Expert: Y. Webster Date: 2/27/2008 Subject: ACA Registry
Question I bought a Weimaraner pup and his parents are ACA registered, but the blue paper only has the parents names. First ? is: What is ACA and how reliable is this association? And Shouldn't his parents and grand parents be on the registration papers? Also Could I AKC register him without his parents? Thanks,Jeff
Answer ACA and CKC are basically the same things but different people making money off of them. AKC doesn't accept ACA as a legitmate registry. You can never register a dog with full benefits with AKC unless the sire and dam are of recognized registeries. In the US the only recognized registry is the AKC itself but if you lived in another country and had a dog registered with a recognized registery such as Canadian Kennel Club you could register your dog with the AKC using the papers from the Canadian Kennel Club. ACA doesn't have the grandparents on the paper because most likely they don't have a clue who it is and they don't care. These "registeries" you and I could do with a website. Set up the website take in money send a piece of paper...that's it...they hold no weight as far as if your pup is TRULY purebred. The reason backyard breeders use these "registeries" is they can say these are "registered" pups and get more money for them, they don't elaborate that that "registery" means NOTHING as far as the pureness of the puppy. I would much prefer people would sell these pups WITHOUT any papers but then they wouldn't get as high a price.
When one buys a dog and pays a hefty sum because it has "papers" research just what does those papers mean? Do they GUARANTEE your dog is purebred? Do they keep and offer pedigrees on every single registered dog going back at least 3 to 6 generations? If a registery means nothing but someone (hiding behind a registery sounding name) who takes information and sends out a form that's not a legitimate registery for purebreds.
If you you would like to compete in dog sports such as agility, obedience, field trials, etc you can get a ILP (Indefinite Listing Privelidge) with letter from a vet that the dog is spayed or neutered and enclosing pictures. You can never get this registration based on looks alone and you can't register puppies with this type of registration.
Best of luck and in reality papers don't mean a hill of beans when it comes to the love of our pets. It should only matter when a good amount of money is spent because one is expecting a guaranteed purebred dog and these other registeries just aren't that.
BTW one of the finest agility dogs I have ever seen was a sweet weim...Yolanda
PS: For the record a AKC puppy registeration doesn't have the grandparents names listed on it either but it does have the parents with the parents ID numbers and they will research and send you a pedigree for as far back as many generations as you'd like..it does cost...if you buy a AKC puppy and you think you didn't get a purebred you can have a DNA test and if it is found the pup isn't of the parents stated (and sometimes they are purebred but not of the parents listed) they get in BIG trouble. Have to pay big fines and every puppy they ever registered can have their registrations pulled. I have seen this happen so it pays when registering with AKC for people to be honest....whew that was a long PS:...lol...
