million dogs have been removed from the stud book using this tool. What is not known is the number of pups that are
sold on LR that are not registered. Some estimate it to be equal to the number actually registered. Based on population
statistics using the Bell Curve, the number of dogs in a breed that would be expected to be of poor quality (DQs and or
other serious faults) would fall in a range of 4 – 6% for a breed.
A review of the monies spent on dog research and the advancements achieved over the past 20 years, one would expect
the number of poor quality dogs being produced to be leveling off or at least be in a decline. For example, advances
have been made in how to manage the carriers, how to use formula breeding techniques and how to make better se-
lections of sires and dams to name just a few. All of this research and the accompanying advancements suggest that
purpose-bred dogs should be better and healthier now than 20 years ago. The data for LR for the past 25 years does not
support this conclusion. In many breeds the number of LR is increasing. For example, 60 breeds have more than 25%
of their pups on LR; 59 breeds have between 25% - 50% on LR and 15 breeds have between 40% - 65% of their pups
on LR. Note that while LR were autho-
rized in 1989, AKC data for LR begins
with 1993.
Table 5 shows the slow and steady
increase in the use of limited registra-
tions for only pups actually registered.
Those placed on LR that were not reg-
istered are not known. When the num-
ber of LR pups (registered and not
registered) are combined the impact
on the stud book is even greater.