AKC VS. OTHER REGISTRIES (APRI, CKC, ACA etc.)
The American Kennel Club (AKC) is the only registry that M’s Cockers uses. Absolutely all of our dogs are AKC registered; therefore, all of our puppies are AKC registered. AKC doesn’t allow for puppies registered anywhere else to also be registered with them unless the parents of the puppy are AKC dogs, so if you buy a dog advertised as an APR or ACA dog, chances are very likely that its parents are not AKC dogs. What does all of this mean? Well, bluntly, in a nut shell, if a pup isn’t an AKC pup, there is really no way of ever even knowing if it is really the breed they claim it is.
AKC keeps records of pedigrees, so it is entirely possible to trace AKC dogs back generations and generations. AKC has a code of ethics. They demand that all stud dogs who have sired a certain number of litters get DNA tested. This helps prevent the parentage of all future puppies from getting confused or mixed up or misrepresented. They will also inspect the breeding records and the cleanliness etc. of any kennel that is using their registries. This helps them maintain standards. Do their methods always work? No. They don’t always work. There will always be some unethical breeders out there slipping through the cracks. BUT at least AKC has these requirements!!! It may not be fool proof, but it is certainly the best registry out there.
When you purchase a puppy registered with CKC (Continental Kennel Club), for example, you really have no idea what you are getting at all. This registry is a “breeder friendly” registry. This means they are not going to ask breeders to prove anything. They aren’t going to inspect breeders' kennels. And they DON’T keep track of heritage. Type their name into your browser bar and go to their site to see just how easy it is to registrer a dog with them. You don’t even need other papers! You can literally take a picture of the dog, and send it in with two signatures (your's and your son’s, lets say) beneath a statement saying that the dog is the breed that you claim it is.
Imagine, you can actually find a dog running in the streets, rescue it, take it home, decide it’s a Cocker, and then breed it, with CKC having no prior knowledge of its heritage whatsoever.
What if a breeder didn’t want you to know that he has been breeding a daughter back to her sire? All that breeder would have to do to hide that fact that he is inbreeding (or line breeding) is to use CKC.
What if an AKC breeder didn’t want a certain puppy from his litters to be able to breed? Perhaps the puppy was less healthy, or was born with some minor health problem. Well, with AKC that puppy can be “limited.” This means that the pup can be registered with AKC, but that they will not recognize its breeding potential. HOWEVER, with CKC, one can actually take an AKC puppy, whose breeder has deemed unworthy of breeding, switch to CKC and breed the puppy anyway. And there are plenty of unethical people out there who do just that. The possible case scenarios are endless, but all of them are deeply troubling.
We personally don’t trust puppies that are not AKC registered. AKC costs a whole lot more than the other registries, BUT again, they offer more services and better protection for all dog breeds, so we are happy to pay that cost. We do not consider any of the other registries remotely reliable.
Copyright 2005 M's Cockers