Julie Hancock

I haven't been on this forum for awhile. We just moved to Guam and there are alot of apbt on the island. There are is a divide between those true apbt people and the more bully type or short stack bully lovers. This topic has been talked about alot and I just wanted some other opinions from breeders and people that own a working breed.

If you owned a working dog that didn't possess much if any desire to do the work that it was breed for but had great conformation would you keep this in your program? Now on the reverse side, what if you had a dog that had great working ability and drive to dye for but was a train wreck in conformation. Would you use that dog in a breeding program?

I would like to know how you decide which dogs you will use for breeding and how much of that is based on conformation/overall looks of the dog and how much of that is based soley on the dogs drive and working ability. Do you try to find balance in both areas and not sacrifice one for the other? I have not bred any dogs yet but have thought about this topic alot for when I do. I have often heard breeders tell me that you have to pick one or the other but you can not have both. Meaning you need to decide if you want a dog for show and conformation or a working dog that has drive. What do you believe it would take to bridge that gap to have more balance?

One thing that was brought up is that people that want strong working dogs purchase from abroad because people breed for that purpose. From what I have seen they not only have strong working dogs but also great looking dogs, so they possess both things. So what are any thoughts you have on this?