Why Do We Breed?

This came to me as I was sitting with one of my dogs tonight. Maybe it was triggered by an extra glass of Chardonnay and the fact that I received a call today from a person looking for a BT puppy.
One of the things I think a person looking for a dog should ask the breeder (and I hope the breeder has already asked and answered this question for themselves!!) is why are you breeding? What type of dogs are you trying to produce and why? Can you describe the perfect adopted home for your puppies?
I know some BT breeders that breed to produce the top winning BT in the country- showing and winning in the conformation ring is paramount. I know other successful breeders that breed for temperment and want to produce the perfect companion. Others want to retain that stellar hunting drive or breed the best all-'round performance dog. And others have a picture in their minds eye of the "perfect BT" (whatever that is!) and want to reproduce that in their dogs.
Whatever our goals as a breeder, we should have answered these questions way before we did our first insemination of a bitch. And we should have these answers ready for any prospective new home for our puppies.
In a future post, I will pose (and try to answer) a few questions that I have asked myself about breeding. Mainly, how is the Border Terrier to function best and remain most true to his original reason for existence in today's 21st Century? What makes him a Border Terrier first and foremost TODAY, as opposed to just another dog? And how should that be reflected in the dogs that I breed? I hope you will think carefully about this as a "keeper of the flame" for our wonderful breed and have your answers to compare with mine!