A Clear And Present Threat To Breeders

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166 – April, 2026

By Lisa Dubé Forman

The future of purebred dog breeding may be hanging by a thread. Whether it is your hobby or your life’s calling, its future teeters on the tough realities we confront, ‘running dogs’ every day. Our sport and passion clash with growing costs that threaten all but the wealthiest or luckiest among us. Can ethical, small-scale purebred breeding survive today’s economic pressures?

As many of us have read, the AKC has been grappling with Net Operating Losses, largely because of declining dog registration revenue. Post-COVID, numbers have fallen below 2018 registration levels, revealing a sharp decline from the 1990 peaks. Breeders’ financial struggles are clearly influencing this steady shrinkage in registration numbers.

The inescapable macroeconomic factor is the rising cost of veterinary care, which is soaring and outpacing most breeders’ ability to keep up. Pet health insurance for a kennel full of dogs is a fantasy for many. Multi-dog policies are financially unattainable, and even basic plans are full of loopholes, require add-ons, or are capped at meager annual sums like $5,000 or lifetime caps of $10,000. The situation worsens as major insurers like Nationwide have canceled 100,000 or more policies, abandoning countless dogs–many aging or already ill–without coverage. Others may soon follow.

Click here to read the complete article
166 – April, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on Apr 14 2026. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.