YES

Thoroughbred breeders share the same question and everyone like dog breeders have there own theory's but I've never EVER seen a thoroughbred breeder stop breeding from a top mare because she's getting older and producing top offspring (it just doesn't make sense to do that if she's producing.

Old sires, people shy away from them as people believe there getting to old BUT the champion sires serve and produce champion offspring right up to there pension years or they pass on.

A 20yr old mare to a 20yr old stallion can produce GRP1 horses (it's been done many times).

I think the question is (can you bitch produce at all and if so why would it just stop) it won't.

I'm breeding a 16yr old mare that I own this season and she's considered to be getting old but in the last 3 weeks her last two foals (of racing age) have both won there races so I'm not thinking about retiring her while she's healthy and producing winners.

If your bitch is healthy and doing the job then there's no reason to stop breeding her if you desire and I think that (you all know this) but look for reassurance.

I breed my bitch on occasions to produce brood bitchs so I'll give her 1 more litter and then move onto her daughters, that's my plan but if she was producing elite dogs then why would I or anyone decide to stop breeding them unless of coarse of health concerns for your bitch.

Good luck but I believe that you all know your own answer and you will do what's best for you and your dog.

Promises free had 8 litters and her last litter was around 11 years old .

She's a Swifty had a fantastic litter at around 9 years old .

Gun Law Osti had a handy dog at the age of around 9 ...Called BRETT LEE

Age has no importance on the quality of pups she can produce IMO

Hard decision to go on, maybe...

I don't have any concerns Christian it's called an example.

Since this topic seems to come up quite a bit, on the outside chance that anyone might actually be interested in some facts concerning the matter, I've been doing some research. I wanted to get a sense of about how old the dams of All Americans were at the time they whelped their AA offspring, and see what we could see.

I used the All American Teams from 1963 through 1985. This was in the heyday of track racing, when the criteria was more objective in choosing the teams, and it provided me with a 162 dog sample---plenty large enough. There were 3 dogs, of whom the age of their dam at the time they were whelped I was unable to determine. They were not figured into the mix. If a dog appeared on the AA team more than once, he was not counted for those additional appearances.

The average age of a brood when she whelped her All American offspring was 5.58 years of age.

The median age of broods when they whelped their AA offspring was roughly 5.25 years of age.

Females ranging from 2-plus to 10-plus years of age produced an All American.

The raw percentage of AAs whelped from a brood of 8 years of age or older is 10.49%.

The raw percentage of AAs whelped from a brood of 7 years of age or younger is 85.19%.

Then Martin Roper followed up with this:

Nothing much changes. I was able to borrow a copy of The Greyhound by "Stonehenge," published way back in 1853. I found the following interesting table:

BEST AGE OF DAM

NUMBER OF MAJOR STAKE WINNERS 1843-1853

01 0
02 xxxxxx7
03 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx25
04 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx20
05 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx21
06 xxxxxxxxxx12
07 xxxxxxxx9
08 xx3
09 0
10 1

Some of the current day breeders were trying to refute what Dennis researched and one said that Dennis only went to 1986. So Dennis then went and did the stats from 1986 to 2003 and the results were pretty much the same.

From the All American Teams of 1986 through 2003, using the same methodology, we had 132 subjects.

The average age of females from this group, when they whelped their All American offspring, was 5.65 years, (compared to 5.58 for the previous group). Not a significant difference.

Again, the median age was roughly 5.25 years, the same as the other group.

Again, females ranging from 2 through 10 yoa produced All Americans.

The raw percentage of All American whelped from dams 8 yoa or older, was 11.36%...(compared to 10.49% for the earlier group.)

The raw percentage of All Americans whelped from dams who were 7 yoa or younger, was 93.18%.....(compared to 85.19% for the earlier group)......which would lead one to infer that perhaps more younger females are being saved for breeding, or retired early for breeding today. Whatever it means, the percentage of All American producing dams who were 7yoa or younger when they whelped their All American is significantly greater than in the earlier group. The trend line for All American producers points to younger, not older.

Make whatever you like of it, but there it is.

So, the best we can do is to compare extreme to extreme .

At opposite ends of the age spectrum, 24.15% of All Americans were whelped from dams who were 2, 3 or 4 yoa at the time they whelped their AA progeny----compared to 10.20% whose dams were 8, 9, or 10 yoa at the time they whelped their AA progeny.

I took a lot of guff for this, so before it starts here, this is not an opinion piece. It is simply an accounting of the facts, as best we could do, regarding breeding decisions and their results, of those breeders who bred All Americans, and at what age their dams delivered them. It's history now.

You did take a lot of guff for this and you kept telling everyone to breed whatever bitch they wanted, all you were doing was putting out some numbers.

For me the proof is in the brood auction at the nationals every year. many of the big farms sell their better producing females at 6, 7 or 8 years of age. I see many of the "Flying" bitches being sold by Vince. If he thought these bitches could still produce the way they did at a younger age he would hold them for another year or two.