Co-ownership success? Any hints? - Page 3

Hard to find an honest person these days. I agree have every senario possible on paper and then there are no "miscommunications".

No no no no no no no!!!!!!!


YR

I have co-owned many dogs both dogs I have purchased on a co-ownership and dogs I sold that way.  Out of all of it I have had one bad experience and it was my fault because I did not put it all in writing.  To be honest I would not hesitate to do it again - it is a nice way to keep some wonership on mogs you cannot honestly house after all most of us have a limit as to what we can handle and for me it is not dozens of dogs.  However by co-owning a dog you can "keep" more dogs or at least be able to get a puppy back out of a really nice bitch you like but cannot house. 

I thought this was a trick question! LOL

 No trick, Beetree. Just curiosity and wishful thinking, lol. 

LOL Jen, I must admit that this pup tickles my mind, just like Pru. But I wont know until another 3-4 weeks if the Ooops took or not. And then I am gonna have my hands full....

 Ah, there you are. How did you know I was thinking of you? LOL

I know you would like this girl, probably better than Pru, although I know you are a big fan of Ebba. 

If Apache's oops is half as good as Anza's was, well, you're gonna have monsters on your hands. 

I took this little one on a walk in the plowed corn field yesterday morning and she kept up great, ran between me and Caleb. I liked that she seemed more interested in me than Caleb. That's unusual, IME. Most puppies I've had, especially when they are new and not familiar with their surroundings, seem to latch on to him more than me at first and look to him for guidance and direction until they settle and start to bond w/me. 

She hasn't had a single accident in the house, either. Barks if she's in her crate and has to potty. Such a good girl;-)

I've co-owned a number of females, some with success, other's without.  First thing I do is put everything in writing, even when co-owning with a good friend.  Not because I don't trust them, but because 2 or 3 years down the road  neither of us may remember exactly what we agreed to.  Having it in writing allows us to look back at the original agreement, even if the "in writing" is just some emails.

I don't sell the dogs I co-own, I give them to the co-owner for free.  I've never understood why someone would pay a lot of money, to not have full ownership of their dog, and if I wouldn't do it as the buyer, I'm not going to ask for it as the seller.  I also avoid co-owning with people who want to breed themselves, it avoids arguments about which stud dog to use, who gets which pup(s), etc.  If I do co-own with someone who also wants to breed, then we have an arrangement regarding the litters, ie I pick the stud for the first one, they pick the stud for the second, or whatever.  Each of my co-owns is a little different, since the details of each home are a little different, and possibly each dog.  I also only co-own females, I see no reason to co-own a male.  If I like him enough to breed to him, I'll just pay his owner a stud fee.  If I owned the male as an adult, I can always collect him before selling him outright, if he's a pup I bred then it's in the contract I can use him as an adult, as long as I pay a stud fee.  When it comes to the breeding of the female, if I decide I want to use her in my program and the co-owner isn't interested in breeding themselves, I make all the decisions, pay all the bills, whelp/raise the litter, and the pups are mine.  After a set number of litters, full ownership of the female is given to the co-owner.  If I don't feel the female is breeding quality, I don't add her to my program, and I sign ownership of her over to the co-owner.  If the co-owner is also a breeder, which like I said based on past experience I will try to avoid doing, then we have to work out who the stud is, who whelps/raises the litter, how we split the pups, etc.

This has served me pretty well over the years.  I have run into a few issues, but for the most part it's worked well and my co-owners seem happy with the agreement.

Co-ownership can be good and it can be bad depending on your partner.
Some things that MUST be considered BEFORE going into the partnership include.

Goals - what's expected and is it reasonable? What if the goals are not met?
Honesty - omissions are still lies, white lies are still lies.
Training Styles - shock collars, positive operand conditioning, hard corrections, what are you comfortable with?
Personality - are you comfortable with this person, are they over bearing or a pushover?
Communication styles - so many times people can think they're saying the same thing and are not.
Feeding and Housing requirements - will your dog be fed and housed in a way you are comfortable with?
Ability to pay for emergency issues - expectations of timely payments, debit card on file, special bank account?
Spending Habits - some people watch every penny, some throw money our the window.
Expenses and paperwork - how often will copies be sent? how will payment be made?
An equitable way out if it all falls apart - who gets the dog, is the partnership sellable, what is the compensation?

For a co-ownership to work, either these things must be in alignment, or the partner without the dog must be hands off. Many expensive dogs are co-owned, and there are many good partnerships out there. There are also many partnerships that are not so good.

Does anyone else have other considerations that would need to be in alignment prior to entering into a co-ownership?