• You will probably find that breeders or breeding kennels are not usually interested in using privately  owned dogs for stud purposes, unless the dog has some special qualifications or show merit, or has the pedigree that they require for their breeding programme.
• Before breeding from your dog, the Kennel Club advises that you check with your veterinary surgeon, your breed club and/or your dog’s breeder to find out whether there are any possible inherited conditions that may affect your breed, for which there is an available test (e.g. hip dysplasia and eye conditions). There are several health schemes currently in operation to assist in the prevention or control of some diseases (including DNA tests), and where they exist, the Kennel Club strongly recommends that both sire and dam are tested. You will find that the owners of most bitches would only wish to use those dogs that have been examined under the appropriate schemes. Similarly as a responsible dog owner, you should ensure that any bitch to which your dog is to be mated has also been tested under these schemes.
• In order to register your dog’s progeny with the Kennel Club, you will need to ensure that the dog is in your registered ownership. You will also need to ensure that your dog’s Kennel Club registration does not carry any breeding restrictions.

If there are any, you will need to discuss this further with the person from whom you obtained the dog, as any breeding restrictions will need to be removed before the registration of a litter can take place. In most cases it will be the breeder who has placed the restriction, and they will therefore be the person empowered to remove it.

• The terms and conditions of a mating do not fall within the jurisdiction of the Kennel Club. It is therefore advisable that any breeding terms or stud fees should be arranged by mutual agreement in writing between the owner of the dog and the owner of the bitch before the mating takes place.
• As a general point, if a dog has not previously been used at stud, the owner might charge a nominal fee covering expenses etc. Once the dog has been proven (i.e. has produced puppies), the stud fee may be reviewed for any future matings according to the value of the dog as a proven sire, and the quality of his progeny.
• A guide to an appropriate stud fee may be obtained from studying the advertisement columns in the canine press, as breeders may advertise their dogs for stud. Alternatively you can contact your nearest breed club, who may be able to give you advice on this and any other matters relating to your breed.
• Addresses and telephone numbers of breed club secretaries can be obtained from the Kennel Club - call 0870 606 6750 or visit the Breed Standards web pages.

Food for thought…

The following article was written by Mr M Stockman MRCVS and gives a further insight into using your dog at stud:

To the uninitiated it would seem that the best way of making money out of the dog game is to own a successful dog of a npopular breed. You simply advertise him as being available at public stud and then sit back and watch the fees roll in! It costs no more to keep him than if he were not at stud, the bitches do the travelling and you get your fee when the mating is complete, not when the litter is born… what could be easier?

Doubtless there are people who try to do just that; and there are probably those who actually get away with it. But what should happen? What should the dog owner do in order to make certain that he or she is doing the best for the breed?

First of all let’s ask a few pertinent questions:

Is the dog fertile? Is he possessed of the libido to do the job effectively? The mere fact that he has a tendency to chase every bitch in sight whether she’s in season or not, doesn’t necessarily mean that he will have a clue what to do when it comes to the point; and if the owner hasn’t either, frustration of all concerned is liable to be the order of the day.

To be honest, you can read up just so much about mating techniques, but the experience of a knowledgeable breeder and stud dog handler is the most useful asset you can have. In truth, the only really fool proof way of finding out what your dog is like at stud, is to give him the chance with a sensible bitch (preferably not a maiden herself) and see that you enlist experienced help if you possibly can. As far as finding out whether your dog is fertile, you can take all the samples you like, but there is no substitute for the real thing in the shape of a litter in the nest.

But, that said, shouldn’t we be looking a lot further back before we get this far?

Have we checked with fellow breed enthusiasts about what hidden problems there may be within the breed? Has the dog been examined under the relevant health schemes which are appropriate to the breed. i.e hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and inherited eye disease. In one or two breeds it would be sound policy to have the heart tested, and in addition, there are now several DNA tests available to help eliminate inherited diseases in many breeds. I am not trying to suggest that these examinations are universally needed, but most of us, if we are honest, know which problems occur in the breeds in which we have a special interest.

Even if the dog turns out to be a paragon of virtue, is he of such merit that he truly offers the future generation real benefit? It is undoubtedly very flattering to have somebody come up to you just after you have won yet another puppy or junior class and ask if the apple of your eye is available at stud. If the enquirer is one of the better known and successful breeders in your breed, it is usually a feather in your dog’s cap; if on the other hand, the question comes from the sort of person who runs to every new champion in the making, be careful. Used on the wrong bitches, he may well sire progeny which will do him no good at all. Be ready with an answer, which gives you a “get-out”, such as seeing how the pedigree would click, before the question is ever asked.

If you have done all the right things in relation to health testing, don’t let your dog down by allowing him to be used on bitches which have not had similar tests.

I know all the stories about how “this person arrived with the bitch already in season, and she had never heard about hip dysplasia, and anyway it was only a pet bitch so they weren’t interested in all this posh Kennel Club stuff”!

And then they go on: “after all it’s better that they should use a dog that had been scored than one that hadn’t; and if I had refused they would have only gone to the next dog down the road”. Well let them!

There will still be those who will merely say: “Oh, that’s just Stockman rabbiting on about inherited disease; the vets are all the same.” But surely those who put their dogs at stud in whatever sphere ought to take some responsibility for what they sire.

However busy life may be for a breeder, it doesn’t take long to keep a reasonably accurate check on what a dog’s offspring do. It is lovely to see his progeny winning in the ring. In some ways it’s even better than doing the winning yourself. We all like to hear when the good news comes. It’s not so funny when we learn that one’s favourite has sired a cryptorchid, an epileptic, or a dysplastic. Note that I said that he’d sired it; that doesn’t mean he is necessarily the one who is responsible for the defect. We don’t know enough about the genetics of many conditions to be able to say whether or not both sire and dam must have contributed to the problem. So the sire should not be condemned unless it is positively known that the genetic input responsible for a particular defect has to come from both parents.

However, we blame bitch owners for mating their bitches without having any idea of who’s going to be in the queue for the pups when they are whelped, and rightly so in many cases. If the owner of the sire had questioned the mating, had tried to dissuade the eager novice-breeder, or would take responsibility for helping find the right homes, the rescue services wouldn’t be strained to bursting point.

Although this article was written several years ago, it is still relevant in today’s society, and definitely provides food for thought.

The Kennel Club does not currently keep a register of stud dogs and therefore if you wish to use your dog at stud you should contact your local breed club for more information and advice.

Last updated – February 2008

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