Mike, Boy aint that the truth. We have to look at what we want, do we want a great hunting dog or do we want a great hunting dog with the ability to reproduce itself? Most of us are just happy with a great hunting dog until they get old or die early.
One of the best hunting dogs I have ever owned is half Jagd terrier and half walker hound, just a super hunting dog, But she couldn't reproduce her likeness if her life depended on it.And her parents never reproduce another good dog as long as they lived. And that is were geneticts play into the art of breeding.
Another quote and I will stop.
" The likelihood of this being accomplished (breeding best to best)in a single breeding , even from a sire and dam of undeniable excellence,is of the same order as the total numbers in a Mexican lottery. It is true that in the lottery someone wins , but we are stressing the probability, not the win.The purpose of geneticts is to "rig" the lottery so that the probability of winning is increased."
Don't get me wrong I am not promoting the registared dog, I find the UKC , AKC PKC and others just money hungry. But they are doing something that most people are too lazy to do themselves and that is write down a pedigree or a history of the dogs they have had ,and bred, and what worked and what did not work. Without that history we are just buying a lottery ticket. I got lucky and won a pretty good lottery with my half Jagd and half Walker hound but in the long run it would have been better if I could have reproduced her.