Registration papers, health certificates -- what do they look like?

[BostonRott]

This is thread is put together for informational purposes, for those researching breeders and considering litters.

An ethical breeder should have all of this paperwork on hand for her bitch, and copies of it from the stud owner (unless she also owns the stud, and then she should have the originals). As a puppy buyer, you should get copies of ALL of this stuff in your puppy packet.

(Note: I have Photo-shopped out my address and breeder's name where applicable, but that information would be filled out on a valid certificate.)

AKC registration
NOTE: This is an imported bitch. Note that next to her name it says Netherlands in parenthesis. If someone is telling you their dog is "German," it had best say (GERMANY) next to the dog's name.....or you're being told a lie.


AKC pedigree
These can change from time to time, but the general format is the same. It will say Certified Pedigree, the upper left corner will contain the dog's name, registration number, DOB, color and breeder name. It will also have the AKC seal emblazened on it in shiny gold. Under each dog's name will be titles and any OFA numbers. You can see the OFA number under Froli (the dam), but you won't find any others because Froli was an import, bred to a Dutch dog. This is why the pedigree looks so blank, the AKC does not accept or record foreign titles.


AKC DNA certificate
This certificate is issued after a mouth-swab of the dog is turned in. The markers used are randomly chosen, they do not represent anything health-wise. DNA is the ONLY TRUE way to prove that your dog is your dog, and is also used to prove parentage, should it ever be questioned.

[BostonRott]

This is an AKC title certificate. If the breeder tells you their dogs are titled, other than SchH titles, they should have some of these.


CHIC certificate
The CHIC certificate is issued by the Canine Health Foundation, in conjunction with the OFA, when a dog has met all the criteria as defined by the parent club (in our case, ARC). This does NOT mean the parent club requires all of these clearances in order to meet the code of ethics. The ARC only requires passing hips. However, they acknowledge that there are hip, elbow, heart and eye problems in the breed and so in order to receive a CHIC certificate, all 4 tests must be done. They do NOT have to all be passing. The idea is "test and tell."


CERF clearance (eyes)
The "permanent ID" number is her micro-chip number.


OFA Hips
An OFA hip certificate is blue.

[BostonRott]

OFA Elbows
An OFA elbow certificate is green.


OFA Cardiac
This certificate is pink/red. You SHOULD see the word CARDIOLOGIST on one, if you want the most reliable clearance. Practioner and Specialist are not the top tier.


OFA Thyroid
This is a grey certificate

[Cherry Heart]

Thank you so much for posting this! I was told alot of "Look at this, this is what your looking for" when in fact it was Prelim x-rays. "Had I known then what I know now" should be made into t-shirts for every first time puppy buyer.

[spidey]

Thank you SO much Gretchen! What a public service, this should be a sticky!

[slinger]

Thank you Gretchen! This will help me so much, when I begin my search.

[Cherry Heart]

I know that OFA posts their results also online and how to look up the registration on a dog on AKC, but can you aslo look up titles? Or when looking up a titled dog will it show the titles next to the name on AKC?

Is it easy to forge these kinda of documents in other words?

[JemarsSerena]

What I did to research Serena's sire and dam's titles was to look up the shows or organizations themselves and search their results. I have copies of the title certificates but wanted to be sure.

[BostonRott]

If you go to the AKC website (http://www.akc.org) and sign up for an account (which is free to do), you can then go to the Store and click on Points and Awards. Then, either search for the dog by name or AKC number and it will pull up the dog's info. This will ONLY show AKC titles, and not SchH titles or other venue's titles. You can see Vik's AKC number above, try it with her.

There are stories of forged documents, and that is why I've put this stuff up. So that you know what it is SUPPOSED to look like, INCLUDING the colors. I've never seen a set of forged OFA doc's, but I'd guess they're not the appropriate color.

[SonnyRott]

I will speak for my situation with regards to the fraudulent OFA I was given by my breeder.

And please note, OFA's and pedigrees will not necessarily be "colored" as they are photocopied many times to be put into puppy packets.

So the OFA on my puppy's sire reads:

RO-61818G28F-NOPI

So what is wrong with this number? Well let's break it down and understand what it means:

RO - stands for breed, in this case, Rottweiler
61818 - stands for the number of Rottweilers issued a number
G - stands for the hip rating of the dog, in this case "Good"
28 - stands for the age of the dog in months
F - stands for the sex of the dog, in this case FEMALE!!!
NOPI - stands for "not permanently identified" (no tattoos or micro chips)

Here is the lesson to be learned...KNOW WHAT YOU ARE READING!!!! This is where I made my mistake. This OFA belongs to one of her bitches who had a "good" rating. The stud (my puppy's sire) did not have a passing OFA so she just whited out the female's name and typed in the stud dog's name and made copies.

