I just recently bought a dog and the woman wanted to co-own her with me. I was fine with it because we have been friends for at least six years. But on the AKC paperwork her name comes before mine on ownership. and her adress shows up. when i got the dog, the agreement was that she would be the co-owner because i was flat-out paying for the dog. 1,000 dollars for the dog. Well, when AKC finally mailed me the final paperwork, it was sent to her house and i was never notified that it was there. She got the mail and knew what it was and opened it and such. She never told me it was there until i went to her house and saw it tucked in with some of her other mail and i asked her about it and she said 'oh it's the AKC paperwork. it came about one or two weeks ago.' So to make a long story short i was wondering if the first name is the primary owner since their adress is the one printed on the final paperwork, and if the second name was co-owner. i have signed paperwork before and i was co-owner and my name was always second. so i thought maybe it was the case. so if anyone could help me, that would be great.
LabLover

It depends on what line you signed on, and what address went in with the paperwork. You must have signed on the co-owner line. If it really concerns you, just ask the co-owner to change the address.

I have talked to to woman and she is saying that she signed the co-owner line and i do not believe she did because of what is on the papers for her name and adress. when i signed the papers i wrote her akc name and my kennel and the woman told me were to sign and i verified with her that it is for primary owner and not co-owner and she said it was primary. The wom,an has been known to lie, but i did not think that she would lie to me about something like this. I was going to change to form and put myself as primary, but she has to sign it as well and it will create more problems. This woman was, more that likely a bad choice to get involved with. i am just angry that i paid the full 1,000 dollars and was supposed to be the owner and now i'm only the co-owner, so i can't do anything with my dog without her permission. I'll try to talk to her again soon. Just not sure if it'll be anytime soon.
Thanks
LabLover

Hi,

The first name is the primary owner. The second is the co-owner. My daughter co-owns a dog with me and her name is first. This particular dog has won some money prizes and all of the checks have been made out to her. I asked at one show to have my name put on the check and was told no. "It goes to the primary owner."

Other than the checks, I have had no problem with my name being second.

Jan

In the eyes of the AKC there is no difference between the owner listed first and the owner listed second. AKC does not recognize a primary and secondary owner. You are both co-owners and have equal rights. AKC only issues one registration and therefore it goes to which ever address is listed. When it comes time for breeding either co-owner can be listed first on the litter application.

Hi, is you signed were it said co-owner you are the co-owner. According to AKC both co-owner and owner have equal rights to the dog. I think this woman took you if she said that the second area for ownership was for the owner. The top part to fill out is the owner's information. There is no way you can change that now. If she doens't send you a copy of the registration the only way AKC will send you one is if you fill out the AKC form and pay them (AKC) for you to get the registration. Sorry to hear this, that there are always people taking advantage of people.
I have gone thru some bad things with a breeder before and it is a mess and it will always be with you, it takes a long time to get over this type of thing. The good side to this is that hopefully you will learn by your mistake and before you send the paperwork to her or AKC, make sure you take a copy of it for your own records in case something down the road happens.

Liz is exactly right! AKC does not give one owner more "rights" than the other. I've done many co-owns and quite successfully I might ad. If I have the bitch here for whelping that I coown, then I fill out the litter forms and put my name on first regardless of where my name is on the paperwork if I want the litter registration forms to come to me. In fact it used to be that in order to register a litter, only one coowner used to have to sign the form. However to register the puppies individually all coowners had to sign those slips.

Your coowner may have just wanted to keep the AKC paperwork at her address. There are many stories I've heard of coowners taking the other person's name off the papers by forging their names. But the best thing to do is talk to this person in a calm, rational matter. I am not sure what terms you purchased you bitch on, but just hope that it is all in writing.

I would have no problem purchashing a show quality bitch on a coown for $1000. Especially if this was an older bitch and you know how she has grown up and hopefully have prelims/OFAS on, etc. I don't know what the terms of the coown are, like how many puppies back, spliting breeding expenses, etc, but if all she wants is her name on as coowner to be sure that you breed carefully and responsibly, I do not see where there should be a problem.

Please don't start reading into the fact that she may be lying to you or did any thing to deceive you. If you are unclear about something, just ask! It's not worth throwing away a friendship over a few misunderstandings.

Good luck!

Regardless of owner or co owner, you can't "do anything" with your dog either way without her permission.
So it really makes no difference where your name is.
You have possession of the dog and that is what matters.

Try to go with the flow - there are many more critical issues with a co-ownership, and which name is listed first isn't one of them.

You should discuss this directly with the co-owner. None of us reading the forum can give you any answer as to why this was done, and whether the co-owner is willing to change it. It is your responsibility to talk to the co-owner about anything that concerns you.

Personally, I wouldn't enter into a co-ownership where I wasn't comfortable discussing simple as well as serious issues directly with him or her, or where the co-owner wasn't able or willing to resolve issues directly with me before asking advice on a forum.