"Not sold with pedigree"

I love to have a pedigree with an animal, it's really nice to be able to see the history. I like being able to show my chin his pedigree and say, 'Look Henry, your Grandad was a BV named Shorts, and he was a Grand Champion'. Actually, in his case I may breed him, but I've been told I'm Ok to do so by his breeder and other good breeders, and it's not something I'd jump into, am attending shows and continuing to learn first. I do use pedigrees to try to find about any awards my animal's relatives have won, and am always thrilled if I can find a picture of them. I found out in this way that my dog has a half-brother in Ireland who looks awfully like him. With my dog, we'd never even consider breeding from him, but the pedigree is still something that's nice to have (he actually came with ribbons and certificates he'd won as well, which we thought was really lovely as we would've expected the breeder to keep those).

I actually wondered about this myself, as I've seen a few breeders selling chins without pedigrees recently - sometimes it's because they've started fur chewing, so I can understand it in that case I guess. I think if I was going to have one of these chins as a pet, I'd still want to try explaining to the breeder that I absolutely would never breed a chin they didn't want me to for any reason at all, and that I'd just really like to have the pedigree. I hope that wouldn't put them off letting me have the chin. I wouldn't mind waiting for one, so the breeder had a chance to see I'd take good care of the chinnie first, and could send the pedigree on later if they were satisfied. I think I'd feel a little hurt if the breeder really didn't want to give it (though of course, I understand it's their right), as I'd feel I wasn't trusted (in which case, I'd wonder why they were selling the chin to me in the first place). I might also be worried there was something really seriously wrong with the critter, at least if I didn't get at least a short pedigree with the parent's names and DOB! So, I suppose as a buyer, not having a pedigree would put me off rather.

Most people, I've found, don't even know that chins are shown and that they can have pedigrees, and react with amazement and amusement, and some curiosity, when I tell them I'm a member of the NCS. So, I can definitely see breeder's concerns, but I probably wouldn't worry too much about a BYB using their kits having a pedigree as a selling point - it doesn't even occur to people a chin might have one, usually. If given one, they'd probably be pleased and interested to have it, but I don't think it would sway a decision, and if it did they'd be the sort of person who would make sure the breeder they were buying from was a responsible one (a lot of people simply go to a pet shop, anyway).

I agree that at least the parent's names and the DOB, and breeder's contact details, should always be given. We bought a beautiful Syrian hamster from show lines (she was HUGE!), who sadly suffered a stroke at a relatively early age. Since we did have all her details, we were able to ring the breeder to let her know, and she did say she was very glad we'd thought to do so, and that she'd had a similar problem with our hamster's grandmother after we bought our girl, and that in that case she would no longer breed the line. In her case we did have a full pedigree for her (I'm pleased we have it to remember her by, it's something I'd always keep), but if we'd had no details at all we wouldn't have been able to tell the breeder.