hi my boxer is 3 mnths old, absoloutly gorgeous with a stunning pedigree mostly marbelton and a few french champions in there too,i am planning to breed from her when shes a big girl :) my questions about relevent health tests i know she needs hips and heart tests but at what age is best to do these? ive been told that because shes a bigger breed its better to wait till shes 2 but my understanding was that tests should be done at age 1.........also bit premature but where would they be done? im in the north west nr manchester and my vets dont do them.......one last question about stud.....i have been looking at lots of different dogs...lots of them stunning but how do u know which one is best suited to your bitch? considering that marbelton is prevelent in tias line does that mean i would be better using a marbelton stud? i know im going to be jumped on and told i should know these answers before considering breeding her but thats why im asking now so that in 2 years we will be ready!
many thanks for any replys
emma

Hi Emma - you certainly won't be jumped on for making your plans well in advance! It's exactly the right thing to do! Hips are scored after 12 months, and for a bitch it's apparently best if they are midway between seasons when it's done. Breed clubs are a mine of information when it comes to health checks - have you considered joining a boxer club? I'm sure you find it beneficial. Marbleton is a well-known affix inboxers (even I've heard of it!) so I'm sure if you contact them they'll be only to happy to help you choose the right stud for your girl when she's old enough.

Good luck!

Heart testing can be done at any age, BUT to go onto the heart clear list
the dogs need to be tested at 12 months and older. She needs to test either 0 or 1 to be considered clear
for breeding purposes.
Hips again I'm sure if you look at the kennel club website it will confirm that
the dog has to be tested at 12 months and older.
Some other tests that can be done are thyroid (which your own vet can do - blood test)
eyes (which a vet which specialises in opthamolgy-eyes does)
Also temperament testing which happens at 12 months and older this test is tested
at the annual British Boxer Clubs working day, which is normally held on either the first
or second Sunday of September, it's held near Derby.

There is your regional Boxer club - The Mancunian Boxer Club- they have their own website.
You might like to join them, I'm sure that they do have heart-testing at their open shows.
This costs £7.50 per dog at shows, more if you go to the cardiologists centre.

Read all you can before hand a good book about breeding is the Book of the Bitch, by Kay White
and J.M. Evans it's £9.95 in bookshops, you may be able to pick it up secondhand from sites such as ebay or amazon.
Also buy books on the breed, learn as much as you can about the breed, find photo's of your bitches ancestors etc.

As regards breeding and which stud dog, you need to know what faults your bitch has and improve on these.
You also need to know your bitches good points (and not lose these). You ideally want a stud that has passed all it's health tests,
that has an excellent temperament, that compliments your bitch. A good way is to find a mentor (that will help you learn these things and point you in the right direction) and gain experience by going to dog shows and learning which dogs have the right breed attributes that you need, and which dogs seem to have weaknesses what they are and if they seem to be dominant (i.e. passed from generation to the next). I've been learning now well over 14 years & I'm still learning! (I've only ever bred one litter in that time too, but have been showing the 14 years.
Some say to line-breed is good to fix kennel type (line breeding is when you go for a relative of your dog)
Outcrossing is when both parents are completely unrelated. This is where you need good knowledge of both the 'lines'
knowing the faults/virtues etc, and can be a bit of a gamble to produce even type. But the experienced breeder
knows which lines blend well.

Best Of Luck :)

thanks for all the info i found it really helpful, temperment testing sounds very interesting i hadnt realised there was a formal test for this! ive tried to find mancunion boxer site but think it may be inactive as i can only find a phone number on kc?