Buying A Non-KC registered Puppy

Everything you need to know about bringing a puppy into your life starts here. How to find that Schnauzer puppy, what to look for in a breeder, early care, training and feeding are all covered. We even cover Schnauzer crocodile teeth.
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zeta1454
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Buying A Non-KC registered Puppy

Post by zeta1454 »

This is specifically for anyone looking to buy a pedigree ( pure bred) schnauzer as a puppy from its breeder as some people have a mistaken impression that Kennel Club registration is only of interest if you are wanting to show a dog which is absolutely not the case.

It is vitally important to understand why you should never buy a non-KC ( Kennel Club) registered puppy whatever excuses or explanation may be offered by the person or persons selling it. While Kennel Club registration is certainly no guarantee of itself that a puppy has been raised with the highest standards of care and responsibility, without KC registration any one or more of the following are likely to be true

A) The puppy is not the offspring of the dog or dogs you may see in the " breeders" home. Many puppy farmed dogs are shipped into the UK from Ireland and Eastern Europe to be sold online through "middle men" families who offer a "nice family home" image to prospective buyers and even show them a " mother" dog who is actually no relation to the puppy at all. This practice pre-dates even the current "where's Mum" campaign and is carefully designed to dupe unsuspecting buyers of the true origin of their puppy.

B) The mother or father or both of the puppies have been " endorsed" by their breeder to say they do not want the dog to be bred from - this could be because they know there is a hereditary health problem in the line.

C) The dam ( mother of the pups) was under a year old at mating. The breed clubs now generally agree that a year is still too young for a bitch to be bred from and that a minimum age of eighteen months or two years of age is preferable. The traditional rule of thumb of breeding on the third season pretty much matches this.

D) The dam was eight years old or older when she gave birth - only an irresponsible and uncaring breeder would deliberately breed from a dog of that age knowing how great a strain on her body it will be to give birth and feed a litter.

E) The dam had already given birth to four litters. This again is a great strain on the health of a dog and the Kennel Club will not register a fifth litter from a named bitch.

F) The dam has already had two litters delivered by Caesarean section. If the dam cannot give birth naturally this could be a sign that her health is not good and/ or that she has a hereditary issue with regard to breeding that will be passed on to her female offspring.

G) The puppies may be the result of a mating between a father and daughter or mother and son or brother and sister. All these close relationship matings would mean the Kennel Club would not register the litter.

H) The dam was not resident in the UK at the date of whelping.


Other factors you need to be aware of when buying a non-KC registered puppy are that the pups and parents will in all likelihood not have been health tested for any of the hereditary diseases the breed may be prone to. In the case of miniature schnauzers, this means the eye problems: congenital hereditary cataracts ( for which six week old puppies can be screened) ; hereditary cataracts and progressive retinal atrophy which adult dogs over a year can and should be screened for annually as these conditions may only appear at a later age. In order for the adult dogs to be screened, they will need to be KC registered and microchipped as their unique details must be recorded against the eye test certificate to ensure the validity of the test for that particular dog. Any one of these eye conditions can cause early blindness in dogs and it is only the most irresponsible of breeders who would not even bother getting their dogs screened by a BVA eye specialist vet prior to breeding and their puppies checked for CHC before selling them.

You will of course also have no guarantee that the puppies are pure bred schnauzers at all as without a KC pedigree the mating could have been between any two dogs. This may not matter in itself to a puppy buyer as a cross breed puppy may be a lovely companion dog if it has been bred to the highest standards of welfare,love and care but, if the breeders are selling the puppy as a pure bred dog, there is at the very least misrepresentation and maybe disappointment further down the line. We used to live near a family who had two black " miniature schnauzers" and they were forever asking us at what age their beards and eye brows would begin to grow and when they would get the real schnauzer look - which they never did as they were clearly a cross with a Jack Russell or similar terrier. Sweet dogs but not what the family had thought they were buying.

KC registration is the most basic of requirements for anyone breeding a pedigree dog - the breeder will usually register the litter as a whole at the age of three or four weeks in order to have the registration papers to give to the new puppy owner. If the registration is done online confirmation (including the registration numbers of the pups) will be available very quickly to the breeder so there is little likelihood that any breeder would not be able give these details to the new owners when they collect their puppy. The cost currently to a non Assured Breeder is £16 per puppy which is scarcely going to be significant compared to the price the puppy is sold for.

If a breeder cannot provide the full KC registered names of the parents of the litter and/ or the KC registration documents for the puppies then I would walk away. The implications as outlined above are that the puppy has been puppy farmed abroad; its parents have been not cared for with any responsibility or concern for welfare; neither parents or puppies have been tested for hereditary disease and the sellers are either not actually the breeders at all or they are ignorant of the most basic requirements of breeding pure breed dogs.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Magic - Silversocks Sharade at Darksprite
Trilby - Darksprite Rosa Bud


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Eddie
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Re: Buying A Non-KC registered Puppy

Post by Eddie »

Thanks for a really informative post Leigh.
I've made it a "Sticky" as it will be extremely useful for anyone thinking of getting a pup.
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Maty
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Re: Buying A Non-KC registered Puppy

Post by Maty »

Brilliant post Leigh :-bd Thank you :D
Maty

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Grice
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Re: Buying A Non-KC registered Puppy

Post by Grice »

Very good points raised. Certainly things we'll be looking out for when we get our puppy.
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