Hi,

Little bit of advice needed! We are going to view a GR puppy next week and she will be KC registered. I am presuming the breeder should have a copy of her pedigree, hip and eye certificates for both mother and father? What will I get to say the puppy is KC Registered? Any things to look out for and check?

Many thanks

Thispage from the KC website has lots of useful information for you. It's unlikely you'll have any say in what the puppy's KC registered name will be, because it's probably been done already on the breeder's theme. But remember the registered name has no influence on the pet name that you choose to call her.

Good luck - choosing a puppy is very exciting!

The breeder will only have a copy of the bitch's hip score certificate if the stud dog is owned by somebody else -the paperwork is kept by the owner. However the KC registration certificate will have the hip score and eye test printed on it, next to the parents' names.

You can also check the parents health tests on the kennel club web site all you need to know is the dogs full name

You should get a kennel club transfer of ownership document then you can apply for the 5 generation certificate, the breeder should have these documents to hand but if they are still in the post they will have a confermation email if its done online with the accepted names.

You can also check the parents health tests on the kennel club web site all you need to know is the dogs full name

Yes you can, but be aware that all results are not always on there

Thank you that is very helpful, getting very excited now!

> The breeder will only have a copy of the bitch's hip score certificate if the stud dog is owned by somebody else -the paperwork is kept by the owner.

Is this breed specific? I have 3 dogs (all the same breed) from 3 different breeders, and for all 3 I was given a puppy pack which contained photocopies of hip scores, elbow scores, eye tests, heart tests, Optigen DNA tests and DNA profiling certificates (depending on what tests were available at the time each dog was bred) for BOTH parents. For my oldest I have no idea what his sire's certificates mean as it's all in Norwegian but I still have copies of them

I suppose it means that the breeder wen to the trouble of asking the stud dog owner to get these copies for them.

In reality it is needless duplication as all official KC scheme details will be listed against the parents names on the puppies registration certificates.

When taking our girl to the stud, we received copies of all his certificates, so in theory these should be available to the bitch owner to have photocopied and hand out in their puppy pack.

I would go armed with a list of questions to ask the breeder, especially if it's your first puppy, ask about appropriate brushes to buy, feeding regime, appropriate toys to buy, in fact whatever you think of before, write it down because guaranteed when you're there with all those gorgeous puppies running around, you'll forget everything...lol! The breeder will probably give you quite a lot of information in their puppy pack, but they will welcome answering questions.

I know how exciting it is visiting litters, it wasn't that long ago it was me:) now we're just about to have our own litter and am just as excited as we'll be keeping a puppy here.... soooo exciting isn't it???

When taking our girl to the stud, we received copies of all his certificates, so in theory these should be available to the bitch owner to have photocopied and hand out in their puppy pack.

Like Brainless says, if it's official KC schemes it's really needless duplication -it will be printed on the reg cert and of course these days you can verify it on the KC website as well. Now if it ISN'T an official KC scheme for the breed, then that's another story of course.

It's still interesting to see the actual hip score details instead of just the final numbers though. And that's why I wondered if it was breed specific as it seems very much the norm in my breed to give copies of everything to puppy buyers.

I've had Cavaliers, Goldens, Papillons and Malinois from good breeders since 1981. I've only ever come across one breeder, in Goldens -and that was one breeder out of the 7 different ones I've had dogs from in that breed- that gave copies of health tests. Funnily enough that was the breeder where both dogs ended up with health problems.

I'd say that some of these things ought to be discussed with the breeder before deciding to choose a puppy from them.

Researching the breeder seems to be one of the most important things you can do to maximise your chances of getting a happy healthy puppy.   Sadly one only has to read the puppy sales sites, or read some of the questions on forums to realise that not all breeders are created equal!!

A good breeder will be itching to show you all the work they've done to produce the litter and ought to be waving all sorts of information at you.  A good breeder also knows what is important to explain to novice owners or new to the breed.  My breeder is a fount of knowledge and gave me so much information over the preceeding months and following years that I have sticky notes and word files all over the place with nuggets of interesting information   It's a good idea to take some questions and a notepad to every visit

Have you met the breeder before?  Are you expecting to bring the puppy home immediately?