You have a puppy you plan to breed when older or an adult dog coming into heat soon that you wish to find the right stud dog for or maybe you have had multiple stud dogs that haven't worked out? What is it you should look for in a stud dog?
1) What are your breeding goals? Pedigree? Crossbreed?
If it is pedigree first ensure the dog is registered with the country's kennel club with no endorsements to register puppies produced by him.
2) What homes are the puppies for? show, agility or pet
Different homes require slightly different puppies. Agility homes want enthusiastic puppies with a drive. Show homes require a puppy that matches or close to the breed standards. The pet homes require a well-natured family pet.
3) Are you after a specific colour in your puppies?
You may require a stud with colour DNA testing to achieve this.
4) Has the stud dog had all relevant genetic health testing for his breed?
You don't want to pay for a stud who's puppies will inherit bad genetic diseases so make sure he is health tested for all relevant diseases and make sure you see a copy of the results.
5) Is he proven?
Has he sired a litter before? Was it natural or AI?
6) Was he recently Brucellosis tested if you are planning to mate naturally? And was your bitch?
Brucellosis is a dog STD that will most often abort pregnancies in the last trimester. Once a dog has got Brucellosis it is with them for life.
7) When was his last semen analysis?
Proven is good but more importantly, is a semen analysis as dogs can catch infections anytime that make them infertile. If doing an AI the stud owner should have a look of a drop under the microscope before inserting the semen.
8) If doing an AI is the stud dog trained?
For a stud dog to do a successful AI he should be pulled from consistently you can't expect him to perform first time successfully if he has never done it before.
9) Does the owner know what they are talking about?
A stud dog owner should be able to easily answer any questions you have about the mating process.
10) Are they with you for the whole process?
Not just the mating but whelping, raising and marketing of your puppies.