One of my pup families from 2 years ago returned pup to me January 31. Family divorced, not good communication/relationship between both parties. The guy drove pup back - about a 6 hour drive but did not bring/sign AKC certificate (limited of course).

So I phonde and e-mailed both parties, they were "looking" for certificate. Meanwhile I obedience trained pup and taught Force retrieve as the Diabetic service organization who took his sister really want him for service work.

End of February - no certificate, they "can't find it." So early March I called AKC, asked if they could just get a phone or e-mail agreement to put pup in my(breeder's) name. I know both parties would agree. AKC went through a long speel about how family has to initiate owner change, etc. So I told them I would pay and could they please send a new certificate to the family. So I paid for new certificate. 10 days later family never received it. I phoned AKC again - oops, they forgot to send it out.

It's now 2 weeks after AKC supposedly sent out new certificate. The family is no longer responding to my phone calls/e-mails. They are very stressed wit the divorce and feel they've done their part in bringing the dog back to me. Dog's training is done on my part - he's ready for service work training, but I have to have AKC certificate so that service organization can OFA hips and CERF eyes.

Any idea? I've thought of offering $$ to owners to get AKC certificate and sign - my hubby thinks then they'll think I am making $$ on dog and owe them more than the $50 I was going to offer each of them. (I will get a little $$ from the service organization for training.)

The dog is super nice, I do have a list of 3 pet families who will take him but I really want him to go to the service organization - his sister was featured in her local newspaper for her excellent service work, the dog is an ideal service dog.

I am at a loss of how to get the AKC certificate back into my name. Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas?

I wish AKC would have some policy for dogs with limited registration where just an e-mail agreement - like stud owners do, could get dog back to breeder's ownership.

You do not need to "own" the dog (AKC-registration-wise) to do his OFAs and CERF exam - you know his number, just put it on the form, or do it with no registration number. Doesn't matter for certification - there are unregistered Labs who get OFAs all the time - just go look through the database.

If all you're doing is placing him in a service home, just forget about the actual registration - you can provide pedigree, all his other information and that should be plenty good for anyone who isn't breeding.

I had a similiar situation, I took a dog back, the owner told me she misplaced the registration slip and would look for it and mail it to me. So at that time I made her sign a piece of paper stating she was transferring ownership of the dog to me with the date. Never heard from her after that and she would not answer my calls or emails about sending me the registration. The dog was spayed and I was placing her with a friend as a pet, so was not really a big deal but I did want those papers out of the former owner's name. I wrote a nice letter to the AKC explaining the situation and attached a copy of the paper signed by the former owner. The AKC attempted to contact her, with the same result I did. So they went ahead and issued me a new registration in my name.

Why not take a different approach and tell them that they still technically own the dog since their names are on the papers, so anything that dog may do (make something up) they could be held responsible for.

Make it easy on them. Send them each a letter with a self addressed stamped envelope including a letter stating something like "Effective (the date you got him back) I hereby transfer ownership of the following dog (add the dog's name and registration number and any other info like microchip, sex, color, etc) to yourself, then another line "I am unable to find the AKC registration certificate for this dog." Add a line for their signature including contact information, so they can just sign and put it in the mail.

Then the AKC case management might be able to manage the transfer of ownership.

Thank you for all the wonderful responses, I'm doing a blend of all the suggestions. I right away scheduled X-rays for OFA and CERF exam, I e-mailed and left phone messages for both parties that they could potentially still be liable for anything the dog does and for his care - they responded right away and said they've never received new AKC certificate which I ordered for them to sign; SO I told them that I would send out a letter for them to sign with a SASE which they both agreed to sign and send back:) I'll just keep praying until it's all done :)

Thanks so very much for all the useful suggestions!