There was no way to “limit” him on the certificate and I hadn’t thought to have a contract ready when the out-of-state family arrived. In a hurry and sure there was a quick solution, I called AKC Registrations and the very nice supervisor I worked my way up to said what has been overlooked or ignored since all the rule changes began to happen.  Here's the bottom line:

We receive dozens of emails like the one below, all of them disheartening to the parties involved. We have hundreds of such documents on file but first, let me prove the point with three out of three personal examples.

One of the most significant is the well-documented Haddad case in which no amount of pleading or threats could stop AKC from registering a litter from a puppy bitch I had sold to Mexico. By chance, I learned the bitch had been bred or “used” to falsify an O’BJ litter out of a surrogate bitch when a prospective Akita buyer contacted me for background on a young show dog she was interested in. As breeder and seller of the dam, I knew she was too young to have whelped a litter and in fact, had been returned to me at 11 months and thoroughly vetted.

My call to AKC and started a chain of events which revealed major differences between the two registries. I called Thelma Von Thaden, President of Mexico’s Federacion Canofila Mexicana, who in turn worked with Pamela Mathews, a department head in AKC Registrations. The Mexican Kennel Club B.O.D. refused to register the litter even though attorneys were “lined up in the hallway” the morning they met to decide on the matter. Conversely, AKC instructed Ms. Mathews to register the litter. In one phone call, a pompous, sputtering, embarrassed VP actually blurted out the excuse that “AKC has no reciprocity with Mexico”!!

In another case, a co-owned bitch was bred (too young) and without my knowledge. A friend called to tell me there was an ad in her local newspaper. I called AKC. The blue slips were so obviously forged, the lady in registrations took it upon herself to check for a previous litter. There was, and the microfilm showed even more preposterous forgeries plus a terrible lapse in AKC oversight for having ever registered the first litter out of an underage dam.

April Fool! Both litters stood as registered despite inarguable proof that my signatures had been forged over a dozen times. Not only that, the litters were sired by a male with only one testicle descended, which was why I replaced him with the bitch puppy I had kept for myself! No doubt, some of those inbred 15 puppies grew up and were bred from, thus spreading the gene even further.

Why am I sharing this? It just seemed like the right time of year to do so. And because the following email is so well-stated and representative of those we received from readers.

“I learned a good lesson 10 years ago when I sold a male puppy on a neuter contract that specified the puppy was to be neutered within 2 months of the sale and withheld the papers. Four months had passed, and the owner's veterinarian directed his staff to not discuss the matter with me on the phone, so I hired an attorney and sent a letter to the vet advising him that legal proceedings would include him for attempting to violate the terms of a written contract. My attorney sent a letter to the owner threatening to file for court proceedings within 10 days for failure to comply with the written sale agreement. She had the dog neutered and sent confirmation to the attorney.

“Since that time, I will never send a puppy or adult out to a new owner until I have first had the dog spayed or neutered first and allowed sufficient time for recovery. While AKC's provision certainly opens the door for contamination of a genetic pool with dogs that may carry serious genetic defects, and they should know better, frankly WE SHOULD ALL KNOW BETTER than to assume that John Q Public will honor an spay/neuter contract or even cares if they ever get papers.”

Patricia McCann

The message is clear. He who depends on AKC to honor a Buyer/Seller or Co-ownership contract is a Fool.