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“KC registered” is the phrase that costs people the most
The Royal Kennel Club runs more than one register. One of them is the pedigree register; another is open to any dog, crossbreeds included, and issues perfectly genuine Royal Kennel Club numbers. Almost nobody explains the difference, and it decides what a number in an advert actually proves.
Registration
Breed Register vs Activity Register
The Royal Kennel Club runs more than one register, and the difference decides what a KC number actually proves. A dog can hold a genuine Royal Kennel Club number and be a crossbreed.
Breeding
How to choose a stud dog
The register, the health results, the numbers, the temperament and the terms — a working checklist, in the order that saves you the most time.
Breeding
Stud fees explained
A stud fee pays for the service, not for puppies. The structures in common use, when the money changes hands, and the terms that have to be written down before the mating.
Registration
KC endorsements explained
The breeder places them, the breeder is normally the only one who can lift them, and an endorsed bitch’s litter cannot be registered. Settle it before the mating, not after.
Health results
Hip and elbow scores explained
What the two numbers in a hip score mean, why the total on its own can mislead you, and why the only comparison worth making is against the dog’s own breed.
Breeding
COI explained
COI is a property of a PAIRING, not of a dog — and it is only ever as good as the pedigree behind it. Here is how to read one honestly.
Health results
Health testing explained
Which tests exist, what Clear, Carrier, Affected and Hereditary Clear mean, and why “health tested” in an advert tells you almost nothing until you know tested for what.
Health results
Hereditary Clear explained
A dog can be clear of a condition without ever being tested — because both parents were. How that works, where the chain breaks, and why the Royal Kennel Club still advises retesting every two generations.
Health results
Health tests by breed
The tests the Royal Kennel Club Health Standard lists for each breed, minimum first, in one table — with the breed’s own hip score median where the BVA publishes one.
Breeding
Stud contract template
Stud disagreements often start with two reasonable people assuming different “usual” terms. One agreement, filled in and signed before the mating, settles them in advance.
Buying
Buying a puppy safely
What you are entitled to see, what the paperwork should say, and the rules that mean a puppy must be sold by the person who bred it.
How these are written
Sourced, or not published
Every factual claim in these guides is traceable. Where something came from the Royal Kennel Club’s own public records or announcements, it is because we looked — the registration types, the result formats and the rest were observed directly while this site was being built, and the notes are kept. Where a claim belongs to a scheme, a regulation or a laboratory, that is named at the foot of the page.
Where we could not source something, we left it out. That is why some of these pages are shorter than they could be, and why you will not find a “healthy hip score” number or an “acceptable” coefficient of inbreeding anywhere on this site. People make breeding decisions on this, and a plausible invented figure would be worse than a gap.
Two things we deliberately do not write. Anything veterinary — seasons, mating, whelping, puppy care — stays out until a vet has reviewed it; your own vet is better placed than any website. And we do not rate or rank breeders. What we publish about a listing is what was declared, and whether anyone has checked it.
Found something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it or take it down. That offer is genuine and it applies to every page here.
Shorter answers
If you just want the one-line version
The help centre answers the short questions about using the site, and how verification works sets out exactly what our badge is allowed to claim — and what it is not.
Put it into practice
Every stud dog on Breed Right is on the Royal Kennel Club Breed Register and checked by our team before it goes live, and every health result you see has been checked by us.