Artificial insemination only solution for the breed in spain?

Originally Posted by rolf

Have you concidered to buy a stud dog(or more), which can be used more than once and with different females ?

I like this option, but it's a slippery slope and one that should be considered heavily before putting into action. While I'm sure you'd get a lot of useful litters out of the stud, you have to remember about genetic diversity. Going this route, you may run into the same problem of having a lot of repeat breeding. However, it's definitely a great idea, especially if the stud is an adult already and fully developed, so you know how well he would work with the females you'd want to breed.

Something also to consider is that "popular" stud dogs have been a problem with bottle-necking genetics in dogs in the past. The German Shepherd, for example, the dog used in producing CsVs in the first place, has this exact problem because in the past, popular, high-winning studs were used so often that they really shrank the genetic diversity in the dogs' pedigrees. GSDs are plagued with a host of genetic problems, and it's quite possible that the use of stud dogs in this way has played a factor. I can't remember the exact numbers, but I remember reading before that the ratio of studs to bitches in wolves in the wild is close to 50-50, but with purebred dogs, the numbers are greatly skewed, with far less studs being used than bitches.

Just something to think about!