One thing - its all very well 'preparing yourself for when the time comes' but at this stage you really know f**k all about your dog. Sure you know what it looks, smells, eats, shits like etc, but at this point in its career, you don't have a scooby how its really going to run/hunt/work and you certainly cant figure out what might need adding/canceling out in the next gen.
And one more thing, stop under valuing your dog without testing it. Sounds like your the one frightened of tackling old red, not the mutt.