New litters are given appellation in kennels across the world. Some people have misconstrued the names to be synonymous with pedigree dogs or quality. Others believe that it is used to prove to other breeders that they have produced more litters than others. This is far from the truth.

Now that you have timed your breeding with one of the dog ovulation methods available and your puppies have arrived, is it not proper that you give them a title? This tittle is to distinguish them from previous or subsequent litters for reference purposes. You can use any number, alphabets, alphanumeric or any pattern you wish to distinguish litters, but it must be logical and sequential.

You can classify your litters according to the season of the year they arrive;rain, dry,winter, summer to mention a few. Each breed you have in the kennel will have its numbering separately. For example, Samoyed and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel litters nomenclature should be clearly indicated in your records and distinguished.  Then you can add alphabets, number or both(Alphanumeric) to the season to differentiate multiple litters that arrive in same season. You may wish to use the months of the year to generate your nomenclature. The list is endless. The most important thing to consider is consistency.

Let me take you to the pattern that we use in our kennel, Euniversal Stars. We go with the letters in English alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z. This gives us 26 chances to name a litter of a particular breed with consistency before it can be exhausted.  Also, we can start with Z and go back sequentially to Y, X till will get to A, before we start from Z again. We may decide to count from A to Z. 

We have 26 letters in the English alphabet and this means we need to have 26 litters before it is exhausted and we start all over again. If you have two breeding bitches of a particular breed, you will need about six and a half years to exhaust the alphabets; based on two litters per bitch in a year. Suffice to say that a single breeding bitch will exhaust the series in about thirteen years at two litters per year. It will be funny and dishonest for a dog breeder that had his first litter two years ago to have got to Litter J with a single bitch of the breed in his breeding program.

It is a standard that you must follow the nomenclature serially. You cannot have litter A and move to litter D in the next litter. It is litter B that follows. The sequence should be adhered to strictly. Perhaps you want to prove you have produced more litters than someone else? People that know their onions will not take your deceit hook, line and sinker. They will simply remove you from their trusted breeders’ list. Dogs coming from your kennel cannot be trusted in terms of quality, health and pedigree. You can even cook up date of arrive(DA) or date of birth(DOB), as you may wish to call it, of your litter. You lack integrity!

You may tag your first litter of Chihuahua as Chihuahua Litter A and that of your Papillon as Papillon Litter A. You just need to start the sequence for each breed you have in your kennel, and when it is exhausted, you start all over again. Your first litter of Chihuahua that you have tagged Litter A usually will have names of the puppies in the litter start with letter A. For example Amanda, Ama, Angela, Amazon, Atina, Amber and so on. Litter J will have puppies with names like June, July, Jane, Julius, Joe and so on. Same goes for the other breed in your kennel, which is Papillon in this case.

If someone that has your Litter Q that was birthed in 2016 calls you for anything on the dog, you only need to check your computer or dairy to get all the information on that particular litter even though you may have had many Litter Qs for the breed. The fact that he mentioned the year he got it from you would tell you the Litter Q he was talking about. There is possibility that the new owner has even changed the name you gave the dog as the breeder to his/her name of choice( Call name). The owner must quote the litter name to get any meaningful information on his/her dog from you. Who has an account with a bank and goes into the banking hall to make an enquiry on his account without providing his bank details? Perhaps his account can be identified with only his picture!

I will say that any standard breeder will keep records of his litters and in so doing,will give each litter a name for present and future references. No human has super memory and no matter the form of record keeping you have adopted, you still need a reference code to help you navigate the records. If you have not been using litter nomenclature, it is not too late, you can start today.

Please feel free to add your questions, opinions or criticisms in the comment section.

Written by Olumide Makinde 

©Euniversal Stars Kennels 2019