Not so easy with a litter of pups though.

A good Obedience friend (well retired due to health) had a lovely male, but he definitely was mostly collie, there was something about the ears and stance that was foreign,a nd she suspects he had Labrador in him somewhere.

His offspring were often entered at Exemption shows in the non pedigree classes,a nd she used to get told off for entering her collie

I wouldn't want to breed from anything without a traceable, especially health wise, ancestry.

It is hard enough to produce what you want when you know for sure what you have got

Which is why I don't agree with breeding from unregistered stock, I want more than one generation of health info known.

I love the Finnish Kennel Club breed register. It is open for anyone to view.

Put in a dog name and you will get his pedigree for as many generations as you want, the inbreeding coefficient. The dogs show and in my breed hunting wins/scores.

it will show how many litters he sired, what the health test results are for tested offspring, sibling, half siblings etc.

I know for example that the dog I used had sired six litters with predominantly Male offspring (that's what I got too) and was a hip improver as his owners bitch was less good, which is why she imported him from Norway.

You can find out all this without even having to contact the breeder or stud owner, all in the open for all to know.

Having this information on health especially reassures me that the pups I breed have the odds stacked in their favour for if nothing else, being healthy, and good natured (as of course temperament is overriding important).

When I looked at importing a dog and putting it through quarantine I researched the breeding and the characters of the kennel. the line was known for being mentally very sound and in fact the only Obedience champions in the breed are from this kennel, and any dogs working well in that area all are strongly of those lines.

the pup we had in at 9 weeks came out of quarantine at 8 1/2 months as well rounded as a fully socialised pup would have been. He was at a show 3 days later enjoying the crowds of people and dogs, bomb proof. Only negative was he wasn't house trained and he hated the car.

Of course I expect the dogs to be great looking too