Hi i had my bitch covered by a stud dog and he apparently only ever was used on a lurcher my bitch had 11 pups from another mating 3 year ago so know she is fertile.
But since she was mated ive not had a litter disappointed.
But the owner still wanted me to pay £750 up front for the stud and made me sign a contract to say if more than 2 pups were born alive I had to pay another £750 a tital of £1500
Well I've not had any pups from this mating and I know my bitch is fertile  but unsure if the stud dog was fertile.
I won't get my £750 back now will I?

It's usual to get a free mating on your bitch's next season if she misses. What was your agreement with the stud dog owner?

You signed the contract so agreed to the conditions -the stud fee seems a bit steep but then it varies a lot between breeds. You pay for a service, which can be very hard work as well, puppies are not guaranteed unfortunately. You can't know for sure what went wrong, it could have been that the bitch was mated on the wrong day. The fact that pups have been produced in the past doesn't really mean anything. That your bitch was fertile 3 years ago doesn't mean she is now. I had a litter of 13 from a particular mating a few years ago and this year I repeated that mating as the litter had been so successful. We had a long tie but there were no pups. The dog has sired pups to other bitches and the bitch had had a litter to another dog after her first one. It happens.

That sounds an expensive stud fee - but then perhaps she's raising her fees due to the current price of puppies!

I had a similar experience several years ago now, paid full stud fee up front and no puppies, she's previously had a litter and was ovulation tested so what went wrong?  I was offered a free return, but they had moved to the other end of the country and if it didn't work the first time, is it guaranteed to work on a repeat?

I decided to use another dog on her next season and had a litter - so I had to take the loss, I was very angry/upset at the time as it was a lot of money to lose, but that's life - will not go near his dogs again as I know someone else's dog also missed to him!

In our breed we often do a handling fee and price per live puppy which is more preferable to me

That's a high stud fee - I'd not seen them raised to the same extent puppy prices have but ......    For me, you pay for the service.   When I had dogs at public stud, my contract stated under 2 live puppies didn't constitute 'a litter' and I offered a free repeat (not asked for another £750!!).   I took my contract wording from the breeder of the first stud dog I used, out in America.

You've probably done your £750 I'm afraid (cost of the service only) but in my opinion, you should expect to be able to go for a repeat mating - at NO extra cost.

I had a miss with my foundation bitch but I paid the up front cost - and later discovered that the dog, bought by that breeder from another in America, had missed to every bitch he'd mated with once arriving in Canada.   Obviously I didn't bother going back.   But the cost of the stud fee wasn't anywhere near as much as you have paid, so I could walk away.   And did.

That is most certainly the fairest way to do it - a handling fee and a price per puppy. Any full payment upfront  arrangement is just plain greedy, in my opinion. And if the bitch does 'miss'  not every bitch owner would want to risk another try with that stud dog.

> I won't get my £750 back now will I?

No, I'm afraid not.

Every possible eventuality really needs to be agreed beforehand, usually with a stud contract. It's usually a lot of hassle having visiting bitches, and can involve days of mucking around getting a mating so a service or handling fee is perfectly fair. That seems high, but you agreed to it.