Hi guys I’m just curious what do you charge for your stud fees?
Thanks

This is going to vary hugely depending on the breed concerned.  You'd really need to ask others in your breed.

Ok thanks.
We are  Siberian husky.

New user on here.
Thanks

£200 for mine.

It depends on many factors; the breed, whether or not the dog is proven, the dog's showring success and so on. The price of a puppy is generally a good guide for a proven sire with show or working success.

> The price of a puppy is generally a good guide for a proven sire with show or working success.

With my breed having such small litters it's very difficult (and greedy) to charge the price of a pup.  Once I had someone come to me and her bitch had one dead puppy.  I didn't charge for a re-mate.  With a breed that often has a singleton it isn't an easy decision.

I used a well known show dog on one of my bitches, the owner was a well known exhibitor, breeder and judge.  He charged me £200 and it gave me the two best pups I could have wished for.  Kept them both, so easy with such a small breed. 

With litters of 12 large pups, it's probably not the done thing to keep two.  And charging the price of a pup works out peanuts to be fair.

Years ago, with my main breed the cost of a stud used to be the same as the cost of a puppy.   Since then it appears that this isn't the case with puppies costing up to, and over £1K (at least that's the asking prices I'm seeing - whether they get these figures I don't know ... I was told that 'bartering' happens!!).   Stud fees seem to be in the region of £250. only but I'm not sure about that.   And it seems that between breeders, no money changes hands - they do a pick, or just 'a puppy' in lieu of deal.  All that is way too complicated for me.   I used to take a fee for the stud service with no take back, with a proven male.   If I was interested in a particular breeding, and wanted/had space for another, I'd consider looking at the litter.  That never happened - I bred my own litters for my next generation.

I'd suggest you'd need to ask within your breed re what is the norm.

Puppies in my breed will be around £900.  The stud fee is around £500-600 for a titled dog and can be just £250 for an untitled dog.

In my breed where these days not many more than half a dozen litters are bred a year, averaging around 6 pups (I have ahd between 3 and 9 live pups reared, but most often 4 - 7), the stud fee is the price of a puppy.

Due to small gene pool most dogs only get used a few times, or many not at all due to relatedness. Health testing will swallow up the first (possibly only) stud fee.

I am looking to breed for the first time. The stud is not proven or has any titles. I have been told fee is £250 then £100 per pup. Is this fair. ?

That is for you to decided.
As previously stated it will vary per breed & sometimes within the breed, what is charged for each male used at stud.

I would say that was on the high side, especially for a non-titled dog and that he is not proven - always a risk with a non-proven dog.
If this is your first litter, I would certainly go to an experienced dog/handler to give you the best chance of a litter

>I am looking to breed for the first time. The stud is not proven or has any titles.

Using an inexperienced dog on a maiden bitch with an inexperienced owner isn't likely to go well. I'd recommend you use an experienced, proven stud dog, because it's not always the straightforward procedure you imagine!

For an unproven dog I wouldn't expect to pay more than £50-£100, with a similar payment per live puppy at birth, depending on the size of the litter.

I have not come across any 'per puppy' fee, for starters.   As said, I have noticed that whereas the fee was always the same as the cost of one puppy, it's not like that these days.

If I had an unproven dog at public stud (which I'd not!!), I'd not take a stud fee until there were more than 2 live puppies born.  Along the lines with the first outside stud dog we used, we always said only 2 live puppies constituted a litter, and if less, I'd offer a free repeat next time.

I'd have to agree - if you have a maiden bitch, you'd be far better advised to use an experienced stud dog (and an experienced fellow-breeder!).

>I have not come across any 'per puppy' fee, for starters.

It's surprisingly common nowadays.

> I have not come across any 'per puppy' fee, for starters.<br />It's surprisingly common nowadays.

I suppose that's what has replaced the stud fee = the price of one puppy?   So there's now a basic fee and then another fee for each puppy in the litter?   How crazy is that!!   To say nothing of being 'complicated'.   So what if a puppy is alive when born, but doesn't survive?   For example when we should have had 9 puppies, 5 were born live, one died during the first 24 hours leaving 4 survivors.  4 were lost because the unbelievable vet delayed doing the needed C.Section she'd been taken in to have.  The one we lost within the first 24 hours died with milk coming down his nose after the staff there had tried to bottle feed them.  Clearly milk went into his lungs.   What would the owner of the stud have charged then?  

Sounds more than messy to me.   I'd have expected to pay a fixed stud fee/ be paid a fixed stud fee (unless the dog was unproven).

It's been many years since our last litter so clearly things have changed, not necessarily for the better imo

There is no 'per puppy' fee in my breed.

As said above - so much of this is breed specific, it's not possible to give people any concrete answers unless they are asking others in the same breed.

Came across one stud dog owner who wanted a £250 handling fee plus £100 per live puppy at two days old. I’ve no idea if that’s fair or not but I did wonder about the two days old bit as there must be occasions (such as those I’ve read about on here) where multiple puppies are lost due to fading puppy for example. Surely when the pups leave for their new homes is the day to tot up otherwise the unfortunate bitch owner bears all the risk/costs if the unforeseen happens.

