Hi! I'm a former lionhead breeder with ... 7 years experience maybe? I've been out of lionheads for a bit but I still enjoy reading up on them and keeping up with the breed. I can hardly wait for them to pass.
Your rabbit is what is called a "teddy" lionhead. Personally, with the current standards, I would never use a teddy lionhead for breeding unless I was only breeding pets. The problem with this is - if you do get into breeding lionheads for show and to sell to other breeders - if they see you have teddy lionheads or have bred them - they will want to make sure that the rabbits they are getting are free from those lines (on the pedigree) and it may make them hesitant to work with you.
I'm just giving you a heads up - in the lionhead world many people start with lionheads like yours and then decide to move into breeding for show and sell their stock to a new breeder and get better quality. So I'm not saying you can't keep her. I hope you know that.
A few years ago, the trend in the lionhead breeding was to work towards more of a "catlike" ear which was more triangular and small than the ears on your doe.
However, I am wondering if that is changing because I just went to look at las year's winners at the lionhead show and the ears are...wow..huge (compared to what they were 2-3 ears ago).
http://www.lionhead.us/showinfoandphoto/13nationalopenshowreport.html
When I looked at "Sugar Camp Farm's Caesaro" on that page - I was like "Wow...that would have been laughed at years ago".
So perhaps the breed is going back to larger ears.
You can find the lionhead standards here:
http://www.lionhead.us/aboutlionheads/standards.htm
I would pick the "active Mueller standard" with two colors since she is the one currently presenting before ARBA.
To understand lionheads - it really helps if you spend time going to lionhead breeder website and examining the photos of their rabbits (especially if they show their winners) and also if you know a bit about lionhead history.
If you to to the page I'm listing below - partway down the page you'll see two rabbits that won in 2003. Now - these rabbits would NEVER win or even place. Take a look at their ears and their body (how wide they are - how they set, etc) and the go back and look at the pictures I linked to up above of current winners. If you notice, the current lionheads sit up naturally - they don't just sit their butt on the floor. They are "short-boned" compared to the old lionheads. (This came from breeding in netherland dwarfs and holland lops). You want a lionhead that will naturally want to sit up as part of its posture...
http://www.lionhead.us/aboutlionheads/index.htm
from my herd - here is an example of a doe that sat up naturally due to her breeding, etc:
This is the posed look you are looking for in your rabbits.
I hope this helps a bit.
Somewhere in the rabbitry section - if you search - years ago - I did two or three (or more) posts on lionheads and their history and how the breed was changing and developing.
Peg
Lol. Funny binoos head and but is really fluffy his back is not so much. Sometimes I wonder if he has a tail. You cannot see it cause there's so much fur. xD
