Wish I knew then what I knew now, she's a natural born mother, perfect temperament, perfect health, immensely talented in agility and also a good bird dog (that's despite the ignorance of her handler). But we might run into some surprises because she's the product of a profound out-cross. Her parents being from different branches of the Lab tree have ZERO common ancestors back as far as we can trace. When I bred Siamese cats, that kind of breeding always resulted in tremendous variation within the litter that persisted for a generation or two. It was certainly the case with Shelley's litter - they ran the gamut from couch-potato show Lab to my wild girl, and everything in between, and in size and appearance there's just as much variation. I met one of Shelley's full brothers (different litter) at a hunt club training day, and he looks EXACTLY like a show Lab - he's like a double cube, 2 inches taller than the Shell and probably 30 pounds heavier, with a head like a concrete block.
You're right about the "art" of breeding for abilities or looks - lots of times you don't know why you know what you know . . . I don't think there's any money in carrying this research that far though.
Actually, I try to keep my COAs low, as I think that even tho you get less consistancy in litters, you might get fewer immune system problems (don't know if that's as big a problem in labs as in goldens). I like to do outcrosses to fairly linebred dogs myself. And, my first show golden was from multi-titled parents (obed, conf, field and tracking). But....I held her back because I was a terrible trainer (and had 3 small boys and a husband who also thought they needed soem attention!)She only got one conformation point, one JH leg, a WC and was one leg away from a CDX when I retired her (we played at agility, but she developed uveitis and I don't think she felt confident on the dog walk etc because of her vision, but maybe I'm making excuses).
If you would like to see some pictures, pm me. She was a sweetie (and an outcross) and lived to almost 13. I am pretty sure (in hindsight) that she died of erlichia, altho we never got a definitive diagnosis. I would love to have her again (but she was a terrible producer--however, I think alot of that was bad choices in sires on my part--that darned *art* of breeding!)
susie