Breeding
Where a dog’s life can go wrong before it has even begun, and the rules that try to prevent it.
Run by the Kennel Club, this scheme sets standards for responsible dog breeding covering health testing, record-keeping and puppy rearing, with member breeders assessed against them. Once the rare breeder certification carried under UKAS national accreditation, since 2024 the Kennel Club has run it on its own model built around ISO/IEC 17065. New applications are currently paused under review.
The FCI is the international canine federation whose member organizations span roughly a hundred countries. It maintains the official breed standards describing each recognized breed’s structure, movement and temperament, and governs pedigrees and competition. Though voluntary, it is the central reference for purebred dogs internationally, underpinning most national kennel clubs outside the US.
The American Kennel Club is the dominant breed registry in the United States, maintaining the breed standards and pedigree records for recognized breeds. Each standard defines the ideal conformation and temperament a breed is judged against in the show ring. Membership and registration are voluntary, but the AKC’s standards carry significant weight with breeders, judges and buyers across the American dog world.
The registration regulations of Australia’s national kennel body, Dogs Australia, governing the pedigree system: the registration of dogs and litters, litter-registration limitations, identification by microchip or tattoo, and DNA testing for hereditary disease and disputed parentage. A voluntary industry standard that states expressly that government legislation takes precedence over it.
The breeding regulation of Brazil’s national kennel body, the Confederação Brasileira de Cinofilia, the country’s FCI affiliate. A voluntary standard binding on those who breed and register pedigree dogs, it governs the pedigree system with rules on consanguinity, the registration of a breeder’s kennel name and the registration of litters, enforced by access to recognition rather than by law.
Under these regulations, anyone breeding dogs as a business in England must hold a license from their local authority. A license follows a vet-led inspection against standards for housing, health screening, staffing and early socialisation, and results in a public one-to-five star rating. It is the main statutory check on commercial breeding, replacing an older patchwork of licensing law.
Named after a badly treated breeding dog, Lucy’s Law bans the commercial third-party sale of puppies in England. Anyone buying a puppy must deal directly with the breeder, at the premises where it was raised, with its mother present. The aim is to shut down the puppy-dealing supply chain and force the conditions a dog is bred in into plain view of the buyer.
India’s national rules on commercial dog breeding, made under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. No one may breed or house dogs for breeding and sale without a certificate of registration from the State Animal Welfare Board, granted only after an inspection by a team that includes a veterinary practitioner, and registered establishments must stay open to inspection and avoid overcrowding.