Help Choosing a Stud Dog.. FC or non FC littermate brother

[Big River Beagles S]

breed to the FC. you said hes a proven producer. Even though you like the other dog better, he may not be a producer. Id go with a known producer any day, especially if he has the title.

From experience we bred 2 brothers to females the better producing male was the weaker of the 2 in the performance area but he produced well, It goes both ways. In my opinion you won't know till you breed to both males and find out I would try the non FC dog if you like him better he may produce he may not you just don't know......

[Casey Harner]

Now when you say proven producer on the FC, is he and the bitches he bred producing better dogs than him. Have you seen any of the dogs out of him Ken??? You say it's noticeable that he is getting beat, if he is producing a dog that isn't to the sire's equal or better then you might get some pups with the same qualities as the male. I would take the chance on the non titled dog and see what happens. As always take a good honest bitch to the sire.

[Robbie F.]

As always take a good honest bitch to the sire.

Yes. Because nobody likes a lyin bitch!

[Air Force Ken]

@ Casey... I am going to reach out to some folks that have his pups and see what they look like in the field. I may have to drive a little bit but my female wont come into heat until this summer so I have some time. Thanks for all of the comments..

[smokedawg]

A couple years ago I was gonna breed my best bitch and went hunting with a man who had a field champion and a littermate brother both in the pack running with a couple of my dogs that day. Both dogs were really nice dogs but the littermate brother was a little bit stronger and had a little more hunt than the field champion but both dogs were really good rabbit dogs. I personally liked the littermate brother better as a pure rabbit dog, but he hadnt been bred much. Most folks had been breeding to the field champion male and he had many proven litters on the ground and most all were as good or better than himself as gun dogs so the owner recommended I breed to the field champion. Anyway, I bred to the one that I considered to be a better gundog, though only slightly better. I kept the pups and started them and all were pretty solid hounds. The next year I bred the same bitch to the FC brother and the whole litter was jam up rabbit dogs and ran a lot like the litter mate brother who I preferred. The man tried to tell me that the FC was a proven reproducer and to trust him on it but I had to do it my way and I learned to now look at what a dog has been producing and not so much just what he can do head to head running against another possible stud dog. I do still have dogs off both litters but the second litter was the better litter. If I was interested in purchasing a dog though, I would have tried to buy the littermate brother as a gundog.