> So there's now a basic fee and then another fee for each puppy in the litter?   How crazy is that!!   To say nothing of being 'complicated'.   So what if a puppy is alive when born, but doesn't survive?   For example when we should have had 9 puppies, 5 were born live, one died during the first 24 hours leaving 4 survivors.  4 were lost because the unbelievable vet delayed doing the needed C.Section she'd been taken in to have.  The one we lost within the first 24 hours died with milk coming down his nose after the staff there had tried to bottle feed them.  Clearly milk went into his lungs.   What would the owner of the stud have charged then?

As with any stud agreement, this all needs to be put clearly in writing prior to the mating.

>Came across one stud dog owner who wanted a £250 handling fee plus £100 per live puppy at two days old. I’ve no idea if that’s fair or not but I did wonder about the two days old bit

That's quite simple; it's so that any whelp that's found to have a serious abnormality can be pts instead of being charged for as being alive at birth.

Ah right, I thought it was because the stud dog owner wanted remuneration regardless of whether a pups survives or not. Thank you.

This being the case, £250 up front + £100 per puppy after 2 days from birth, sounds like a nice little earner for any stud dog owner!!  Not so outrageous if the breed normally only produces around 6 puppies I suppose (£850 for the stud fee?).   But with bigger breeds, where 10 - 11 isn't unusual - that would eat into any income from the eventual sale of the puppies.   Good job I'm out of all this as it sounds way too complicated, and costly!

At what point is this 'per puppy' payment made?  After 2 days, when the breeder has a ton of expenses to actually rear the puppies in the days before they see any return for their efforts!   How in the world does any breeder without a healthy Bank balance, manage?

Not sure about the timing of the payment, but you’re right that at two days there’s potentially a lot of other outlays. But at the point when puppies are sold it must be difficult for the breeder (emotionally) to pay the fee for a puppy that didn’t make it.

I would charge £400 at time of mating or later if needed and include microchipping of all pups in litter at 6/7 weeks.
All this charging per pup seems like pure greed to me and unnecessary as the bitch is in control of how many pups she has or will rear.

When I used an overseas dog I was charged €200 handling fee on the day of mating then € 200 per saleable puppy at 8 weeks old. The fee is = to the price of a pup in my breed and with pups selling for upwards of £1500 it's a very fair way of handling matters to my mind. I had a nice litter of 6 and kept one. Total cost of stud fee was €1400 so actually less than had I paid a straight stud fee of £1500  which it would have been in the UK and likely more. Personally I prefer this way and if a mating does not result in a litter the UK way of doing things is often a free return but it's not always the right thing to try again with the same stud so this way gives peace of mind that neither stud owner or bitch owner loses out and freedom of choice is maintained.

Looking back at my previous post, I suppose it's down to paying out the 'big' sum at the time of the mating, or the outstanding balance being delayed for 9 weeks +.     Swings and roundabouts EXCEPT my recollection of all this was at a time when the stud fee was the same as one puppy price = around £500 tops.   So anybody wanting to use my stud, would pay that fee FOR THE SERVICE, which sum included any of my out of pocket expenses, and go away in the hope the mating took.   Again I'd give a free repeat for any resulting litter being less than '2 live puppies' at birth.   I expected to do similar with any outside stud dog we used.   I know many breeders don't actually take money - they do a puppy(s) in lieu of the stud fee.

I suppose things move on - again.

Always been price of a puppy in my breed for at least the last half century.

A numerically small breed, so it is regardless of dogs experience or attainments, as we need to avoid using too few males, and even the best males get few siring opportunities in their lifetime.

thankyou for the reply first time i have posted a question and will consider all advice/ opinions provided x

I don't have a stud dog but I would pay a fair amount (cost of a pup) also would pay to travel, stay over night etc etc for the best (most compatible stud dog).

I noticed years ago that people who were into showing were often unfairly criticised for charging a bit more than pet owner's but in all fairness, its costs them a fortune paying to enter shows not to mention petrol costs, somewhere to stay over night etc etc, stud fee's wouldn't normally come anywhere near trying to cover their costs, and again there is Health Testing, its all expensive for them, but very worthwhile for us to use the very best stud dogs and get a chance to better the breed.

The handling fee + price per pup is very common overseas, but I would hate to see it becoming common here as I really don't like it at all. There are too many variables.

You have a large litter and don't find the right homes for all the pups, so you end up having to keep several. I know a top breeder who had to keep 5 from the same litter. You'd effectively be charged for keeping puppies that you had bred. Buying your own puppies. It could so easily lead to some breeders rather selling pups to less than ideal homes than losing even more money, making more of a loss than they normally do.

I for one pretty much always give one or two pups away to friends that are interested. I don't charge friends, as I don't think it's right.

Who decides what is a saleable puppy at 8 weeks? I had one puppy who was much smaller than her littermates, she was seen by the vet several times and nobody could find anything wrong with her whatsoever. But it didn't sit well with me that she was so small and had not a very experienced friend of mine offered to give the pup a home, I'd have kept her. This pup only lived 18 months. I didn't charge for her and her owner knew she was taking on a potential problem of totally unknown proportions, but at 8 weeks old it was a healthy pup who had it in writing from my vet that the only anormality they could find with her was her size.

I could go on but the point is, just because a puppy CAN be sold at 8 weeks doesn't mean that it will be. I will always stick to the stud fee being paid at time of mating and it being the price of a pup.

I apreciate everything you are saying. I think i just need to confirm when price per pup is paid.