- Health Standard launches on 15th January promoting breed-relevant health testing for breeders of all levels of experience
- Find a Puppy and Health Test Results Finder updated to give puppy buyers clearer signposting to health tested dogs and their results
- Welfare Standard introduced, pledging to ensure quality of life and support best breeding practice
Following an extensive review of its registrations model, The Kennel Club will be introducing a number of new initiatives that will support and signpost to those who are following best breeding practice, across a wider number of registrations.
The launch of the Health Standard, which has been developed following extensive consultation with Breed Health Coordinators, will be accompanied by other complementary steps to promote good practice, and in particular, to increase the overall uptake of health testing prior to breeding.
The changes aim to influence all breeders for the benefit of the wider population of dogs, moving beyond the 10% of Kennel Club litters bred by those in the Assured Breeder Scheme, which closed at the end of 2024.
With the vast majority of breeders who register with The Kennel Club breeding one litter a year (80 percent), and an increasing number breeding just once every five years, there was a need to provide broader support, education and resources for every experience level and to signpost more clearly to a broader spectrum of responsible breeders.
New Health Standard
The Health Standard, developed using extensive scientific research and breed community input, describes and improves awareness about the health testing priorities for every breed, for all breeders and puppy buyers.
The priority level assigned to a health test has been simplified into two categories – voted by Breed Health Coordinators to be named ‘good practice’ and ‘best practice’. The priority assigned to any given health test is based on data, collated over the past decade as part of the Breed Health and Conservation Plans – a document where health test prioritisation can change as new evidence and trends about diseases emerge. The Health Standard will be available on The Kennel Club website Breed A to Z pages and within the dog profile section of customer online accounts. For further information on the Health Standard see here.
Find a Puppy – a tiered approach and clearer signposting towards responsible breeders
Breeders who are using the new Health Standard and completing the health testing advised will also be prioritised and signposted on the enhanced Find a Puppy listing. The Health Standard will be the anchor for how litters will be prioritised on Find a Puppy searches in the future, and for how the health status of parents of litters are described - with symbols against each litter clearly describing the health testing that has been carried out on parents, and whether the parents meet the good or best practice levels of health testing relevant to the breed.
The below health related prioritisation order will be applied in breed searches.
- Good and best practice both fully met – pups where both parents meet the criteria come first, followed by just the dam, followed by just the sire. In each scenario breed standard colour litters will appear first before non-breed standard.
- Good practice fully met – pups where both parents meet the criteria come first, followed by just dam, followed by just the sire. In each scenario breed standard colour dogs appear first before non-breed standard.
- One or more health test taken, but good practice standard is not met – pups where this is the case for both parents come first, followed by just the dam, followed by just the sire. In each scenario breed standard colour dogs appear first.
This is the first step in the journey and other steps will come into place this year to support and signpost to those who are breeding responsibly, and to encourage improved breeding practices.
Digital Puppy Pack
In addition to ensuring that education and signposting around health testing is improved, it is also important that puppy buyers and breeders continue to recognise and understand what buying and breeding a puppy responsibly means and what good practice looks like, at every stage in their journey. The recently launched online puppy pack is just one additional feature to litter registration that will help in this regard.
Welfare Standard
Additionally, the new Welfare Standard consolidates expectations and legal obligations around good welfare and husbandry when breeding, into one document. It asks breeders to commit to providing the best possible quality of life for dogs, based upon the 5 Freedoms in the Animal Welfare Act. It combines the expectations laid out in the current Code of Ethics, alongside a description of, and signposting towards, a breeder’s legal obligations. These will be combined with a list of The Kennel Club’s own rules and regulations at the point of registration (B regulations).
The Welfare Standard is intended to highlight best practice for owners and breeders and will guide breeders in making the right choices, especially when breeding a first litter. For further information on the Welfare Standard see here.
Bill Lambert, Health and Breeder Services Executive at The Kennel Club, said: “At the heart of these new initiatives is our commitment to seeing the best practice shown by Assured Breeders adopted by a greater number of breeders. We want to see everybody registering with the Kennel Club supported to breed responsibly and making the best choices for their dogs.
“We are introducing a number of measures to achieve this, built on research insights gathered over recent years and we thank our knowledgeable breed communities for their crucial engagement throughout.
“A fundamental part of this is increasing awareness and understanding about health testing tools, to increase uptake of, and demand for, health-tested puppies. The Health Standard, built upon world-leading scientific data with valuable insights from breed club communities, is an important step on this journey for us, and will be embedded across all that we do. We are supporting this with clearer signposting around health testing and breed standard colours to help puppy buyers find a well-bred puppy across all registrations.
”We will be communicating separately with Assured Breeders as the scheme comes to a close. We thank every person who has demonstrated levels of best practice to enable them to be part of this scheme. Embedding core elements of the scheme - supporting and signposting to responsible breeding across all registrations, for the benefit of all – has been central to these developments and will continue to be central to our evolution as we move into 2025.”
“Our emphasis on embedding education into every stage of a breeder's and buyer's journey demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to improving welfare, transparency, and responsible ownership. The integration of tools like the Find a Puppy signposting, digital puppy pack, and new Welfare and Health Standards creates a cohesive system aimed at creating better outcomes for dogs, breeders, and buyers alike.”