When would you say it safe to start breeding your dog? I have been breeding Rottweilers for 16 yrs and didn't start breeding them until I had at least 5 yrs personal experience in the breed and done all the research, But a friend talked about breeding her dog (Staffy) after two yrs of owning one she said she has done all the reading and history stuff and knows all about them so she feels she can be a good breeder, what opinions do you have on what makes a good breeder?

Your friend won't herself have enough experience in my opinion after only two years in the breed, but could make a good breeder after this time if she is being mentored and supported by more experienced people in the breed.  Regardless of length of time in a breed we all need those more experienced than ourselves as mentors and mines of information :D

I agree completely, with only one caveat. Experience by itself means little. It's learning from that experience which counts! I have come across people in my breed who have been in the breed for 20+ years but who seem to have learned precious little during that time. We are relative newcomers with 11 years experience and we are still learning every single day.

Well I breed my girlie after two and half years of having her as a breed.  I desperately wanted a second one and she had such a lovely nature I wanted a duplicate.  I did ring the breed club and the secretary did explain a great deal about line breeding and was very helpful.  I had a litter of beautiful pups the bitch I kept had two CCs before she was two. BUT I will also say the stud dog owner led me all the way and was very helpful.  I would also like to say I was extremely lucky with what come out and that I had a very good foundation bitch which I wasnt aware of.  My best buddies are just breeding their first litter after 3 years.

As MickB said there are people I have seen breed who do not appear to have learnt a great deal. I am very proud to say of the 35 offspring I have got around the world with the exception of one person I have not had any problems.

One thing I will say though is we have found the more we know the more picky we become with our choice of stud dogs and decided we were looking for perfection.  Sadly we dont own the perfect bitch neither does anyone out there own the perfect stud dog.  So I think I would probably agree with MickB "that experience by itself means very little."

I'd been in my breed 5 years but I was still immensely grateful to the stud dog owner, who was also the breeder of my bitch. Couldn't have done it without her - well, I could, but not as well or as successfully.

Yep should have substituted/added KNOWLEDGE :D :D rather than just experience.

Well I don't think she has an experienced Staffy breeder for advice, I think she is relying on my experience but I haven't a clue on staffs iv never owned 1 nor had any contact with 1 apart from hers, so I feel I would not be a good mentor to her apart from the basics, I did try and talk her out of it but my words fall on deaf ears I afraid, we both bought our dogs about the same time and iv explained there is know way I would even think about breeding my Akita until I know a lot more about them, she said well that's your decision and I think im ready to do it so what more can I say

Nettie if she is your freind, trust her judgement and support her.   That is alla  freind can do. :-)

I have been in my breed for just over 3 years now, and still don't feel I know everything. I bred working collies for almost 10 years when I was with my ex husband, so have whelped a few litters. I have also been really lucky to have been involved with horses for most of my life (most with papers) which has helped with my knowledge of line breeding and such. My breeder encouraged me to buy the book of the bitch and read it from cover to cover and then read it all over again in case I missed a bit. It's so bad now that I can ask one of my kids to get the "bible" and they scamper off and come back with the book of the bitch :D  In my opinion if the day ever comes that you feel that there is nothing left to learn about breeding and keeping dogs, then it's time to give up as you become complacent and this is when things can go very wrong.

Alli

Edited for my terrible spelling again!!!!

I've been in Spanish Water Dogs now for 13 years and I'm still only just learing.  Those who've been in a breed for 5 years or so and say that they know everything are not only fooling the people that are buying from them but they are fooling themselves.  Even if I carry on having Spanish for the next 40 years which could be feesible with me being so young :d  I know that I still won't know everything that there is to know about them.

Do agree with you Perrodeagua. I've been in my breed 25 + years and if there's one thing I've learned it's how much I've still got to learn!!!
It's true what they say - Ignorance is Bliss.

I do agree there is no a breeder that knows everything, and as they say you learn something new every day, but I had to laugh yesterday I went around for a cuppa and the subject came up again so I said id help all I can I asked her for her dogs pedigree and kc reg papers so I can start doing a bit of research on the lines but she didn't have a clue what they were, so I said the paperwork you got with the dog when you bought it, lol she said oh I didn't buy her I got it free to a good home in the newspaper I didn't get any paperwork it was a young man who was going away to work and couldn't take her with him, well I was at a loss for words, surely you must of read about them in your books, she just thought they were for show dogs LOL, im at a loss as to what to do now