I can tell you it's far easier being a pet owner than a breeder. If you really care about structure ,conformation, movement and soundness then it's an uphill battle trying to find sound stud dogs to use that also have the type, temperament. coat etc. you want. I used to start looking the minute I decided to retain a female pup. America does far more health testing than they do here so even though I hip scored my girls, finding a dog that was also hip scored was almost impossible, without all the other things like heart problems, eye problems etc. that people don't want to talk about or test for. I've seen cattle dogs change just so much in the past 35 years here. They've gone from being up to height strong dogs with their forelegs back under their withers, to small dogs with cute spitz type faces and shocking fronts. People say to me "Isn't that dog moving well?" and the answer is "NO it's not!"
It's moving fast with a lot of small steps. I once took two dogs with me when we visited a friend down on his Hereford Cattle stud. I was delighted when I let them out and, without even saying hello, he said, pointing at the short stocky one, "I don't know whether you own that dog but I don't like him". I just laughed and said "neither do I, Jack, he won't be used for breeding". He really loved my blue girl though, and the point is, that sort of opinion, from a chap who worked his cattle with dogs all his life, was more important to me than what any judge would tell me. I think I'm lucky though, I live in the country, midway between two capitals, and we don't have many of my breed in the area. I've got my eye in on a working type of dog, not what is fashionable(and sometimes so wrong) in the show ring.