5— STUD DOCS CARE AND MANAGEMENT 



B— HOUSING, CARE AND 

 FEEDING OF STUD DOG 



When is a Stud Old? 



What is the proper age for the stud 

 dog? Rare instances are recorded in 

 which a male at the age of five 

 months produced a litter of puppies. 

 There also are rare instances of male 

 dogs thirteen to fourteen years old, 

 siring litters of puppies. These are 

 exceptions. 



World's Youngest Sire 



The world's youngest sire was 

 Pirate, a Scottish terrier born Apr. 

 8, 1935; by accident he mated a bitch 

 on Aug. 6 (his age, 120 days). A 

 litter of five normal puppies was 

 whelped without difficulty on Oct. 7. 



The American Kennel Club has a 

 registration rule that puppies whose 

 sire at the time of mating was less 

 than seven months old or more than 

 twelve years old, or whose dam was 

 under eight months of age or over 

 twelve years of age, are registered 

 in the usual routine but the AKC 

 may, if it wishes, ask for an affidavit 

 setting forth that the mating as rep- 

 resented actually took place. 



As a general rule it would be well 

 that a male should not be used as stud 

 until he is at least ten months old and 

 preferably twelve months, and not 

 used oftener than once every two 

 weeks if he is under fifteen months 

 of age. The larger breeds should 

 have the time extended for they do 

 not mature fully until about the age 

 of eighteen to twenty-two months. 



The age limit of a stud dog depends 

 greatly upon the stud. If the male 

 has been kept in good condition and 

 is virile, he can be siring litters read- 

 ily at the age of seven years. But 

 after the age of eight years, there is 

 a tendency of the sperm or generating 

 cells of the male to be infertile; this 

 results in an increasing number of 

 bitches that fail to become pregnant. 

 Consequently, the sales value of a 

 stud dog^ decreases progressively after 

 the age' of Jive years. 



How Often to Use Stud 



The next consideration is how often 



a stud dog should be used. A fa- 

 mous stud of the wire foxterrier 

 breed in England, it was learned after 

 his death, had been used on about 100 

 bitches a year for at least four years 

 and there were few misses. 



If a stud is in the best condition 

 and is not to be shown in the imme- 

 diate future, in our opinion he can 

 be used twice weekly thruout the year 

 without harm or strain. This is not 

 necessarily desirable 'but we can say 

 on the average the use of a stud once 

 a week is entirely safe without the 

 least tendency to harm the male. 



A stud loses some weight by a 

 mating and if on the show circuit, he 

 pays the penalty in the show ring. 



Proving Stud's Fertility 



Who is to be blamed for lack of 

 pregnancy? In our opinion it is due 

 to the bitches in four of five cases. 

 Virility in a male can readily be de- 

 termined by examining the male's 

 semen. Live cells are seen wriggling 

 in motion like tadpoles as they are 

 observed thru the microscope. 



Rumor against Stud 



The rumor that a stud is nonpro- 

 ductive is a fearful one. It works 

 havoc to the owner, a havoc that later 



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