All you have to do to register an animal is send in the paperwork and the money. OR, you can research a reputable registry. There are several wolfdog registries - just look until you find which one that you like and then see if you qualify for registration under their guidelines.

Pam

There are any number of wolfdog registries in existence. The question is to find one that is reputable.

By that, I mean one that is honest in it's representation and isn't just a registry who's main concerns are either the almighty dollar and/or is owned by a breeder making sure his/her own animals are shown to be whatever *he/she* says they are on paper.

USAWA and IOWOLFER both require 3 generations of "provable" lineage before they will accept an animal as a "breeding" quality animal, if I'm not mistaken.

Both will "phenotype" animals based on several photos, known ancestry and breeders, birth date, etc. However, they are registered as "pet" quality and any offspring are noted as such. If the offspring are bred back to "proven" animals for 3 generations, the "pet" designation is removed and the pups are considered to be "breeding" quality after that. To help clarify that: the ONLY way to get a fully registered puppy is for the parents to be fully registered or for the pup to be at least 3 gens from the last "pet" quality animal in the pedigree.

The choice to register or not is a personal one and should be considered carefully. If you plan to breed, that is a major consideration. You should register or at least verify your animal(s) with one of the 2 registries listed above or with LupAware or perhaps the Esquimoux (sp?) group. If they say your animal is unprovable, it would be best to have your animal spayed/neutered and not worry about it at all.

Christine
Casa Lobo Kennels

If you plan to breed your wolfdogs, utilizing the services of a reputable breeder registry would be a wise decision. They can help you determine if your animal is of breeding quality, if you had been given a accurate lineage/pedigree information or not, or in some cases they can help you track down breeders and heritage info. They can also provide your buyers with a service - it can be quite valuable for buyers/owners to have some confirmation of your heritage claims, your OFA results or other health checks done before breeding, and documentation of ancestry.

But as has already been stressed, you want to make sure you select a "reputable" registry. Beware those that don't investigate heritage claims, and ones that will assign a "percentage" figure to your animal without full and complete pedigree verification (hint: Fully verified does not mean someone guessed an animal 5 generations back in the pedigree to be a wolf or 78% wolf; guesswork is not accuracy). Also, watch out for breeders who maintain their own registries, or claim to be creating a "new breed"... often they will do so only so as to prevent you from finding out their heritage claims are inaccurate.

Lastly, if you don't plan to breed but you still want to register your wolfdog (like people do with their purebred dogs), you can do that. There are limited registrations, full registrations, and all sorts of types of registrations. Again, make sure you select a registry that is honest, otherwise the piece of paper you get in return will be a joke. The joke being on you.