by Karon Brandt

Created on: September 09, 2008

The American Kennel Club was started in 1884 by dog lovers and breeders who wished to maintain the purity of a blood line of dogs. Thus, the traits and specific characteristics expected of a recognized breed would be passed on through generations. The AKC expects a dog to have at least three known, verified generations of parentage before it allows a dog to be registered as purebred.

Registration raises the value of the dogs and encourages owners to keep the bloodlines pure.

The AKC invites 4000 dogs to compete in its annual Eukanuba National Championships where it showcases 157 National Breed Clubs and offers a total of $225,000 in prize money. The AKC is the only not-for-profit, purebred dog registry. It recognizes seven group classifications: Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non sporting, and Herding.

To Register a Dog with the AKC

Since the AKC should already recognize the line, a dog is expected to come from a litter already registered. Thus, when you purchase a dog with AKC papers, the seller should give you a "Dog Registration Application," which you should complete and return to the AKC with a fee. It takes about three weeks to receive your AKC certificate, which entitles you to a free AKC Pet Healthcare Plan for an introductory 60 days.

Filling out the Application

The buyer and seller jointly complete the "Dog Registration Application." It is color coded for convenience.

The owner of the litter must complete most of the information, which includes the sex of the dog, color and markings of the dog, registration type (full or limited), transfer date, name and address of all new owners and co-owners, and signatures of all litter owners.

The new owner(s) of the dog must fill out the following: The name of the dog, signatures of all owners and co-owners, payment information and registration options "(for purchasing pedigrees and DVDs)." [site quote]

Processing fees are nonrefundable, and all fees are subject to change without notice.

The rules state that each litter owner and each new owner must sign the application individually. All sections must be completed correctly; incomplete or improperly completed forms will cause processing delays or rejection.

If you acquired a dog from someone other than the owner, you must include an AKC "supplemental transfer statement" along with each intermediate transfer for the application.

Once the application is received and processed, an AKC Registration Certificate will be mailed to the owner. Carefully examine the certificate for errors and report any found to the AKC.

You can also register a dog online.

Conditional Registration

Sometimes the three-generation parentage is questioned. The AKC used to cancel the registration of such dogs, their littermates and their progeny. But the AKC started a database of DNA samples and had 425,000 on file by 2006. Thus, the board decided that a dog believed to be purebred, but whose record was incomplete, could have a "conditional registration" for three generations. Buyer and seller thus know that the bloodline might be questionable, but it becomes a "buyer be aware" type of situation.

"Unknown" will be listed for the questionable parent, if the dog is believed to be purebred. The coding will be different so buyers and breeders can immediately recognize a questionable bloodline.

[Information gathered from the www.akc.org website]

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