Hi Guys,

At present my fiance and I are considering whether to get our 6 month old Beagle, Basil neutered or not. We are not sure what to do as we have heard conflicting opinions about this and would like some advice.

If we choose not to get him neutered then we may in the future put him out to stud. We don't have any first hand experience in this so any advice would be appreciated!!

I am almost loathe to get him neutered as I like the idea of putting him out to stud but he is first and foremost a beloved family pet and so we want to do what is in his best interest.

BM x

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Personally if you don't work or show your beagle, I would neuter him, however I would wait until 12 months to make sure he is fully grown.

However, others may have other opinions.

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Ditto to this

From what I have heard recently, there seems to be an increasing number of beagles finding their way into rehoming centres and beagle welfare. There are some beagle people on here involved with rehoming and I think beagle breed welfare itself who might be able to verify if my suspicions are correct. So I would think before you considered studding him and maybe doing some research. Ive never have bread, but from people who have it seems that some dogs once used for studs, can turn into lathrios and can become a pain personality wise, so if first and foremost you want a loving pet, that might also be something to research.

Personally I have never gotten mine, spayed or neutered before at least minimum a year, giving them time to mature both mentally and physically, Dogs through a lot of physical and mental developments in their 1st year to 18mths, so I have always preferred to wait. Others may disagree, and it should be everyones invividual choice, but I have spoken to behaviourists and trainers too, who believe that neutering/spaying too young can lock them in puppy mentality for longer.

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Why do you like the idea of putting him out to stud? It's not something I have ever even considered with any of my male dogs

Personally I would have him neutered in couple of months if he were mine

A friend recently lost her dog to testicular, so pleased my boy is neutered.

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Fairy smiling, smokes cheroot ...
Simply doesn't give a hoot.

It's actually referred to as a stud service, not something I do, but I know a few people who do offer this with their dogs. BUT, as said above, unless your boy is proven in some way, you will not attract good quality bitches, only those who most likely have been turned away, or wouldn't even approach the owners of a proven and good example of the breed.

Bear in mind as well, that providing a stud service, isn't just about allowing your dog to mate with a bitch. As well as proving your dog in some way, you'll need to consider health tests, I haven't a clue which ones you'd need for a beagle, but I'm sure it's easy enough to find out. You will also have to research lines, and have some knowledge of the breed, to know if your dog is suitable to use with a bitch, if they will compliment each other, or if there could be a problem.

As well as all this, you will need to be prepared to get downright close and intimate with all the parts of your dog and visiting bitches. You have to be able to scrub up and perform an internal on a bitch, and help your dog to penetrate if they're having problems achieving a tie. This following long and graphic quote comes from a friend of mine who offers a stud dog service, and gives you an idea of some of the problems you may face if you decide to go down the same route.

I have been half meaning to write this for ages but only got round to it today after another memorable half hour occured to add to the list Wink

Many folks ponder and decide they might stand their male at stud. Now I am not going to go into the why's and wherefores of if dogs are good enough. Nor the health issues. Nor any ethical or moral side of this. I am just going to tell it like it is giving some absolutely 101% true experiences i have had, with only one of the dogs I handle at stud, in the last 18 months since he started his stud career at 14 months old. Every mating is heavily supervised and handled, even a good bitch is held tight and every bitch is physcially supported even if she would stand under a hippos weight, nothing is left to chance Wink

Nothing here is exaggerated, but its a side of it I bet most don't even slightly think of. i won't pretend no matings go well, easily, they do, but then by the number here you can tell it runs about 50/50. Could YOU handle this (as they say!)..................:

1) ***** very first bitch should have been an easy straightforward old maid willing to be mated. Infact it was a bitch who had also never been mated before handled by owners who had never had a bitch mated. Deeds approached her, she growled. ***** tried to mount her, she twisted out of their grasp and turned on him. ***** decided maybe 'sex wasn't for him' and walked away to study the scenery.
What do you do?
What *I* did was bring out my experienced but retired old stud who LOVED a fiesty bitch and put him with her. She growled... up went his ears and a slow smile spread over his face. She lunged, he ducked and dived then jumped her (with my hand over her vulva so he couldn't penetrate). She knew she was beat, and being absolutely ready really, just pretending, stood like a rock, So I grabbed the old dog, dragged him quickly off, had them hold her head so she couldn't see, substituted the tentative young dog and shoved him in quick and she happily let him score his first touchdown

What would you do if the dog said 'no thanks'? People rarely think of that.

