How we decide who to breed and what to breed for When breeding a litter, a breeder should always have a goal.  We breed both show bred dogs and race bred dogs, and yes - they are very different in type and sometimes even temperament.  With both our show and race bred litters we start out by deciding what bitch to breed and make sure they are healthy bitches with a great temperament.  After that the show and race breedings differ a little as far as goals go and what we are looking for in a stud dog.  Let's start with what we look for in a show bred litter... We start with a healthy bitch with a great temperament who has good structure and movement and look at where she can be improved.  Maybe she needs some help with her movement, more reach and drive or cleaner movement in the front or rear.  Maybe she could be a bit longer through the loin or have a longer neck, a bigger eye, a better forearm and so on.  Then you pick a stud dog who is also healthy and has a great temperament that is also strong in the areas where the bitch is lacking.  If the bitch needs more reach and drive in her movement you pick a stud dog that has plenty of that, or if the bitch could use a bigger or darker eye, you pick a stud dog with big black eyes.  When we breed, we breed because we want a puppy from that litter to compete in the show ring with.  We also like to lure course our show dogs so we want to make sure the puppies are going to have good prey drive for the lure but that's not generally a problem we have to worry about with our dogs and it comes naturally, as far as being a good runner, only time can tell.  For the rest of the litter, we want to make sure they are going to be happy and healthy Whippets for their new owners, we will end up placing many of our puppies in companion homes depending on what kind of inquiries come along.  Some may end up in show or performance homes as well but our top priority is that they are going to be great companions and make excellent members of their new family.  Now on to what we look for in a race bred litter... Again we start with a healthy bitch with a great temperament and look for the same in the stud dog.  With race dogs it's a bit different, it's not as much about structure as it is with the show breds.  It's about speed and drive, of course when breeding a race litter you want to breed fast puppies.  Again, when we breed a race litter it's because we want a puppy from that litter ourselves to compete in racing and lure coursing.  Like the show bred litters, several of the puppies may end up in companion homes, it just all depends on what home is best for the puppy and if it's between a performance home and a companion home but the puppy is better suited for the companion home because of the home situation or the puppies personality, we will place him/her in the companion home.  And like the show bred litters, our top priority is to produce healthy and  happy Whippets for their ourselves, their new owners and for the quality of life for the Whippet.  We have our own stud dogs at home, but often we will breed to a dog we don't own.  Sometimes the dogs we have at home just aren't going to be the best match for that particular bitch and another dog could offer more in that breeding.  We don't breed to our own dogs just because they are here and free, we only breed them to our own bitches if we think their offspring could be improved beyond their parents.  When breeding you always want to make the puppies even better than their parents if at all possible.  Keep all this in mind when inquiring about a puppy, ask the breeder what their goal for the litter is and what they hope to get out of it - whether it be great temperaments, better structure or movement, more speed, etc.