Some people instinctively know they’d look better with an Afghan.
But how do they find a good one? Shoppers are quick to respond to a seller with “papers” or “registered papers.” That’s a generic term meant to fool you into believing the pup’s parentage is practically regal, registered with the American Kennel Club or the United Kennel Club.
The missing link is the name of the registry.
Breeders selling pups that are AKC or UKC registered usually have better puppies. They have been bred over many generations to stringent standards for predictable conformation, good temperament and superb health, but there are no guarantees.
The AKC is the historic, 120-year-old registry representing 153 breeds. The club maintains this country’s oldest database of canine DNA profiles for the purposes of parentage verification and genetic identity. It maintains a comprehensive set of voluntary and mandatory programs and cracks the whip to ensure the integrity of its registry.
“AKC papers are documentation of a breed’s pedigree and parentage,” said AKC spokeswoman Daisy Okas. “The AKC registration identifies the dog as the offspring of a known sire and dam of a recognized breed. These breeders open their kennels to AKC inspectors, who determine that the level of care meets a certain standard.
“That means there’s a level of trust that you’re putting into these people, which makes it even more important that you know who you are getting your dogs from,” she said.
Don’t let the smooth operators slip one by you. Lots of breeders hawk dogs with “papers,” said Okas. “It’s a generic term. Check to make sure it is AKC papers. You want to see them when you pick up the dog. When they say you’ll get them in the mail, or the AKC is processing them, they’re saying you aren’t going to get them.”
Some buyers do not examine their papers until they get home, when they discover they are not from an established registry. “The seller is counting on the buyer to fall in love with the puppy and not return it,” said Okas. “There’s nothing we can do if the dog is not in our registry.”
The AKC operates a breeder inspection and quality-control program and is empowered to suspend a breeder’s privileges, said Okas. It monitors and enforces accurate record keeping and the humane care of dogs.
The United Kennel Club is the second-oldest and second-largest all-breed dog registry in the United States, founded in 1893. There are also registries of other countries, the Canadian Kennel Club, for example, and the registries of individual breeders and breed clubs, created on less stringent standards than the AKC or UKC.
“We don’t feel a registry that’s been around for a year can compete with our 120-year legacy and the standards we uphold,” said Okas of the AKC.
“We’re just a little bit different,” said Mark Threlfall, vice president of dog events for UKC. “We perform a lot of the same functions (as the AKC), but ours is a performance-based registry. …
The majority of our dogs are constantly competing in performance events. We think that helps keep the registry healthy.” UKC pedigrees give up-to-date counts of the number of puppies produced by each dog and championships earned by those puppies. The organization also polices its registry, using DNA profiling as identification and proof of parentage.
The advantage of purebreds over mixed breeds is that you know what you’re getting, said Threlfall. You know what type of temperament a Labrador retriever has, how it behaves and what it will look like when it grows up.
When shopping for a dog, make sure you know where its papers originated.
