the Breed Club we met up with somebody living in our area, with a really lovely male puppy she'd bred and was showing with success.  After becoming friends, I persuaded her to do a repeat of the breeding of her 'lovely puppy' and as she wanted a bitch to keep, she let us have pick of males.  In fact he wasn't at all like her puppy.   By then we'd skipped the Pond and we showed him to his title out there, comparatively easily.   After that, the bug had bitten, and I realised I needed to produce a home-bred puppy rather than take other's stock into the ring, so we imported our foundation bitch from the UK, showed her to her title out there, intending to mate her with our second hound but by then, I'd learnt a bit and decided to mate her to an American dog we'd seen at a Specialty (his sire went BIS to our bitch who went BOS at that show).   After that it was history ..............

Had I known better, I 'might' have gone for a good quality bitch from the get-go rather than go through the almost 7 years before our first litter was on the ground    But as said, when this all began, I was far from intending to show/breed.   And those 7 years did arm me with a lot of knowledge about my chosen breed.

Excellent post Chaumsong. I don't think I know any breeder I'd classify as good and responsible that hasn't started out in this way. Breeding is an afterthought, something that occurs to you one day when you are already involved in dogs in general and your breed in particular, and then the first thing you do is start talking with the breeder of your bitch to see what they think. And there's your mentor if you decide to go ahead.

The Book of the Bitch.

I had my first litter not that long ago (my boy I kept is just over a hear and half now). For me it was books, breeders and showing.

I got a few books but the book of the bitch was the best of them and seemed to cover the most things. Read that cover to cover multiple times and during it all I kept flipping back to it when needed. I already knew some basics from my college courses but it's knowing the how to spot of that goes wrong and what to do stuff that was great.

Showing help teach me what my bitches faults were (they all have something that could be improved) and what her strengths were, so I had an idea on what I needed a stud to be strong in to match her.

Having your girls breeder on your side to be your mentor is a massive help. Mine told me which studs/lines I should avoid using and which would potentially be good matches. They helped my find studs and approach the ones we decided to use. Finding a stud wasn't all smooth sailing, in our breed its had to know who exists other than the few currently in the ring when your newer, and then you may pick a stud plan it all out then he fails an eye test just before. My breeder was also there to offer advice all along the way.
A friend also took a week off their work to come up when my girl was due, they have bred a few litters before and were happy to come stay up and lend a hand.

When I originally got my girl I had no plans to breed at all, in fact I wanted a male didn't want to deal with seasons but fate had other plans. After showing for over 2 years and doing all her very testing the topic of breeding came up with her breeder and once we decided to go ahead with the aim of hopefully getting a nice boy to keep I wanted to make sure I knew how it all should work, what things could go wrong at each stage, how would I spot them and what I should do about it if I saw signs something wasn't right. All that while spending ages trying to decide on what male to use, getting a waiting list so I had some homes lined up ready, and planning the logistics of it all.

> I got a few books but the book of the bitch was the best of them and seemed to cover the most things.

I read books prior to my first whelping - scared me stiff to be honest.   I had no prior experience, and the breeder of my foundation bitch was in the UK - with me in Canada.   So I had to wing it.

> I read books prior to my first whelping - scared me stiff to be honest.   I had no prior experience, and the breeder of my foundation bitch was in the UK - with me in Canada.   So I had to wing it.

I was worrying about all the what ifs. Our breeding in the end did quite go as planned. A few failed attempts, a car accident just before getting my girl scanned, scanner could only find 1 pup, xray 2 days before due date confirmed 1 big pup, c-section, singletons pup raising worries. Not exactly textbook.

I had mentors.  With whom I talked and asked and watched and worried and wondered and tried to understand.  I read books.  For two whole years before my first litter was born.  I kept a diary of the entire learning process, since I realised I was embarking on a voyage into completely unknown, completely new territory.  From there on, I rolled with the punches, and now that I feel that I REALLY know - finally! - what I'm doing, I'm going to have to give it all up.  I'm too old to acquire new dogs.