Co-Ownership Arrangements for Dogs
Simply put, dog co-ownership is when more than one person is the legal owner of a dog. The most common scenario is when a dog is purchased from a reputable breeder on a "co-ownership" term. If the breeder uses contracts, the contract may state that the breeder maintains some level of ownership of the dog; in that case, there are usually restrictions to the new owner’s (or "co-owner’s") rights with the dog and/or limitations on the dog’s breeding or showing career. Most often, that means that the new owner is restricted from breeding the dog unless the original owner approves of the match-up.
Another popular co-ownership scenario is between breeders, or a large kennel owner with multiple dogs, but this too, is somewhat limiting in that the person who wants to breed the dog must have her reproduction rights released, possibly paying a stud fee for her use . All of this information should be in writing, so that no one is surprised by a breach of contract issue later.
A third co-ownership scenario that is somewhat common for hobby breeders and trainers is what I call a training partnership. In this case, there is an ongoing training or performance cooperation between two parties who own a dog in common. Perhaps Person A buys a dog for performance, and knowing that she may not always have time to do the training or the showing, Person A negotiates a co-ownership deal with another person (Person B) who will do the performance training and show the dog. They also negotiate the details of the agreement, including where the dog resides (Person A’s home), how often the co-owner will use the dog for training and performance, and how profits (the monetary benefits won as prizes) will be shared. That agreement should also be in writing.
Key Elements of a Co-Ownership Agreement
A dog co-ownership contract is a binding agreement between two or more parties outlining each co-owner’s rights and obligations with respect to the dog. Contract terms usually include the following: a description of the dog and any registration numbers; full names of each co-owner (including their address); details about the dog’s care, who will be responsible for the primary day-to-day care of the dog and how expenses will be shared; where the dog will live; how the dog will be jointly maintained; how expenses will be shared; each co-owner’s voting rights and what decisions they can make; how a sale or transfer of ownership would be handled; contingencies for a co-owner’s death, divorce or separation; and the dispute resolution process for any contract disagreements.
A binding co-ownership agreement is important especially in cases where all co-owners want to remain listed as co-owners on the dog’s registration papers. If one co-owner decides they want out of the co-ownership arrangement and there is no legally binding contract with clearly defined rights to the dog, the other co-owner(s) may be legally barred from selling or registering the dog, for example. Also, as previously mentioned, if a co-owner dies, has a divorce or separation, is incapacitated, or if the relationship between the owners disintegrates, all can impact the fate of the dog. A co-ownership contract that clearly outlines how these situations will be handled can help resolve disputes and provide guidance for honoring the joint wishes of the co-owners.
Obligations for Co-Owners
Co-owners of a dog are responsible for all aspects of their beloved pet’s care including veterinary care, grooming, training, and socialization. When multiple individuals or families co-own a dog, the parties must balance the needs of the dog with the realities of divided responsibility. Ultimately, co-ownership responsibilities are as individual as the co-owners themselves – but there are a few aspects of care that are always key. When developing your dog co-ownership contract, consider the following:
Veterinary Care
Every dog needs annual veterinary care for vaccines and wellness check-ups. If you have multiple co-owners, the costs of routine senior wellness exams and blood work is relatively modest, and this is a budgetable expense. Consider adding more significant medical care to your list of bills split along traditional lines. For example, you might reimburse the dog’s owner more for significant procedures or medications that exceed $500, but share responsibility equally where it is possible to predict expenses, such as wellness.
Grooming
Many dogs benefit from frequent grooming. Grooming to some degree is typically required every 6-8 weeks. The decisions about grooming frequency and location – whether professional or at home – is a personal decision that may be determined by the owners’ preferences. The cost associated with routine grooming can be easily budgeted for, and split among all the dog’s owners or apportioned based upon care frequency (i.e. an owner who grooms more often pays 75% assigned grooming expense and each other owner pays 25% assigned grooming expense).
Daily Care
Daily care can be narrowly defined as feeding, walking, and exercise, but can also include a wide variety of tasks like cleaning, transporting, and basic grooming. The portions set out above provide a framework for daily care, but ultimately its distribution should reflect the needs of the dog, and not necessarily the number of co-owners. If an individual is less mobile, for example, they may not be able to share in the number of walks provided to the dog. In that case, they might pay a bit more for a dog-walker to fill the care gap.
