# Extreme or Balanced Dogs For Breeding?



## Lyn Chen (Jun 19, 2006)

In your experience, what has produced better? A dog that is 'extreme' in certain areas but not in others (say, extreme fight drive, extreme prey, but low defense or high thresholds), vs. a dog that is more balanced in temperament (easy to work in everything, kind of dog that never gave you a problem for example). Would you breed two extremes, or an extreme stud with a more balanced bitch? What kind of progeny have you seen with certain combinations? Excluding obvious things like nerves or health, can you usually fix things that an extreme stud dog may lack? Maybe an example are some of Gildo Korbelbach's sons, who actually seem to have much better obedience than him but retained his strengths.

These questions stemming from the kind of stuff I hear people say one way or the other.


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## Michelle Reusser (Mar 29, 2008)

Breed and extremely balanced dog..lol.

Seriously though deppends on what you are breeding for, sport, police/military, or any number of other things. Also many breeders will start with 2 extremes, see what comes of it. Sometimes extreme drives don't transfer to progeny, maybe the pups are a little too much and you use another stud that has what the first litter lacked. There is hardly ever a garanteed match that will produce exactly what you want in each pup, you have to carefully weigh your options and then just take the plung. After you get results then you can use those results to help you pick a better match the next time.


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## Trish Campbell (Nov 28, 2006)

I think of it more as how breeding pairs compliment each other. I've bred to males I feel are extreme, owned females that also possess extreme traits. I still breed for balance.


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## Lamarr Couttien (May 22, 2008)

From my experience, you always breed for balanced like Trish said. But I understand where Michelle is coming from with breeding two extremes together. You are still trying to balance those dogs but however they each are extremes but usually in different areas. It is always a guessing game that sometimes you get right the 1st time, and other times it takes a few tries with different dogs to get the right combination. Some dogs who are extreme wont breed extreme dogs, and other dogs who aren't extreme will breed extreme dogs. It is all in the combinations and even that can change things up.


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