The Bloodlines We Are Working With

When I talk about the dogs in our breeding program, I usually refer to “the bloodlines or pedigrees I’m working with,” rather than “my lines.”

That distinction may seem small, and perhaps to some people it sounds like semantics. But in breeding, language often reveals how we understand our role. The words we choose can reflect whether we see ourselves as owners of something, authors of something, or stewards of something much larger than ourselves.

This is something I have thought about for many years, because the phrase “my lines” has always sat a little uneasily with me. I understand what breeders usually mean when they say it. In casual conversation, “my lines” is often shorthand for the dogs a breeder has produced, the families of dogs they are working with, or the traits they are seeing consistently in their program. Used loosely, it may not be intended as a claim of ownership at all.

Sometimes the phrase carries a different tone. It can begin to sound possessive, as though a pedigree becomes the property of the person currently breeding from it. As though a line begins when it enters our kennel or the work of previous breeders becomes absorbed into our own identity once their dogs appear behind ours.

This is where I think the language matters, because none of us begin from nothing. Every dog in a pedigree represents decisions made long before we arrived. The breeders who came before us selected for type, prioritized soundness, preserved temperament, and took carefully weighed risks on breedings that might move the breed forward. They very likely lived with disappointment, started over when a path did not lead where they hoped, imported a dog, carefully offered stud service, placed a bitch, mentored a newcomer, or made the difficult decision not to breed on. By the time a dog enters our program, it is already carrying generations of other people’s work.

That doesn’t mean today’s breeder contributes nothing, far from it. Responsible breeders make meaningful decisions, and over time, those decisions matter. A breeder who works carefully across generations, keeps records, studies outcomes, evaluates honestly, and contributes back to the breed may develop a recognizable family of dogs. Their work may become visible in type, temperament, health, performance, or consistency, and their influence becomes part of the breed’s history. Their contribution is a branch of the history they have stewarded.

That distinction matters because breeding is not only about producing puppies. It is about participating in a continuum. Pedigrees are not static lists of names on paper. They are records of choices, relationships, trust, and inheritance that tell us where a dog came from, but they also remind us that our work exists within a broader structure than our own kennel.

This is especially important in small breeds, vulnerable breeds, or breeds with limited breeding populations. In those contexts, the idea of ownership can become counterproductive. Breeders may become protective in ways that are understandable but not always helpful. They may guard what they believe is “theirs,” rather than thinking about what the breed needs, forgetting that access, collaboration, and shared responsibility are often what allowed those bloodlines to survive in the first place.

There is, of course, a practical side to breeding. We may own individual dogs or co-own dogs. We may lease a bitch, own frozen semen, protect a kennel name, or make contractual decisions about how a dog is used. Kennel names, breeding programs, and reputation all matter, and the choices made by individual breeders matter deeply, but a protected kennel name is not the same as ownership of a bloodline.

A breeder can own a dog, build a program, earn a reputation, and develop consistency over time. But the pedigree itself is a historical record, and history is not something we own simply because we are the current steward of it.

This is why I prefer the phrase “the bloodlines or pedigrees I’m working with.” “Working with” feels more accurate because it suggests relationship rather than possession and acknowledges responsibility without overstating authorship. It leaves room for the breeders who came before, and it reminds me that my decisions are only one chapter in a much longer story.

It also asks more of us because if we are working with bloodlines, we then have an obligation to understand them. Not just the famous names or the wins attached to them but the patterns, strengths, weaknesses, health considerations, temperament tendencies, reproductive history, and context behind them. Historical literacy is part of responsible breeding. A pedigree is not a collection of impressive dogs to admire from a distance; it is an important source of information we are responsible for understanding. This kind of literacy also brings humility.

The more one studies pedigrees, the harder it becomes to believe that success belongs to any one breeder alone. Behind every promising puppy is a long series of decisions, many of which we did not make, and behind every healthy, stable, typey, useful dog are breeders who made it possible for that dog to exist. Their work is there in the dogs that stand before us today. We see it in the dog that moves correctly, in the temperament that makes a dog a joy to live with, or in the natural instincts that remain intact. We also see it in reproductive soundness, longevity, resilience, and breed character. These are qualities we are proud to claim, even when we are not the ones who first established them.

This is why I think this conversation is worth having. It isn’t because every breeder who says “my lines” is doing something wrong or because language needs to be policed for its own sake. It’s because the way we talk about bloodlines can shape the way we think about breeding. Possessive language can subtly encourage possessive thinking. Stewardship language reminds us that we are accountable to something beyond ourselves.

A good breeding program should have an identity. It should reflect the breeder’s priorities, standards, observations, and decisions. But that identity should be built with respect for the foundation beneath it because none of us own the past. Rather, we inherit from it. If we are fortunate, careful, and honest in our decisions, we may contribute something worthy enough to be inherited by someone else.

That, to me, is the real privilege of breeding. Not to say, “these are my lines,” as though the story begins and ends with us, but rather “these are the bloodlines I am working with, and I understand the trust that represents.”