Breeding

[andrew f]

I lost my cocker bitch three weeks ago, I have her son who's a good strong working cocker but no clue on how to find a bitch for him to do the deed with  any advice 😬

[Rob85]

Its usually the other way around, people have a bitch coming into season and they start to look around for a stud dog, a lot of people will be wanting to see the dog working and see any health checks beforehand.

Then they will negotiate stud fees/terms and conditions. What are you looking for from a potential mating?

[andrew f]

35 minutes ago, Rob85 said:

Its usually the other way around, people have a bitch coming into season and they start to look around for a stud dog, a lot of people will be wanting to see the dog working and see any health checks beforehand.

Then they will negotiate stud fees/terms and conditions. What are you looking for from a potential mating?

I just want a dog pup that's sired by him I thought about buying a bitch but I don't want the hassle of pup's and a bitch in season and him singing the blues all night long 🤣 

[Lloyd90]

53 minutes ago, andrew f said:

I just want a dog pup that's sired by him I thought about buying a bitch but I don't want the hassle of pup's and a bitch in season and him singing the blues all night long 🤣 

There’s absolutely LOADS of stud dogs out there for people to use. 
 

Many of them not health tested, and many of them with faults that mean they shouldn’t really be bred from… 

 

Unfortunately it’s often even worse with cockers than springers. 
 

You need to have a hard and serious evaluation. 

Does the dog have any faults?

Make any noise?

Have a hard mouth?
 

Is he trained to a good standard to show that he is a good worker that’s worth breeding from? 
 

If he genuinely has no faults, and is a good worker that merits being bred from, then get him health tested to ensure he’s not carrying any conditions that would make it a no no to breed. 
 

Only then would I consider breeding … although there’s a lot of people who will sadly just breed anything to anything … then moan there’s no good dogs about these days. 

 

 

 

I didn’t breed my springer dog until he won a field trial and I had him fully health tested before hand. 
 

Even as a FTW who’s fully health tested clear, the demand for studs is pretty much slim.  
 

Your best bet, if you work the dog properly regularly, is that someone see’s him work and enquires about using him. 
 

 

[Dave at kelton]

Lloyd has pretty much summed this up. I would add that you have to ask yourself why you want to breed from this dog. Is it purely for sentimental reasons? If it is you are asking someone to put their bitch to your dog, let you have one pup and be left with others they have to move on. If your dog is top working stock that is difficult enough in this market when competing with pups from proven FT pedigree. I don’t know your dog so cannot answer this. 
 

I would have thought the better bet is to look at your dogs line and try and match it. Presumably you know the father so go from there.

if you are intent on going down this route you have to get out on local shoots where there are plenty of cockers and see if there are any bitches you like before approaching the owner.