The paperwork means nothing if you don't know how to read it.

[BostonRott]

Thank you for sharing!!!

This example is EXACTLY why I always encourage people to ask to see the originals, and why I've listed their colors. I've made LOTS of copies of OFA certificates (for puppy packets several times, and then again when I mis-placed my stack of stuff ) ..... the originals have not faded nor lost color.

The copies in a puppy packet may be simple black/white, but the breeder SHOULD have the originals to show you on at least her bitch. If it's an out of house stud, ask for the dog's AKC number, then cross-reference the AKC website and the OFA website. If the number is forged (as above), you won't find a matching set.

[SonnyRott]

Yes, I agree, the owner SHOULD have the originals.

Please don't be shy in asking to see the originals. Don't feel because you are a novice that you will be insulting the breeder. An ethical breeder will be happy to show you their original paperwork and will appreciate your thought and concern.

If a breeder puts you off, makes incredible claims (that cannot be backed-up with legitimate paperwork), or makes you feel uncomfortable...WALK AWAY!

Please be strong and don't get sucked in by cute, little puppy faces. And please, whatever you do, don't feel like you are "rescuing" anything! All you are doing is keeping a morally bankrupt person in business.

Great thread by the way!!!

[Cherry Heart]

I really appreciate all your advice here, it's starting to make sence to me. (It may just be me as I feel like my breeder pretty much skipped around the truth on every turn and question I asked.) This is how I was thinking before.

Lets pretend my dog is titled, OFA with "Excellent" (since were pretending lets go all the way!), heart, thyroid, eyes, elbows. She is the PERFECT dog. She is Cgc, CD, CDX, on and on. She has conformation titles, Schutz. all that great stuff, PERFECT!

What keeps "Joe Liar Breeder" from telling someone MY dogs AKC reg number. All the info would match and look dandy. Seeing the documents in PERSON would really get rid of any chance of liars wouldn't it? And do alot of COE breeders DNA their dogs in case there ever is a "Did my puppy REALLY come from that dog" question? I have heard of people trying to sneak in a couple extra puppies.

One more thing. Is there any way to see how many litters a dog or bitch has had in the past? One thing my breeder did was "forget" to mention a litter she had previously where the puppies (the two I know of) only had "fair" hips.

[BostonRott]

I think, but am not positive, that you may be able to purchase "previous litter" information from AKC.

Schutzhund titles are not recorded or tracked by the AKC. If someone is claiming to have SchH titles, they will have a scorebook for the dog (which is assigned to that dog, and goes with the dog, should the dog ever be sold....it is the dog's, not the owner's).

So, if someone were to tell you that they own my old (deceased) bitch Froli vom Wahrener Eck, and alter some paperwork to match her AKC number, they still wouldn't be able to show you her SchH scores, nor her SchH scorebook, nor would they be able to provide you with her Versatility (V) or Versatility Excellent (VX) paperwork. These are awards assiged by the ARC, not the AKC, so they are not tracked on the AKC site.

In my opinion, there is absolutely NO reason NOT to DNA a dog. It's cheap ($40) and easy to do (cheek swab). No COE club requires, though I sure wish the AKC would require it as part of their registration process!

[SonnyRott]

With regards to AKC, I do not believe the number of litters a bitch as whelped or the number of times a stud has been used, is included with any purchase of AKC paperwork. This is another way an unethical breeder can deceive you.

However, when speaking to an AKC rep, you are allowed to ask "yes" and "no" questions. For instance, if your breeder told you she only bred her bitch twice and you have suspicions otherwise, you can, with the bitch's registered name and registration number in front of you ask:

In 2003, was Fluffy Von Dingo, registration #WP12345, bred 2 times? They can tell you "yes" or "no". Then ask, In 2004, was Fluffy Von Dingo bred 2 times? And so on. If they say "no" ask the same question, only this time ask if she had been bred 1 time. You can repeat this with as many years as you wish. They are really not allowed to give you more specifics than that. But this gives you a general idea of how many times a particular bitch has been bred.

That is how I found out my breeder (not only bred her bitches back to back), but bred more than the 3 x rule for each bitch as she told me during our interviews before I bought my puppy.

I also had my puppy DNA'd but since both parents did not possess a DNA profile, I can only assume my puppy's parents are who my breeder said they are.