Mating Agreements

  Verbal arrangements between the owner of the dog and the owner of the bitch are to be avoided. Pay the fee if you do not use your own stud. Frequently the dog owner who is indulging in a little "backyard breeding" agrees to accept a pup in lieu of a stud fee. The agreement may b e made in the best of faith by both parties, but it can easily create trouble. Suppose the bitch whelps only one puppy. The owner of the stud may claim the pup, and if the owner of the bitch gives it up, he will have had the expense of carrying the bitch through pregnancy for nothing. On the other hand, the owner of the bitch might claim that one pup did not constitute a litter. In any case, bad feeling is most likely to ensue. All agreements should be put in black and white, even those with your best friend.

  Other questions to be careful about are the definite date for the delivery of the pup, and also who is to choose the pup to be given up. It is inferred that the owner of the stud will pick his puppy, and that he will take it at the time of weaning, but unless these agreements are set down in writing they often cause trouble later on. It is better to pay a stud fee and be done with it than to keep a puppy until it is six months old or more, waiting for the owner of the stud to come and get it.

  And now let us suppose that the day you have chosen to breed your bitch has arrived. If you are sending her away for outside stud service, this will not concern you. You will have sent her so that she will arrive at the stud's kennel about the eighth or ninth day of her period, and your worries about the actual mating have been shifted to the shoulders of the owner of the dog. However, if you are carrying out your own mating, some advice may not go amiss. This operation is not so simple as it appears when watching a dog and bitch of the alley variety.

  It is important, though not absolutely necessary after the first service of a young dog, that the bitch should be friendly. In order that this may be the case, she must be bred at the correct time. A bitch that is friendly and cooperative when bred at the psychological moment, will be cross and will frequently try to bite the stud if the attempt is made either too early or too late in her period.

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