2) We had a lady come, use him. Go home, her bitch missed and then in reading the breed record supplement, saw a litter born to Deeds on the same day her bitch should have whelped. She automatically assumed they had been mated the same day and THAT was why her bitch had missed. She threatened me with solicitors letters until I got a letter from the bitch owners with the litter to show she had whelped 4 days early AND from my vet to say that a healthy dog can EASILY ejaculate effectively twice in a day even if they HAD been mated on the same day. She still spread some very bad vibes amongst some people and demanded her stud fee back rather than use her free return, which I gave as I never wanted to see her again!

3) Then we had a seemingly nice lady with everything in order come, and then use the dodgiest most horrible email sites to advertise her puppies. I nearly bought the whole litter off her and sold them myself if only I had the money at the time. I KNOW some of those pups are in rubbish homes and it haunts me.

4) On a lighter note we have had one bitch, a tiny, tiny girl come. They came a LONG way. The dynamics of the mating was quite dramatic, there was a good four inches between his bits and hers. How do you overcome that. there are ways but if you left them to it, in a very short space of time both dog and bitch would just be exhausted and walk away from each other OR the bitches back would ache and she would start snapping. You need to know how to overcome this and manually handle the bitches vulva to the dog whilst shoving him down a hole in the garden to lower him - Is this how *you* imagined stud work?....

5) A bitch came, un 'Premate' bloodtested, on day 12. She stood but every time he penetrated her she screamed. I sent her away. She came back on day 14. same thing. Owner just said 'get her mated' I know she is ready. She did seem ready. So I washed up and gave her an internal and she had a small stricture across her vulva. Upon this being broken at the vets she returned and was mated, twice. Three weeks later she had a brown discharge and a massive infection. The owner rang screaming and screaming at me saying it was all my fault for giving her the internal and I gave her an infection and she would be suing me. I put the phone down. I let it calm down and nothing came of it but its not pleasant.

6) Had a litter born to a bitch who lived on a farm. She whelped three days early and was showing no sign of labour. She went into labour whilst he was out riding a horse and when he came back the farm terriers had killed and mutilated several of the newborns. He saved 4 but two were injured and did not grow properly and had to be destroyed. Its not all fluffy happy endings I promise you. laying in bed thinking of your dogs pups dying horribly is not pleasant.

7) A bitch was wonderful to mate, was owned by a lovely lady who had had all sorts of sadness in her life in the last couple of years and deserved a beautiful litter from her beautiful bitch. She rang me in terrible distress with her bitch whelping NINE days early. As each, hairless, puppy of nine was born, it fought to breathe and slowly died as its lungs were not developed. The sorrow and grief that lovely lady felt was excruiating to experience. I do not count that she had a litter, she will be coming back to use a free return if the vet and specialists she is consulting can find an answer.

Cool Then there is the constant pleasure of hearing time and time again of the PROBLEM puppies your dog has sired. Be that non genetic health problems, behaviour problems, size problems (too big, too small, not quite handsome enough) and of course its ALL the sire, never the Dam!

9) The lovely lady who had a litter of 4, watched them constantly, gave up her whole life to bring this litter up wonderfully, singled out a boy to keep, the best of the bunch, then the bitch laid on him whilst she was in the shower for five minutes at over two weeks of age. Tragically normal, but its dealing with the grief and the dispair of people that is so hard.

