James,
there are breeders out there -- and unfortunately quite a lot of them -- who breed several litters a year. They always have puppies showing in the Futurity and Sweepstakes classes.

As someone who does a lot of Rescue, I believe that the world has enough Rottweilers but not enough good homes. We've been very fortunate to have placed our puppies in fantastic homes and, in fact, we've only had to re-home one of our puppies ever.

But, increasingly, it is getting harder and harder to find the types of homes necessary for Rotties. Let's face it: not everyone should have one of these dogs. Linda and I have only half-kiddingly suggested that we give prospective buyers IQ tests to make sure they are brighter than the dog they're buying.

Another factor for us is that we will not breed a dog that has not gotten all of the necessary health clearances: hips, elbows, heart and eyes. We also check thyroid just to be safe. And, we won't breed a bitch more than twice in her lifetime. This far, we've only bred two of our girls -- Annie Fay our 10 1/2 year old Queen Of The Universe and Cassidy, her 4-year-old granddaughter.

And lastly, we only breed for ourselves. That means if we can't keep at least one of the puppies then we don't breed. We currently have 5 Rotties (including a Rescue girl) and a Golden. That is more than enough.

As Marta said, there are folks out there that breed a lot and breed to make money. My dogs are not on this earth simply to produce puppies. They are our companions and their offspring are in homes that believe in the same things we do.

So, that's why we breed infrequently but we breed good dogs. BTW, Annie Fay produced 17 puppies in her 2 litters and she was just awarded her Gold Producer Award from the American Rottweiler Club -- one of only 8 bitches in the history of the breed to go Gold on 2 or fewer litters.

Marta, thanks for the compliment. As you know, breeding isn't easy. It's a tremendous responsibility. When we've lost a puppy in whelping (and fortunately that's been very few) it broke our hearts. For the first 8 weeks of the puppies' lives, we actually spend as much time with the pups as their mom. We don't do it like most breeders but we believe that our puppies benefit from relating to people as much as to other dogs. Fortunately, the results speak for themselves: of Annie's 17 kids, 8 are TDI-certified Therapy Dogs; of the 3 litters that Rowdy has sired, he has 6 TDI-certified Therapy Dogs. I would like folks to think of the term Good Rottie as commonplace and not as an oxymoron.

Jim