I have a very handsome golden labrador. He is 18 months old and I am considering offering him at stud. He is KC registered. How do I go about this? What will I be expected to do?

Your advice would be most appreciated

Thanks in anticipation

Fist things first. There is no such thing as a golden labrador it is yellow. There are tens of thousands of labradors out there and it is highly unlikely that any reputable breeder would use an unknown dog. They would trace pedigrees and show history before using an animal. Using a dog at stud is not a simple way of making money. Whilst it does not happen to all dogs they can get more dominant, scent mark the house (urinate indoors), and may be more willing to 'follow their nose' when out for a walk and one whiff of a girl in season and your boy will be gone. You would need to keep up a steady supply of girls to keep him satisfied.
How ever in order to be considered reputable you will need to get your dog eye tested and hip scored, I believe in labs it is also elbow scoring as well and I have been advised that heart testing may also be required. Eye testing needs to be carried out annually. It is also your responsibility to ensure that your dog is not responsible for churning out the hundreds of unwanted lab pups that occur each year. It is also your responsiblity to ensure that any bitches your dog serves are fully tested like your boy and are of sound body and mind. You will get no thnaks from breed rescues if you are responsible for unwanted pups.
I shall assume that when your purchased your dog you did not buy him with the view of putting him out to stud otherwise you would have made far more effort to a) get the breed name right and b) have discussed this with your puppy's breeder at the time of purchase.
I recommend just enjoying your dog as a loving companion and remove all thoughts of him being a father from your head.

Bec missed out a couple of things which may also make your boy more desireable to responsible owners.

Is he either working or being shown and doing well at either/both?

Did you realise that around 20,000 labrador pups are bred annually, and because they are a commercially exploited breed, and are often purchased on a whim by the andrex asvert viewing public, the breed has a huge rescue problem.

If you do not even know the correct name for the breed, I doubt if you know whether or not your boy is a superior specimen of his breed with somethi9ng to offer other than more problems for rescue. would you be willing to take in to your home any of his puppies who came unstuck in their homes, that is what responsible breeders do, and sometimes stud dog owners also!

Leave breeding to the experts, there are enough poorly bred ones with bad hips and eyes being churned out already.

If you are truly interested in working and showing your dog, learn all you can and then you will probably find you do not want to breed with your pet, but that you may get hooked on other aspects of owning the breed.

Brainless said: "..Leave breeding to the experts, there are enough poorly bred ones with bad hips and eye's churned out already"

Having been heavily involved with breed rescue for well over 15 years, I can assure you Brainless, that the so called Experts can be pretty good at churning out the type of dogs you refer to AND they leave Rescue to pick up the pieces !

Leigh

well said