Decision-Making and Dispute Resolution
Once you have drafted a co-ownership agreement, you will want to make joint decisions regarding your dog’s welfare. In an ideal world, all issues related to your pet would be amicably resolved by the co-owners. Unfortunately, there are many times when this is not the case and a disagreement arises. If you think there is a chance that you may not agree with your co-owner in the future you would be wise to address your decision-making method in the agreement in advance. Some examples of issues that may not be amicably resolved are:
- Where the dog will live
- Decisions regarding breeding of the dog
- Decisions regarding breeding of any offspring the dog may produce
In order to try and avoid conflict regarding everyday decisions and to try and mitigate any potential conflict if it does arise you may want to consider the following:
1. For easy day to day issues such as feeding, walks, vet visits and where the dog is to live you may want to have a schedule set up in advance.
2. For more serious issues your agreement should state the method that will be used to try and come to a resolution.
Examples include:
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- Other forms of dispute resolution
- In the unfortunate event that you are unable to agree on your dog’s welfare, you should have prepared in advance a process for selling or transferring the dog to a mutually acceptable third party.
If you do have to sell or transfer the dog, because of a dispute, you may have to contend with who is responsible for paying the purchase price or any veterinarian bills or other expenses owed regarding the dog.
While it is almost impossible to predict the future, by laying out in advance how you will deal with issues and conflict gives you the best chance as successfully navigating the dog co-ownership terrain.
Financial Aspects of Dog Co-Ownership
Again, as with a lot of things in dog and pet ownership, sharing the cost with a co-owner gives the feeling that the costs are halved, but in reality, it is often hard to split costs easily and fairly. In simple terms, you know that you have to buy dog food, and that a good diet will help your dog live a long and healthy life (hopefully). So you agree to share the dog food costs, and everyone takes turns buying it, or agrees a monthly figure that each pays into a joint dog food account (even Venmo can work well for that!). But do you buy the same food all the time? Some treats? Special prescriptions? Supplements? Raw foods? Home-made? Food is one area where co-ownership agreements could be problematic, and one where the "other owner" could get fed up very quickly with waiting for costs to be shared or agreed upon…and that is not good for the dog. In the same vein as food costs, veterinary costs should be agreed upon and each party responsible for a share. But again, as anyone who has taken a dog to the veterinarian knows, every little scratch and sniffle could mean a trip to the vet…when you get there and then wait 3 hours (or more!) with a barking dog in a crowded waiting area at the vet’s office, you discover that the dog food you agree to share and the medicines the vet prescribed, are actually far more costly than either of you had anticipated…and a trip to the vet takes up a large part of your day…and you need to re-arrange your schedule to fit that visit in just as you need to when your child gets sick. That is not in the original co-ownership agreement, so how do you avoid this trap? There are options, from allowing the primary owner to have the "primary" responsibility for all veterinary care and costs, perhaps compensating the other owner for their share of just that portion of costs at the end of the year…but that may run into issues again as to what is fair and who pays for those medications. And again , as most "dog folks" know…there is a high percentage of unexpected veterinary costs when it comes to dogs, ranging from infections and illnesses to eye and ear problems, puppy and heat cycles, tick and flea treatments, and even expensive emergent procedures! If that dog gets sick and needs emergency surgery and your co-owner doesn’t want to spend the money, what do you do? Because you will need to make that decision for the dog on your own, most likely without the consultation of the co-owner, because you do not want to lose the dog (or face a lawsuit in the face of a heart-breaking choice). Even training expenses can be a point of contention, depending on how pet-friendly a household is or how much training the new puppy needs. If that co-owned dog could use some training and you want to send it to training, how do you agree on that, especially if the co-owner feels differently? Do you split the cost of the trainer, or does the owner keep the dog? Split the difference? Agree to disagree? Write a check? Or do you try to find a teen or kid in the neighborhood to train your dog in exchange for dog-minding? Once again, co-ownership is complicated and you need to figure out the money piece in advance. So how do you avoid a fight over financial matters? Simply being open and honest with each other and being upfront about issues, and quickly addressing concerns, will go a long way to avoiding unexplained bitterness between owners. Discussing every issue that arises between the two of you is sometimes just not practical when it comes to time, thought and energy so a co-ownership agreement should allow for consistent dialogue between co-owners. And once again, it is the animals who are at stake here, so convenience and compromise between the co-owners can be very helpful, especially when deciding how to share costs and agree upon who pays for what.
Writing a Co-Ownership Agreement
In many cases, the co-owner will work with the breeder to draft an appropriate co-ownership agreement. The breeder can help make sure terms are clear and enforceable, and that they meet the AKC’s requirements.
