I have been waiting for years for that perfect stud sired by one of my all time favorite studs. I finally get him and he turns out super. He received his JH title before the age of one. He now has 5 points toward his championship. He is ofa excellent and normal hips. He is EIC,CNM and PRA clear. Passed his yearly cerf, sounds like the perfect dog right? Well I find out today that he is cryptorchid. My vet advised me that it could be passed on to his offspring. That more than likely both his sire and dam must carry the gene. She said he could bred and have healthy pups. My question to you is would you continue to use him? Maybe only sale his pups to pet homes no harm there right? Our vet also said that he has a great chance of getting cancer since the one testicle is still inside. Please give me you thoughts I would appreciate no one attacking me. Thats why I am here asking what I should do. I could say oh well I am breeding him anyway but I am here searching for wisdom and experience.

If he has 5 points towards his championship, didn't any of the judges ever check his testicles? If he's cryptorchid that means neither testicle is descended. How is this possible that none of the judges never checked? This is one of the few things that is an instant disqualification under AKC rules.

I'm assuming that he is missing only one testicle, since he has been shown and you are talking about breeding him. That would make him a monorchid, not a Criptorchid.
He can definitely pass it and his puppies can come up with missing one or both testicles.
I don't think you can tell how it is inherited yet. There is no DNA test for it. Until then, we must think that both the father and the mother are involved in the passing of the faulty gene(s).
If he is the super thing you really want puppies from to keep, go ahead and breed him. Any male puppies that do not have both testicles descended by 8 weeks, should be placed in a pet home and advise the new owners to neuter him while he is young.
The surgery is more like a spay, so you should warn the new owners of the greater risk and higher cost of the surgery. I have offered to pay the difference on a couple of monorchid puppies I've got through the years.
I personally don't think it is the end of the world for your dog, but he shouldn't be offered as a stud to other people or at least warn any bitch owner that shows interest. I'm sure no one will use him if they know.
I don't know about the shows. You are risking a DQ if a judge actually does it job.
He should be neutered before he is 4-5 years old. That's when the risk of cancer increases dramatically.
I'm sorry you are having this bitter moment. It sucks.

My question beside the judges not catching it, is did you not have an idea ? Am surprised you did not check him right away. Very sorry, we all have hopes for these nice boys.

Something just doesn't add up here. How do you just now find out the dog is missing a testicle?

When you had him in for his OFAs, it should have been quite apparent then-aside from the judges not catching it.

He's also not OFA Excellent and normal "hips". Do you mean normal "elbows"?

I smell a troll.

This thread does "smell bad" - I can't believe you'd have a dog, put hunt training into him, show him to points, x-ray him, and THEN find out he's missing a testicle?

And to the second poster, it is the correct term:

"Cryptorchidism is the absence of one or both testes from the scrotum...Cryptorchidism is distinct from monorchism the condition of having only one testicle."

If he ever went to the vet, the vet would have checked for that, and I find it hard to believe that any judge would put him up missing a testicle, and I also do not believe that is something that many judges would miss. And I also cannot believe you as his breeder did not check for that, that is one of the first things I check for in my male puppies as soon as they are old enough to tell.

I am not his breeder. I have never felt the need to own a boy. There are to many fish in the sea to own boys. So maybe I should have checked him sooner. I have heard of boys waiting until the age of 1 to drop. Anyway I bought this boy from a well known kennel. I didn't even pick him up from them until he was almost 11 weeks old. Let me rephrase something He is prelim OFA excellent and elbows are normal. I start hunt test training with my dogs at a very young age so to be honest he hasn't been home much. I will more than likely neuter him and move on from this but was hoping someone could shed some more light on this. Thanks for the replies. Would this be something that his breeder should replace him?

I rather thought this is where you were going with this. The preverbial replacement puppy.
These are living breathing creatures,Breeders are NOT obligated to replace dogs for everything ! Show dogs are always a gamble, if you do not have the stomach for this game,the you should collect china dolls. There are no guarantees on every body part in a potential show animal.
Obviously you would have a contract with this Breeder, if it is NOT mentioned in the contract , then wasting space on this forum , is nothing more than sour grapes. You should have contacted your Breeder first and foremost, and discussed it there , not here.
You said this dog "had not been home much" does he even know you are his owner? Anybody purchasing a male puppy would have gone to the jewels first, and any handler would have done same, as would ANY judge going over the dog.

So when you picked him up at 11 weeks old you never took him to the vet for a physical? And if you did and your vet did not check them then I would find a new vet! I would say you are SOL since you did not check for this as soon as you got the puppy, well known kennel or not. And if you did know and thought maybe they would drop then that was a gamble you took and lost. But like others say, this should be something between you and the breeder. And IMO I would not breed him.

What would I do? I think I'd just skip this thread. It is obviously a lot of baloney.

Seriously????? How could you live even one day with a male dog and not know he's missing a testicle. You don't deserve a replacement. I don't believe that a vet or a judge would have missed this. I think you are lying.

I am sort of getting tired of the phrase "well known breeder" Like they should be more responsible than the rest of us who breed. If you acquired this dog just for show and paid $5,000 for him. Yes, he should have been check beforehand. But for a pup to train and have fun with he will be fine. He can keep doing all the field work and obedience. Can not believe it was not caught early.

In the imaginary book Rules of Dog Breeding it clearly states that *if* you should choose to breed a dog missing one or more testicles, then for every generation forward every pick puppy you produce will also be missing a testicle. AND by the time you produce your first or second pick puppy without a full set you will for SURE know where and when to look (and the answer to if you should breed a monorchid). In the meantime I would say that your breeder should be told just in the off chance they don't know their dog is producing this(my guess is they do), but I wouldn't hold my breath on a replacement.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I was hoping to get some feed back. I never said I was going to breed him. I wanted to know everything there is to know about it from others that has experience with this. I plan to have him neutered and then place him in a loving pet/hunting home. From now on I plan to check for this more closely. What is the earliest you can notice this? As far as getting a replacement puppy I wasn't planning on getting one anyway. I just wanted to know if any of you would replace a boy if he was placed in a show/breeding home.

agree 100%.
I would not have sold him to you in the first place without both nuts down at 8 weeks.
Perhaps you should rethink what you call a "top breeder".
ethical breeders don't do things like that.

My vet noticed 1 of our pups at at 8 wks and again at 12 wks before he went to a home. Somehow it was pretty noticeable to the vet. This was my first litter so I did take precaution with getting my pups to the vet when I was supposed to. Not sure how the vet could have missed it

I guess those 5 Championship points just disappeared??????

ethical and well known breeders are not mutually exclusive.
move on.

I had an experience a couple of years ago where one of my dogs got away from my husband and chased a car on a snowy dirt road down a hill. We could not see what happened exactly but the dog did make contact with the car and when we found him he was limping pretty bad. One night a couple of days later he was laying on his back in the living room and I noticed that there was only 1 testicle. This dog had been shown and even had a 4 point major and I KNOW for sure both testicles were down before this accident. Well the missing testicle never dropped down again and when he was neutered the vet did not have to go into the abdomen but found the testicle in the inguinal canal. So it is possible for testicles to disappear because of an accident.