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Kennel Club vs. DIY Pedigree Certificates: How Pup Papers Gives You the Best of Both
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Kennel Club vs. DIY Pedigree Certificates: How Pup Papers Gives You the Best of Both

If you need a pedigree certificate for your dog, you generally have two options today: buy one through an official Kennel Club, or create one yourself. Both have their place, but they also come with clear trade-offs. Pup Papers was built to combine the strengths of both approaches while removing the downsides.

Option 1: Buying from the Kennel Club

The most traditional route is to purchase a pedigree certificate directly from the Kennel Club.

Pros

  • Simple process. You only need to provide your dog's registered details and pay the fee. The Kennel Club handles the rest.
  • Highly trusted. Because the certificate comes from an official governing body, breeders, buyers, and show organisers tend to trust it without question.

Cons

  • Can get expensive. If you need certificates for an entire litter, the cost adds up quickly.
  • Slow turnaround. You have to wait for the Kennel Club to produce the certificate and post it out to you, which can take days or even weeks.

Option 2: Making your own certificate

Some owners choose to design and print their own certificates, sometimes using a template bought online.

Pros

  • Low or no ongoing cost. Once you have a template, you can reuse it as many times as you like.
  • Design flexibility. You control the layout, colours, fonts, and overall look of the certificate.
  • Print on demand. You can produce a certificate the same day you need it, without waiting for postage.

Cons

  • Time-consuming. You have to build or customise the design, format the information, and manage the printing yourself.
  • You source all lineage information. Tracking down accurate sire, dam, and ancestry details is your responsibility.
  • Risk of mistakes. Manual data entry introduces errors, and even small mistakes can undermine the certificate's credibility.
  • Harder to verify. Because the details can be edited freely, others may question whether the information is accurate.

Pup Papers: the best of both worlds

Pup Papers is designed to give you the simplicity and trust of a Kennel Club certificate, combined with the flexibility and speed of a DIY approach.

  • Simple. Just enter your dog's registered Kennel Club name and we fetch the required data from trusted sources.
  • Flexible designs. Choose from multiple certificate templates to find the look that suits you.
  • Print at home. We generate a high-quality PDF that's ready to print whenever you are.
  • Fast. Go from entering your dog's name to a printable certificate in under two minutes.
  • Trusted. Sire and dam details cannot be manually entered or edited, so there's no room for mistakes. Every detail comes from trusted sources, and each certificate includes a verification code that others can use to confirm the details match our records.

Free during launch

For a limited time, Pup Papers is completely free to use. Generate as many certificates as you like with no credit card required. It's the easiest way to produce professional, trustworthy pedigree certificates on your own terms.