Today we join Heart Like A Dog and co-host the Golden Life for the Follow-up Friday blog hop.
It’s the the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.
I have had so many questions about the co-ownership of our dogs so that the subject of this week’s Follow-up Friday post.
I am sure there are different reasons people co-own their animals, but we co-own our dogs for breeding purposes. At its very heart, the AKC is just a dog registry. So when our dogs are registered, they are registered with at least one of their breeder’s names listed as an owner in addition to ours. Presto, “co-ownership”.
Often when a breeder has a litter they try to pick out a pup or two that they think might be a candidate for their breeding program. They may keep the dog themselves or enter into a co-ownership. A co-ownership allows the dog to have its own people and own home. The breeder is listed on the registration papers, but the dog lives with us and is our pup.
If you are a breeder, you want to have the ability to use the best animal you can in your breeding program. A puppy goes home at 8 weeks, but you have no way of knowing how that pup will mature. Will it have good hips? Will its bite be correct? Will it have the proper temperament? So many things you cannot control or predict at 8 weeks. Some breeders may co-own several pups from a litter until such time as they decide not to use the dog in their breeding program. It is a bit of insurance.
In addition to listing the ownership on our dogs’ AKC registration, we also have a written agreement which states what the co-ownership involves regarding the dog’s breeding obligation. The breeder is responsible for paying and obtaining any health clearances and any costs of the breeding. If the breeder does the breeding, then the puppies are their puppies. We could decide to breed our animals on our own and the puppies would be ours, but their co-owners would have to sign off on the breeding as necessary in order to register the litter.
I am sure there are many forms of co-ownership and/or breeding rights contracts. I am being general without getting into specifics of our agreements.
There are a lot of positives to co-ownership. Mostly, you have a direct line to all of the breeder’s years of experience. If you want to learn what is involved in breeding, or have desire to breed a litter, this is a great way. You get a good quality animal, (pending health clearances) and guidance. When we got Storm, her breeder/co-owner told us that if we wanted to breed Thunder and Storm someday, he would not object. Eventually we decided that we did not want to go that route, but it was an option.
There are also some negatives. The biggest being that you are agreeing to keep the dog intact, (no spay or neuter), until the animal’s breeding obligation has been completed. This is something to think long and hard about and definitely discuss it before entering into co-ownership. You are promising to be responsible with your dogs so as not to have unplanned puppies. The time a male dog needs to be available to do a breeding is short. Wham, bam…move on. A female involves a longer time commitment. There is the time of her season, then 60+ days until puppies, and then time to nurse until the pups are weened. The dog can be out of commission for hunting or hunt tests for quite a period of time. 🙂
For our lifestyle, it has been a bit easier for us to co-own our males. Storm has missed out on some hunt tests because she came into season and she can’t run them while in season. You aren’t even supposed to have a bitch in season on the grounds of a test so that has caused us a bit of stress when we have wanted to travel for tests and we can’t bring her along. Also, Storm was late starting her hunt test career and right now she has been running very well in training, but she has to stop and fulfill her breeding obligation. She missed a lot of tests last fall and will probably miss spring tests if this breeding takes.
But Storm is a great dog and she would not have been available to us if we did not co-own her. It is just unfortunate timing that she is ready to be bred at the same time she is ready to run Master Hunt Tests.
We are very lucky to have three quality dogs with breeding potential and that is because their breeders have allowed us to co-own these animals with them…
…and that is co-ownership in a nutshell.
Please go to the sponsoring blogs to find out who else is hopping along.
Have a nice weekend!
We co-own Phoebe. Actually, there are so many names on her papers that we’re pretending she’s owned by a syndicate.
Are there clauses in case Storm develops pyometra and has to be spayed in an emergent situation? How many attempts at breeding do they have?
And I have to say it. Freighter with his first duck! Have mercy!
No our contract is not that specific. That is why I say it is important to discuss things. There is a clause should we spay her without the co-owner agreeing, but realistically what can anyone do once it is done and especially if it is for health of the dog? Of course we would call all panicky should that happen anyway…lol. The agreement requires a bit of trust on both sides.
Excellent explanation of co-ownership, a sometimes confusing topic. It sounds like this ahs been a perfect solution for you and the brown dogs
Thanks Gizmo!
That was an awesome explanation! Thank you for clarifying that, it would seem to me (and please correct me if I’m wrong) that the co-ownership is more for the benefit of the breeder to ensure the quality of their line. Depending upon the breeder you also have someone that is willing to help you with unexpected costs, such as when Freighter had the issue with his dew claw.
How does the breeding option work, I know that they take the dog when the time to breed comes, but is there something in the contract that stipulates at what age they stop breeding the dog? And then what? Can you then have the dog desexed? Is there a risk for desexing an older dog?
Whew, I think I just gave you a FUF for next week. LOL Have a good weekend!!
Actually the dewclaw removal had nothing to do with the co-ownership. That was done by the breeder because she sold us a dog with dewclaws removed. 🙂
No there is no hard an fast ages stated in our agreements because it really depends on the health of the dog. (I think there is an upward age where it calls for a health clearance, but Storm is no where near that age.) There is no risk to de-sexing an older dog that is healthy. Actually there are more and more studies which say that it may be more harmful to the dog to de-sex too young.
Yes co-ownership for breeding purposes helps the breeder have quality dogs, but it really is an investment in the breed. If I am getting a pup in the future, I want the best breeding stock to be used and not just the dog the breeder kept. 🙂 Plus as I say, we would not have the quality of dogs we do without the co-ownership. All our dogs have show points. All our dogs can run hunt tests. Maybe without co-ownership the breeding we want is not available to us at all because there are only a few pups, (which was the case with Storm’s litter…3 pups all co-owned).
Thank you for explaining it to us. We had no idea that all of this was quite so complicated from breeding, to traing to showing. It really is another world. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
Ahhh! Thats what it is. I never really got before why someone would co-own a dog, but then again I never understood it really till I read all the pros and cons on here. It seems like a great choice for you guys, as you are ensured great dogs really 🙂
Well, that summary is chock full of information. Thanks for explaining the co-ownership. Now it all makes sense. Have a great weekend.
Oz
Great explanation!
great explanation! love the puppy pics
Oh, the puppy pictures!
That is a pain, about the hunt tests. Is Storm titled in conformation? Which is her breeder more aimed at, conformation or sporting? It’s all so interesting!
Great puppy pictures and some good insight into breeding and co-owning, you really have to be on the same page with the co-owners
We used to co-own Moses, and we showed him and kept him intact until he was about 2 1/2. However, the decision to stop going that route was largely ours (the breeders live far away and were busy with their own dogs), and the contract was up when we sent them the receipt for his neuter. In retrospect, it’s probably a very good thing he hasn’t been bred, due to his health history. Sure, neither bloat nor spinal cysts are considered genetic, but why take that risk with future generations?
Oh wow! I LOVE the puppy photos! 🙂
I can definitely see how co-owing the boys is a lot easier than co-owning Storm, but it is great that you are doing this in an effort to continue bettering your breed. 🙂
Thank you for clarifying co owner ship in a way Mum understands!
Slobbers
Great explanation of co-ownership! Good friends have offered us this kind of opportunity many times with a very similar agreement to yours. For personal reasons we’ve never done it, but it makes so much sense when a responsible dog breeder is working to preserve good breeding.