Stud Fees

[ConciseQueen]

I have found my bitch a lovely dog to sire pups. The owner of the dog is pretty relaxed, doesn’t want a puppy but has asked me to make an offer of stud fees. He’s stressed nothing is guaranteed from the dogs’ meeting etc.

Neither dog is worth much (lurchers) but they are lovely so I will be able to sell the puppies to cover vet costs if the time comes. How much would you offer for the stud fee?

PETA are trying to stop ALL animal ownership - basically all human contact with animals apart from watching them as they live free wild lives. They're about animal rights not animal welfare. People should be aware of this.

Animal welfare (I'm all in favour) is about making sure that the dogs that are bred are conformationally sound, healthy, and go to homes where they will be fulfilled.

If a dog is happy, I'd say it has a pretty cushy life. Unowned street dogs often have short and miserable ones.

And FYI I have never bred a litter so no, no money in it for me. But if people who care for their dogs don't breed them, we'll rapidly lose all the well-bred dogs.

@EdithStourton
I would broadly go along with PETA's aims which no doubt further convinces you that I am unhinged. I think animals on the whole do worse out of having contact with humans than not having contact with humans.

Of course a dog would rather live in a home with a human rather than on the street. I'm pretty sure mine does. But for every dog who gets to do that, there are thousands, maybe millions, who have to struggle to survive in a hostile environment every day. That's my whole point. It's not about your well-bred, well-cared-for dog, it's about the greater good.

And many pet dogs who do live in homes are not well bred or cared for. Take a look at other threads on the doghouse. But do bear in mind that this is MN and most of the posters have just made a mistake in getting a dog, or got the wrong dog, or got a dog at the wrong time, or are generally in a difficult situation themselves or things have changed for them, or want a dog without bothering to put the work in, or misunderstand the dog... They are not in general bad people who would deliberately choose to harm an animal but there are people who do choose to do that.

I think Mother Nature does a far better job of ensuring that dogs are well bred compared with humans.

If, as you seem to be, against animal rights, I wonder to what other beings you would deny rights. Women? Ethnic minorities? LGBTQ people? Disabled people? They and many more have had to fight and still have to fight for their rights and there are many people who would deny them their rights. Maybe we owe it to animals to reconsider the way we see them and treat them.

The required health tests for lurchers are as follows

Hip Dysplasia
Elbow Dysplasia
Eye Screening

plus

DNA test - MDR1

so I assume both parents have this as if not they MUST get it done.
Do not be an irresponsible breeder and breed from unhealth tested dogs, it’s unethical and morally wrong.

Plus no one with any sense will buy the pups.

The current stud fee for a health tested lurcher is around £150 - £200.

@redboxer321 animals are not people. That is my starting point.

Dogs were entirely created due to the contact of wolves with people - there must have been something in it for them to hang around the camp fire. Humans have been selectively breeding dogs for millennia - it's only recently that it's gone down the route of closed stud books and crazy conformation.

But take the relationship between humans and dogs away, and you're doing something that flies in the face of tens of thousands of years of incredible co-existence.

@ No but people are certainly animals. And being non-people shouldn't make them lesser than people.
It doesn't really matter what happened thousands of years ago. What matters is the way we treat and view animals now and how we are going to treat them in the future.

It shouldn’t be about stopping people having dogs altogether but it should be far more difficult for any old idiot to have one. Make it as inconvenient and costly as possible and it would sort the responsible from the irresponsible. Far more people have dogs now that cannot provide what they need nor stop them inconveniencing others because they just have to have one NOW, instant gratification with no thought to the next potentiometer 10-15 years and all of the work that entails. Including picking their 💩 up and keeping them under control

We have a lot of lurches around here, (very rural mainly agricultural community) and well as gun dogs and farm dogs. In fact 4 of my friends own lurchers all we acquired from a breeders I suspect similar to the OP and definitely not the type implied above, and not a hare courser amongst them, respectable families retirees giving their dogs loving homes all lovely healthy dogs. I also very much doubt any health screening tests had been done. I think if I was the OP amongst other things I’d be concerned about finding homes for these puppies, all were bought at 4+ months implying that they are not endless homes looking for lurcher puppies.
I’m in two minds about the ethics of breeding like this we do have to accept that some people will never go to a rescue (I include myself in this) and that others go to rescues and are offering perfectly good homes but get turned down by rescues.

I think you need to be careful where you're going with that reasoning.

If animals are not lesser than people in some way, how do you justify depriving muntjac, squirrels, rabbits etc of living space to build a housing estate? Or the control (that is, killing) of pigeons, deer etc on arable land to grow crops? Why don't we have an NHS for people's pets? And so on.

*Actually, I really love my dog and so do other people so I’d like to breed her. I have no concerns about vet fees or puppies finding homes.

This thread is really looking for advice about studs.*

Loves dog = make my dog get pregnant then take her babies away to make money from them.

Genuine scum behaviour.

Before you think about keeping more than one of the puppies, please look into Littermate Syndrome. It's really not advised to keep siblings together.

Honestly as a (good, i hope) owner of a stud dog, the fact you dont know the going rate and describe the parent stock as 'fab' and 'lovely' as though they are quantitative terms or a reason to breed a dog rings alarm bells. If you want to breed a line, step back and start researching - NOT stud fees for a random dog, health testing at the very least.