10) Lastly - aggressive bitches. Fiesty bitches. Bitches who are saying 'yes' with the back end and 'no' with the front end. I have been seriously bitten twice in the last 18 months and bitch owners themselves a couple times more than that trying to hold their girls. Anyone who thinks mating all labrador bitches is a many splendored thing would watch in horror as the sweetest girl, even bloodtested ready to mate snarls and slings herself about like a crocodile, snapping and MEANING IT foaming at the mouth even. A dog would be SERIOUSLY damaged if left to it ESPECIALLY if the bitches stand for mating, THEN as their muscles kick in and they tie the dog, they turn on him when locked together. That is seriously dangerous.

Just today, lovely friendly waggy socialised bitch comes for mating. day 14, bloodtested ready as come a fair distance, big strong male handler. Trots happily round the garden, has a wee. Goes in the garage with her owner. out comes the dog, ***** his leg over her pee, dives in the garage. I shut the door and step in, and she stands and flips her tail as he licks her. He dances a few seconds then jumps on her and Mrs HYDE kicks in. She snarls, spins and closes teeth on *****, her collar flying over her head in the process. She chases him from one side of the garage to the other spitting fire and all out to close her teeth properly on him. I throw him out the door, and she calms and wags and relaxes.
Now, what do you do? Brand her unmateable? Brand her aggressive? She had never so much as stopped wagging her tail on the two occasions I had previously met her around many other dogs. She just did NOT want to be mated.
So, and this is what i mean by 'are you READY for this' she was muzzled, He armlocked her head, I with all my might held up her twisting, fighting back end and the dog - good dog that he is - ignored it all, climbed on quietly ignoring the snarls and screams of rage and mated her and turned himself. We would have ALL got badly bitten without a muzzle and I would NOT have done that had the blood test not been done NOR she flicked her tail over happily before he mounted her. It was rape pure and simple. BUT IT UNFORTUNATELY CAN SOMETIMES BE PART OF IT.

So i hope some of the above might set a bit more thinking in motion about how people think its all natural and taking candy from a baby handling a dog at stud.

....Cos it isn't


Back to the neutering question, the answer isn't all that easy, I personally wouldn't choose to neuter unless there was a need to, there are less associated health benefits, and more health risks with neutering a dog, than having a bitch spayed. This article makes for good reading:

http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/longt...uterindogs.pdf

Many do choose to have their dogs neutered, either to prevent, or stop any humping/sexual behaviour issues, or because they believe it will solve dominance issues. Much of this is actually down to training, and although it may ease some issues, it may also exacerbate some, depending on the individual dog.

If you do decide to neuter, I would say to wait until your dog is mature, as neutering too early can cause problems with the developing skeletal structure and encourage a dog to grow too much.

Hope that helps

That's really sad about the abandoned Beagles, it has definitely made me think twice about putting Basil out to stud. I will definitely look into it more before I make any deicisions anyway. Either way it seems that most people agree that it is best to wait before I get him neutered so I won't do anything yet.
Thanks for all the advice guys, I had no idea about any of this. I think i just wanted to consider all options before getting him neutered.

Perhaps if we decide to get Basil a play mate in the future then we will look into getting a rescue Beagle. I've heard that sometimes having 2 is easier?

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Just curious...

Why do you "like the idea of putting him out to stud"?

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Not sure really - ignore that comment. I didn't know too much about it, I thought maybe it was good for him. I was obviously naive. I just want the best for him really. I also read somewhere about stud dogs being given the pick of the litter and I liked the idea of getting Basil a playmate in the future. Having read everyones comments, i think i'll look for a rescue Beagle at some point in the future to keep Basil company.

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At least you've bothered to ask, to try and find out if it's a good idea, and you appear to be taking the advice on board. Many who ask, aren't happy with the response, and just choose to ignore it, because it doesn't fit with their ideal.

Breeding dogs isn't all Barry White, scatter cushions and candlelight, with the hope of a mini *me*, much of it is hard graft and research, coupled with cash spent health testing, only to find out what you wanted can't happen. There is no romance, or guarantees, but it is good you've asked, and learnt from your questions