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Registering a dog:

You may wonder why it’s necessary to register a dog with the American Kennel Club. However, if you’re being told from a breeder that your dog is purebred, well registering your dog is one of the best things you can do.

A purebred dog is eligible for registration with the American Kennel Club if the litter has already been registered.  If you’re purchasing a dog that is supposedly AKC-registrable, the seller should give you an individual dog registration application.  If not, you should definitely ask for it and if they do not give it to you or have problems giving it to you, that should raise a red flag. Assuming they’re legitimate of course you will get the application in hand or you can register online.  After three weeks of submitting the application with fee, you’ll receive your dog’s AKC Registration Certificate.  Once the puppy has been registered, owners have the ability to enroll in the AKC Pet Healthcare Plan which includes an introductory sixty days of pet health care insurance for free.

Some owners may feel it’s not worth the time to complete the dog registration application, however it’s time well spent.  The dog registration application must be completed by the litter owners and new owners of the dog. Actually the litter owners complete most of the application such as the sex of dog, color and markings of dog, registration type, transfer date, name and address of all of the new owners, and signatures of the litter owners. 

Next, the new owners must complete the following information: the name of the dog, signatures of the owners and co-owners, payment information and registration options. Signatures are required on the registration form for all litter owners and all new owners.  However, if the buyer did not acquire the dog from the litter owners themselves, a supplemental transfer statement must be completed for each intermediate transfer with the application.  

So why register your dog with the American Kennel Club? Aside from a plethora of advantages, the ultimate reason is to officially identify the dog as the offspring as a breed on a specific date.  While it doesn’t represent the health of the dog or show quality of the dog such as physical condition and ability to move, registering your dog will authenticate the dog.  If a breeder is legitimate, in addition to being able to provide owners with registration papers, it should be able to give potential owners information on the dog’s parents such as their titles, DNA, and pedigree information, the breeder’s breeding practices, the breed standard, and genetic tests recommended for the breed.

Plus, once the litter has been born the legitimate breeder will register the dogs with the American Kennel Club.  Actually the father and mother of the dogs must have already been individually registered with the AKC and the litter must be born in the US.  Interestingly enough, the litter must be completely registered before any of the puppies from the litter can be individually registered.  There’s a separate litter registration application form for this purpose.