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Is AKC Registration Worth It?

The popularity of dogs is at an all-time high right now with around with around 40 percent of all homes having at least one dog and this consistently increasing with each year that goes by.

With the number of first time dog owners also increasing with each year that goes by, we constantly see people asking if AKC registration is worth it or not and we can definitely see why.

Now, before we go any further, we just want to say that AKC registration really is not important or essential for the vast majority of people and the love and care that you give your dog is infinitely more important.

If you are planning to actively breed your dog in the future then AKC registration may be worth it but it really shouldn’t be as large of a concern for people as it currently is as we really do see huge numbers of people reaching out and asking about it.

We actually see so many questions about AKC registration each month that we have decided to cover the four most commonly asked questions that we see each month in this article with the table of contents below offering quick and easy navigation.

This should help to compile all of the common questions into a single article to make it as easy as possible for our readers to get a better understanding of the topic.

Is AKC Registration Worth It?

A couple of decades ago an AKC registration used to mean much more than it does today due to so many people not caring about the pedigree of their dogs.

The refusal of the AKC to recognize very popular breeds such as Labradoodles has resulted in even less people caring about getting a AKC registration for their dog and we really don’t blame them.

We understand that the AKC are doing everything that they can to protect the breeding lines for various breeds and this is a great cause due to so many dogs having health issues due to having poor lineage but many people feel that they go about it in the wrong way.

The British and Canadian equivalents of the AKC are considerably more lenient on their breed standards while also having lower feeds to register your dog too pushing more criticism to the AKC.

Many people fail to realise that an AKC registration can cost as much as $82.99 per dog depending on the situation and the type of registration that you require too.

This is enough to put many people off registering their dog with AKC unless they plan to breed it but many dog breeds are seeing declining price tags for their puppies due to some reputable backyard breeders being able to produce healthy puppies at a much cheaper rate.

Are AKC Dogs Worth More?

A dog with an AKC registration is no longer worth as much as it once was due to the potential return on investment of its puppies being lower.

In addition to that, an AKC registration does not indicate a good or healthy dog and only verifies the linage of the dog to be pedigree for the recognised breed list of the AKC.

It is very common for people to presume that a dog with a AKC registration is a healthy dog and this is not correct.

If you are looking to add a new puppy to your family than a vet check up document is a much better indication of the health of the puppy but even then this can be inaccurate if the check up was done early as some common problems will not start to show in some dogs until they are over the one year of age mark.

As we touched on earlier in the article, the British and Canadian equivalents of the AKC are far more lenient too while also having a much easier and cheaper application process.

This is discouraging people who have dogs who would be able to easily get AKC registration to actually apply as the value of a AKC registration is just not what it previously was.

Is AKC Registration Bad?

An AKC registration is not a bad thing but most people misunderstand what it actually means.

An AKC registration is not an indication of the health or temperament of a dog or even than the parents of the puppy are kept in humane conditions, it is essentially just a way to track the family tree of your dog and nothing more.

In addition to this, there have been a number of problems with breeders who are chain breeding their dogs as frequently as possible to produce puppies who have the right breeding lines to easily get their puppies an AKC registration.

With ethical breeding being such a big thing right now this has cast some doubt on the value of an AKC registration too as more and more people realize that it just doesn’t mean what many people think it means.

Even though an AKC registration will cost $82.99 at most at the time of writing, many breeders will drastically increase their prices due to the pedigree of the dog but more and more people, especially young first time dog owners are just not caring about the pedigree of their dogs.

They want a healthy, happy dog and there are more and more backyard breeders in larger towns and cities that allow walk arounds prior to purchasing your pups so you can see the conditions that their dogs are kept in attracting a large amount of the puppy trade due to how open they are as well as their considerably lower price tags.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over if an AKC registration is worth it or not to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand what an AKC registration actually means for a puppy and more importantly, what it does not verify. Although it is not the fault of the AKC that so many people misunderstand what a AKC registration actually verifies, this does seem to be back firing for them with every story that breaks about a puppy mill selling AKC registered puppies as people realise it the registration does not mean what they thought.