This is pretty interesting conversation...
In dog breeding, and in animal sports/breeding in general, Champions create champions. Thats not debatable.
A very wise mushing mentor of mine ( a brilliant guy with a 4th grade education- who has owned over 2,000 sled dogs in his life) once explained it to me like this...(paraphrased)
"If your trying to create a solid Iditarod team, you have to start with the best genetics you can get- get 50-60 puppies and then train/condition them to the highest level they can handle. Of the huge number you started with, only about 15-20 of them will be able to mentally and physically handle the mileage and be able to make an Iditarod team, only 2 or 3 of them will ever be "great" athletes, that other good mushers will want to breed to.
So, keep this in mind when you are wanting to breed...out of 60 top bred puppies only a couple of them will be truly exceptional athletes.
If you think you can get a solid team, from just collecting a bunch of mutts or culls- you are fooling yourself. The sheer number of dogs you'll have to go through will be overwhelming. Sure, you could take-in every husky from shelters in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and the rest of the world, and eventually find a solid dog or two, but, even then you really don't know how that dog will perform when things get really, really tough, because you don't know how their hardwired.
So, when you want to get serious about putting together a race team, spare no expense at getting the best foundation dogs you can get. Because 1 out of 30 pups will probably be exceptional- but you'll still get a fair number of team dogs. It'll save you a lot of work, and time- going this way. Sure, you could eventually get a great dog from a shelter- BUT, THINK OF HOW MANY KIDS ARE PRODUCED IN GHETTOS, BEFORE YOU GET AN OPRAH WINFREY. If you want greatness, you've got to start with greatness.




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