The co-ownership agreement should address the following points:
Financial details
The terms of the sale or payment for the puppy or dog should be included in the co-ownership agreement, including whether it is a one-time payment or installment plan over time.
Care of the dog
The agreement should say where the dog will live. Co-owners should consider the following points:
Breeding rights
If the co-ownership agreement permits breeding, it should address the following issues: Agreements typically specify that all puppies whelped by the dog become the property of the co-owner of record. The other co-owner does not receive a monetary settlement or a puppy in lieu of a percentage of the litter.
Health issues
The health care standards for the dog should be spelled out in the agreement to avoid confusion about the co-owner’s obligations.
Other details
It is a very good idea for the agreement to require the co-owner to spay or neuter the dog by a certain date. In states where breed disqualifications apply only to unaltered dogs, the agreement should address whether the dog should be altered.
If the breeder or owner is going to conduct DNA testing, such as a tick panel, for genetic diseases, the agreement should specify that the co-owner must pay for his or her share.
If either party is going to be competing in AKC events, the agreement should specify that the co-owner must record their contact information in AKC’s database as the co-owner of record before the dog shows.
The agreement should be signed and dated by both parties and reviewed by both parties and a lawyer before either party’s signature is applied.
Co-Ownership Scenarios in Practice
The world of dog co-ownership is fraught with complicated issues. But many good owners have figured out ways to make it work for them, and if you’re considering co-ownership or currently co-own a dog, it’s useful to learn how others have navigated the intricacies and issues related to co-ownership.
Case study 1: All in the family
For an interesting case study that turned MIT researchers into dog breeders, take a look at this co-ownership agreement from Dr. Adam Waytz, who is a social psychologist at Northwestern University. Dr. Waytz and Dr. Julian De Freitas partnered up to breed a puppy as part of their study on the nature of human-dog relationships. The pup they created was named Lolita. Per the agreement, Dr. Waytz raised Lolita, became her primary caretaker, and had first choice in ownership. His ex-wife, who also was interested in keeping a dog in her new home, was given co-ownership of Lolita. The arrangement went smoothly, with both parties giving input into Lolita’s care. Of the joint ownership, the two dogs owners noted: I was worried at first based on the literature about ownership disputes, so I wanted to include the terms of our co-ownership agreement in writing. It’s nice that we did create a more formal contract, but I think the most important thing was our perception of Lolita as a family member. If either of us had viewed Lolita as property or an investment, I think it could have led to a flawed co-ownership experience. I also think that working out a co-ownership agreement with someone also has to be a good fit in terms of values, family history with dogs, and shared or conflicting goals in how to raise a dog. For instance, A.V. and I did not see eye-to-eye on whether we should crate train Lolita. Although we didn’t see eye-to-eye, it was a fruitful disagreement that led to each of us learning about different ways of training a dog and being able to make compromises . When we finally did agree on how to solve the disagreement, it made for a better decision. So my advice would be to make sure you are co-owning a dog with someone you feel comfortable talking through disagreements with, and who you are willing to learn from, who you can work with, and who you trust. In this case, Dr. Waytz found that open communication worked wonders in creating a successful and satisfying co-ownership agreement with his ex-wife. As we’ll see in the next case study, this was not the case for another dog owner.
Case study 2: Conflicting interests, boxing gloves required
Health problems and disagreements about dog training styles divided Chris and his ex-wife. Chris and his ex-wife bought Gojira (Goji) together from Von Der Weidhaus Dobermans. She became Goji’s first trainer. Because Chris was living in an apartment at the time, they decided that she would keep all the puppies at her place and he would visit once a week. Problems arose when Chris and his wife visited AKC events without Goji and Chris’s wife would post videos on her social media accounts of doing training exercises with the puppy. A variety of disputes followed. Broke, confused, and angry, Chris sued his ex-wife for sole ownership of the dog. He won the suit, mainly on the basis that there was evidence the dog’s weight was not being properly monitored and controlled. He was awarded sole ownership of Goji. He hasn’t seen much of Goji since. Chris doesn’t have a driver’s license or a good driving record and he does not personally like to deal with public transportation. He is now living in poverty and unable to afford a dog of any kind. He said occasionally visiting Goji at a local dog park is his only way to access his dog. This example shows us that co-ownership can have its share of negatives, and that sometimes it can become too contentious for the dog to have access to both owners in a reasonable manner.