> you won't know until she's at least a year old (when she's mature and been hip scored etc) whether she'll be right to mate to your dog, regardless of the CoI.
Hah! The best laid plans. We started our Bassets with two males, 10 months apart. Moving across to Canada, and after showing the second hound, who was by far the better one, the bug bit and I decided I needed to breed something I'd bred myself, to take into the ring and bought our foundation bitch from the UK, who was a half sister (same sire) to my second hound. By the time she was old enough to be bred from, both had gained their Can.Chs BUT with the passing years, I decided my male wasn't 'right' for her after all. We took her down to a male we'd seen up for one of our Specialties - no mean trip!
You may have done the same in the interim years - got to know that maybe your male isn't going to be right for your new bitch. And by knowledge gained re construction and via their pedigrees. I never went by COIs, I knew from experience. And actually there was a link between the American dog and my bitch via a bitch who had been exported from the UK to America some years before. There must have been something I 'recognised' about the dog I did use for that first mating.