Top Ten Reasons for Choosing a Stud Dog
By Ralph Gillum, BraceBeagling Columnist
April 25, 2010




1. He and/or many of his pups are strong in the traits that you need to cover in your bitch.

2. He has already has produced a number of excellent pups with the running style and
appearance that you prefer.

3. He has no negative physical defects (crooked legs, bad bite, etc.) or poor behavior
traits (shyness, fighting, etc.) and is producing few, if any, in his pups.

4. He is from your family or strain of dogs.

5. He has crossed well with your family or strain of dogs.

6. He is from a producing family or line of dogs.

7. He is an excellent individual and has a running style basically similar to several of his
littermates and one of his parents.

8. He is line bred or inbred.

9. He is a half brother to your bitch.

10. He is producing a majority of pups with the looks and size you prefer.







EXPLAINATIONS FOR TOP TEN REASONS



1. One of the primary things you need to do in any mating is to compensate for or cover your bitch’s weaknesses. If the stud either possesses these traits, or better yet, already has produced these traits in his pups, he has a much better chance of covering the weaknesses your bitch possesses.

2. The majority of good running dogs never produce. If a stud has already produced good pups, percentage wise, he has a much greater chance of producing good pups for you than the stud that hasn’t. Also, if he has produced pups with the style and looks you prefer, he has a greater chance of producing these qualities in your pups.

3. Breeders need to be especially careful of introducing bad traits into the breeding program. Any such trait, especially recessive traits, will take generations to eradicate from the line.

4. Family breeding is the best way for most breeders to accumulate the good traits they want in their dogs and be able to have them reproduced from generation to generation. Family breeding also minimizes the introduction of negative traits from outcrosses. Many times a decent stud from your family will serve you better in the long run than an outstanding individual from outside your family.

5. There is nothing sure in the uncertain art of breeding dogs. However, many breeders are sold on the proven cross. Some bloodlines just seem to “click” with certain lines and not with others. If the cross has already worked, that variable has already been removed.

6. A good to excellent individual from a producing family or line has a good chance of possessing the positive qualities of the family in his germ plasm and thus be able to pass them onto his pups.

7. Upon occasion, an outstanding individual will appear from a mediocre line of dogs. This individual is not nearly as likely to reproduce himself as is the dog that has good quality ancestors and littermates. This is especially so if the majority of them share similar running styles. An excellent individual from a quality family has the best chance to reproduce these same qualities in his pups.

8. Line breeding and inbreeding is the only way a breeder can increase the reproducibility of his stock. The more crosses, especially close up, you have in a stud’s pedigree from your line, the greater the chance that the shared traits will be reproduced in the pups. This is even more pronounced when these individuals share the primary traits of your line.

9. A look at the pedigrees of the advertised studs and producing females over the past will show that the one most successful mating in brace beagling has been the half brother/ half sister combination. This is true for both running and reproducing ability.

10. For some breeders, the physical appearance and /or the size of the pups is important. Some beaglers only run either thirteen or fifteen inch hounds and to some breeders, color and type are important. Of course, to get the desired results, these qualities must be carried by the stud.