I’m a third generation AKC breeder of merit. Apologies now for length of this post. You’ve been warned.
Like almost everything, what you’re describing can be/is done ethically and correctly or it can *100%* be a complete sham.
In the ethical, good standard, well bred dog world: sometimes contracts are made regarding what’s known as “Co-ownership”: Where 2 or more people share ownership of a dog.
More often than not, a co-owned dog is going to be a female dog. And here’s why: More breeders will chance jointly chipping in the time and money into finishing (e.g showing the dog to championship or title- which can be very expensive and time consuming) a female dog than a male.
A finished, championed titled Sire is a foundational base to any breeding program, and there’s a good chance what you love about that sire is what your bloodlines and program represent (example: all of my Labradors must first and foremost be gundogs, so you won’t find a sire here that’s more beauty than brains). Most often you will see breeders have just 1 or 2 absolute bomb-tastic males that will get bred to their few finished champion females, keeping their bloodlines or program pretty linear to what their goals as a breeder are. Occasionally, one of those sires might be getting offered up to what’s known as “outside female dogs” of fellow breeders who have like programs, but that’s an entire soapbox for another day on the forum.
But female dogs are more…fluid. In many breeds, females can be *much* harder to show and finish to Championship. They go through heat cycles and will lose coat/condition. You battle the calendar. Many shows do not even allow females in estrus/heat to be on the grounds! Want to cause a dog fight? Bring a female in season to the floor. (Another soapbox for a different day- it’s your own job to train your darn males not to act like a hooligan and not blame outside influence as to why you can’t get your crap together in the ring or on the field) In many breeds, females also can take a good deal longer than males to “bloom”- when pups are born, established and experienced breeders can usually tell straightaway who is champion potential and as a pup if they’ve been born with the best qualities you as a breeder are looking for to further the breed standard and breed the very best dogs you can in your program. But in many breeds females often will look so-so at best as puppies. If you know your lines and have a really good handle for potential, a so-so female pup might turn up as one of the best dogs to come out of your program when she’s bloomed into fullness at 24-36 months.
Here’s where things can get tricky. Follow along: I bred my favorite bomb sire to a just fantastic little female who is now championed and well titled. The litter has been planned for 3 years. Let’s factor in a bit of cost: it cost me a grand total of $13,050 to show that little fantastic female to completion. I’ve spent another $8,000 on necessary health testing, genetic testing, specialist vet visits to certify that her joints and organs are in excellent shape and nothing bad is lurking. Pre-natal work ups and prep for pups is the least expensive costs involved coming in at $2 grand.
Pups arrive!!! Cue the confetti. At two weeks old it’s looking everyday like I’ve got 5 or 6 solid champion potentials on my hands! The other 5? Well… they’re fantastically bred but it’s not looking like they’ll ever be able to beat their parents in the show ring- maybe they’ll beat them in the field though, so we’ll just wait and evaluate those 5 in the coming weeks. But put those 5 out of your mind, and concentrate on the 6 show potentials. (And disclaimer: this is for my sporting breed. In the non sporting, terrier, and toy group breeders I know- any of their non show potential pups just get limited registration and put into pet homes. I don’t usually do that.)
So essentially for a mere, what…$24 THOUSAND dollars? I have 6 Labrador puppies that could *potentially* take my program and this breed further into the future.
Six weeks later, looks like I’m down to only 5 hopeful potentials as one of the pups looks like she might have a scar on an ear from her sibling chewing on her. Still super excited for the 5 though! Last litter I only had 2! So what the heck do I with these 5 high potential pups?
Well, I have options. I can keep them all, and show them all myself. Which would be stupid. I would be exhibiting my bloodlines all against themselves- the 4 females in this batch are all the same color! I’d have a mini class myself, and need to hire 3 other people to handle them ringside for me.
I could sell them to other exhibitors/breeders. But holy crap! I’ve spent $24 grand on this litter…and two years of my life getting that little female Championed and titled enough to meet my standards to breed. If I sell these 4 females outright, I will recoup that money but nothing replaces time. I could keep 1 of the little females and show her- I have time and space for that! But the other 3? How do I ensure that they can still be shown to titles? How can I not potentially lose this new generation if something catastrophic were to happen to the one female I’ve decided to keep? Answer: Co-ownership.
Pretend I call up say, Mizzely. I know she’s a breeder similar to my program and she could use some new blood in her program. I ask her if she’s got the time and money to show another dog. I tell her I’m willing to pay half of all the showing/titling costs of one of the female pups if she wants to go halves with me. We write up a contract that will benefit both of us. The dog gets registered as “Cutest Dog Ever!, Co-owned by Mizzely and Sparkles, bred by Sparkles Program, handled today by Mizzely” and hopefully that female pup grows up to be an amazing finished champion and titled dog. Mizzely and I split all costs 50/50 and decide together if/when the dog should be bred. At any time, either co-owner can buy the other out of the contract and take over full ownership. Most co-ownerships last the lifetime of the dog though. Together they decide any breedings- should CutestDogEver be bred to Mizzely’s foundation sire first? Or mine? Mizzely has never used her foundation sire on a chocolate before- so we use a sire from me. 8 puppies born? Mizzely desperately needs more Blacks, so of course I let her take the show potential black pup that’s born- after all we are breeding to IMPROVE THE BREED. I don’t need any colors or genders necessarily, but my son just lost his old senior dog to cancer and so I bring him to Mizzely’s house and my “pick of the litter” is used by my son who picks out the fattest roly poly chocolate pup ever. Mizzely and I decide to sell the remaining pups, and equally divide the proceeds from sale between us (which doesn’t even remotely cover any of our costs/fees but money isn’t why we bred our dogs to start with).
Next year, Mizzely calls me up and says that she would like to try her sire (who’s now another year older and hopefully more titles) on CutestDogEver. I agree. Pups born. It’s now my turn for 1st pick puppy, and I actually want 2 from the litter. Mizzely graciously allows me to pick 2, and I let her keep/sell the entirety of the rest of the litter. Because that’s good friendship and good breeder relations.
CutestDogEver is now probably about 6-7 years old. She’s lived with Mizzely her entire adolescent and adult life. I can just sign her over entirely to Mizzely if that’s what we feel the need to do, but honestly we are good enough friends that there’s no worry if the paperwork never gets updated because we both know that CDE is Mizzely’s dog. But CDE will probably never get bred again- there’s no need. Her sons and daughters are now what’s being exhibited in the ring and winning titles. She’s retired to just living the house dog life. CDE has enriched the gene pool and bloodlines now of 2 separate, well established breeder’s and the cross over lineage between using Mizzely’s sire after first using mine with her has further bettered the spread of well bred Labradors across the country. It’s a good deal for all entities involved-
ENTER SHAM:
I have a dog who just had puppies. I could sell them, but if I sell the females I can’t breed them. But I already have 3 females and I don’t have room for 4 more. But if I “give” those 4 females to “guardian homes” I can retain the rights to breed those female dogs. So here’s what I’ll do: I’ll advertise that I’m looking for ‘The perfect homes’ for these female pups. I’ll make the people sign a bogus contract that says I own the dog until I take the dog back at maybe 12 months (or second heat cycle if I’m busy) and breed a litter of puppies from it. Only after I get a litter of puppies that I can sell will I turn over ownership of that female dog to the people. I’m going to have writing in the contract that states a minimum number of puppies needs to be born, otherwise I get to do multiple breedings to make it profitable. If I place these 4 females all in guardianship homes, that’s 4 females I don’t have to house and care for but can still be cash cows for me.