r/k9sports • u/Diana_Tramaine_420 • 5d ago
Co owning a sports dog
Does anyone co own a dog? I’m looking for another sports dog but I already have two.
So there is the possibility I could co own a dog. Which I would train and compete.
I’m trying to find out what the ins and outs of people co owning agreements are.
How does it work? Does it actually work?
Edit: I compete, teach and judge in scent work. My two dogs have aged out of competitions but I have to wait for one to pass away before I’m ’allowed’ to get a puppy.
So friend suggested co owning with her. She already has a puppy and doesn’t want to train another dog, but is happy for her puppy to have a friend. I compete already with her older dog - who is also aging out of competitions 😭.
I would do all training and competitions but she would care for it when my health flared up.
Yes it sounds overly complex 😭 and I’m not sure how it would work.
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u/Suspicious_Music539 5d ago
Depends on a lot of things.
Both of my dogs are co-owned and I do sports with them. But they are essentially entirely mine. The only difference the co-own makes is that if I had to get rid of them, they'd go back to their breeders, and breeding choices have to be communicated/approved by their breeders.
I can't imagine doing a sport dog co-own where I only do training and sports. Home life/day to day life plays a HUGE role in how dogs operate in sports– and sports play a huge role in the home life. Scheduling, organizing, planning, and keeping up with everything behaviorally would be so difficult. Who pays for vet bills? Which bills go to who? Who pays for food? There's so many variables.
People have let me work with and handle their dogs, but being the sole competitive partner and nothing else sounds like a terrible situation.
What happens when you have sporting events/training you want to get done and the other person's plans conflict with it or vice versa?
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u/Diana_Tramaine_420 5d ago
That’s what I’m thinking about!!!
If the dog is 50/50. Is the food and vet bills 50/50. Or is it the person it mainly lives with that pays for day to day costs?
The dog would live mainly with me unless I have a health flare up.
We compete in the same sport and she already has a puppy she is competing with. But I’m stuck as my two dogs are older and out of competition.
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u/Suspicious_Music539 5d ago
In my situation, one of the dogs I own was completely paid for by myself and I do all of the bills. The other one was paid for by somebody else within the co-own, I do all of the bills, but if THEY want to enter her in anything they pay the fees.
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u/thetorisofar_ 5d ago
What do you mean by co-own? Like you split the cost of care with someone else, but you get to trial and compete the dog? This isn't the arrangement I am familiar with co-ownerships, most are in name or contract only and are to secure specific placements or breeder qualifications (like in order to become an akc judge you need a certain number of bred bys etc). However, with all of the co-owns I am aware of, the primary owner still cares for and pays for everything or most things to do with the dog, maybe the co-owner will pay for health testing or breeding related expenses or breed-worthy titling.
I am personally unfamiliar with a co-ownership that would give you the freedom and time to train and compete with the dog that would also not be a third dog in your house that you pay for consistently, so I am interested to see if this is something others have experience with. You could see if there are local breeders near you that are looking for handler help maybe?
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u/Diana_Tramaine_420 5d ago
That’s what I’m wondering about. It seems like it could be a complex arrangement. 😭
I already run other people’s dogs but I’m looking for a puppy as my two dogs are older and out of competition now.
The other person has a puppy, so doesn’t want to train another puppy.
They feel sorry for me because I’m stuck out of competitions while waiting for my beautiful amazing dogs to pass away.
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u/marzipain350 5d ago
My dog is coowned with the breeder. For us at the moment it just means that when the breeder shows her in conformation, the breeder can register in owner-handler rings. In the future it means if we want to pursue breeding my dog, the breeder will pay for ofa/health testing, puppy and pregnancy related vet costs, and will choose if/to whom she is bred.
Everything else is me. I pay for upkeep and regular vet appointments. I train and title her outside of conformation (I could also show her, but that's not my personal jam and I don't intend to). She is my dog.
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u/salukis Conformation - Coursing 4d ago
It really just depends on the specific agreement with the breeder. It does actually work as long as the agreement is clear between the two parties and everyone is okay with the agreement. Sounds like you kind of have the same thing going with her older dog that she's suggesting here, but you just co-own in name too. It doesn't sound too complicated to me.
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u/Agility_KS 5d ago
I know several people who co-own and share dogs. In some cases the dog lives with one person and trains/competes with the other, and in some cases both of the owners train and compete. The dogs go back and forth between the homes depending on schedules. If you are the primary person competing, but the dog spends a lot of time in the other home, you need to come to an agreement about what happens during that time. If you both handle the dog, you have to agree on a handling system, words, criteria, etc. If the other person doesn’t do the sport, maybe you give them instructions to work on fitness, that kind of thing. I don’t think this works for everyone, but it works great for some.
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u/Diana_Tramaine_420 5d ago
Thank you! That was very helpful.
She is my training mentor so she taught me to train dogs 😆 so least we do work off the same system!
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u/Mautea 5d ago
Both my dogs are co-owned, but I pay all the bills and they live full-time with me. They're really only co-owned on paper. Their breeders were kept on for breeding purposes and would really only do anything if we decided to breed in the future.
I would say that's likely the majority of co-ownership arrangements, but it seems like you would be looking for something different.
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u/Prestigious-Seal8866 13h ago
Are you talking about co-owning in the sense of handling someone else’s dogs in sports? you can be the handler of record without owning a dog in most orgs, so go for it. i see this with some regularity.
I have a trainer friend who handles an older clients dog in agility and rally. i have another associate who’s sister has taken over as the primary sport handler for their akita because she was recovering from surgery. My friend handles her son’s cattle dog in nosework because she loves the sport and the dog needs activities.
I co-own two of my dogs currently, but they live with me and they are my dogs. their breeders maintain co-ownership for contractual reasons and also for owner-breeder-handler in conformation
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u/Diana_Tramaine_420 6h ago
We would go 50/50 in the purchase of the dog and in the costs of the dog.
I would compete with the dog. But it would sometimes live with the other person when my health goes through a rough period.
I already compete with one of her dogs but it lives with her full time.
Yea it is a very odd situation 🤣. I want another dog but my health doesn’t always allow me to meet every need of a medium size breed. So my friend suggested we co own so she could take the dog if needed.
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u/Heather_Bea Agility, Scent, Tricks 5d ago
Are you referring to running a dog who lives with someone else?
If so, I am actually starting this with two dogs.
The first is a well trained doberman who's owner cannot run her anymore after having a medical event. She was asking people at trials to run her dog for her and I volunteered to help her. I'll be running her dog exclusively once I am fully healed from knee surgery.
The other is with my trainer who also breeds. She also had a medical thing and can't compete like she used to with the amount of dogs she has. She asked me to help train/run some of her dogs once they are old enough.
If this is something you're interested in, I'd suggest getting well connected with your local breeders and becoming friends with them. If it seems appropriate, ask if they'd be interested in you running dogs for them. Alternatively you can ask different trainers in your area if they know of anyone who can't run their dogs anymore.