Fortunately I have never had the problem of not being able to sell my puppies.  The balance of payment for the stud service is normally payable within a week or two of the pups birth so as regards financially, from then on it is all down to the bitches owner.

[i And surely many people keep pups themselves, all of those puppies bring in no income to offset the stud fee]

Regardless of how you pay your stud fee, the puppy you decide to keep will always cost you something, either a percentage of the stud fee or a set amount - don't really understand the issue there...


I must say I find it very strange that stud owners are paid 'per pup'    as Marianne has pointed out,  the stud dog is responsible for one thing only -  delivering the sperm,  hopefully viable sperm so the bitch will be pregnant.

Sometimes I think I'm too long in this world - again why complicate things? ....... one dog serves one bitch (who is responsible for the numbers here)    IF I was still breeding, it would be you use my stud dog, he serves your bitch = ONE STUD FEE (usually the equivalent price of one puppy).    And if there is no litter, or not more than 2 puppies, there is one free repeat.   All this messing around with a 'handling fee'?    That is included in the cost of the SERVICE from a proven male.   Each to their own I guess.   But what an unnecessary headache.   Good point about having to find a significant sum of money, potentially, when a litter has only just hit the ground!!!

If I didn't trust somebody, I wouldn't be letting them use one of my precious boys! Money is only a small part of the "trust" bit involved with allowing people to use my dogs

Situations change!   Even between 'best friends' things can go sour.   As I found out with one such 'ideal relationship'.  Hopefully you never have to experience something like that.

I honestly can't see why people find it so "complicated" with the handling fee and price per puppy?

Yes, you pay for the service, but the sole aim of the service is to produce puppies. If the mating produces no puppies that's OK for the stud owner, but the poor bitch owner is left out of pocket and with nothing to show for it.

> Good point about having to find a significant sum of money, potentially, when a litter has only just hit the ground!!!

What is the difference in having to find the money before or after pups are on the ground, the "fee", whichever way it's paid, still has to be found? Surely it's budgeted for?

As I said earlier, I'm going to give bitch owners the choice of either a set fee or a graduated fee, choice to be made before the mating so the contract can be appropriately worded. Then they should be happy :) I usually wait until a couple of pups have been sold before expecting my fee - I would rather bitch owners had their money to cover any unexpected expenses. It isn't about the money for me. I would use my boys much more often if it was, I turn down many, many more people than I accept as I don't think it's sensible to overuse a dog - the whole point of importing my 3 boys has been to help to open up the gene pool a bit rather than end up with everyone having the same bloodlines.