How do you research the lines behind your dogs? People always talk about "knowing their lines", how does one get to know them?

What questions do you ask? Who do you talk to?

I know about researching the datebases, OFFA, CERF, etc., but I know there is more to it than this.

TIA!

Oh, it goes much further than that. You can do all the research you want, and maybe people will tell you things, and maybe they won't. To experienced breeders, knowing your lines means you have worked with them long enough, done various combinations of breeding pedigree to pedigree, type to type, etc. to KNOW what to expect when you put two dogs together. It's what risks you are willing to take - not from rolling the dice, but from having seen it before either in your own breeding or in others who have breeding stock with ancestors in common with yours. The risks could be complicated as in genetic issues affecting health and quality of life, or it could be something relatively simple, like knowing that you can take your bitch to a stud dog with an awful front because you KNOW she can hold her own - enabling you to breed to that dog in an effort to improve her weaknesses. This is why old timers talk about paying your dues, putting in the time to learn in order to succeed. It's also why so many people hit five years or less and they are gone - there's very little instant gratification, overnight success, or luck involved in breeding dogs.

To what Greg said, I'm seeing that involvement in my local breed club has given me an opportunity to QUIETLY pick up on issues in pedigrees just by listening and watching.

Work closely with the breeder of your foundation dog. Finding a old timer that's been around a long time to mentor you is huge too.

Scour the pedigrees on websites and you will get familiar with certain dogs. Put it all together and sooner or later you'll be able to sort thru what lines to follow and wean out those to stay away from for your breeding program.

Great advice the others have given. I've learned a lot by simply Googling every dog in the pedigree and thereby finding photos and video clips of get, siblings, etc. You start to see a trend - Like oh, this is where my dogs great movement comes from. Then you could breed back into something with that part of the line. You may see photos with slightly narrow fronts from one of the dogs and then you avoid that or try to fix it knowing it's strong in your line. You may see fading pigments from one section so you think about pigment with breeding, etc. I'm just getting to the 10 year mark and starting to see success with my breeding program with this approach. Of course this is in addition to great posts above.

Having an experienced Mentor has been a blessing for me! She's been very generous with her time and knowledge.

I agree that having a mentor who has worked with your lines and has learned from it is important. I agree that one must pay their dues, but I do not think it is necessary (not does it make any sense) to produce problems out of dogs with known issues just because one is new. I am lucky that I am very involved in my club and have a great mentor and therefore have learned a lot. I have also been lucky with the stud dog owners I have dealt with. The rest comes from showing them, working them in the field,etc. in order to prove my current generation.

Thanks for the input everyone. I think I am ahead of the curve more than I let on, just wasn't sure how to phrase my questions, I guess.

I do have a great mentor who has been a great help in helping me along. I try to listen to what is said ring side and at meetings, and you have to take some of that with a grain of salt. I want to continue learning and if there was stuff I didn't know about, I wanted to know. :)