Must apologise in advance as I know this subject has been recently covered but can't find it using search facility.How many litters will the KC register in a single year before they look for some sort of 'licence' from someone.

Four.

from what I believe it varies from council to council.

it does, but the 'default' number is 4 so that's what the KC will be checking on.... if anyone wishes to register 5 then they must produce a license... if their local council insists on less, then they'll still be asked by the KC at 4.....

The law requires anyone breeding five or more litters to have a breeding licence from their Local Authority.

The particular Local Authority may deem someone breeding lower numbers as breeding commercially and require a license.

The kennel Club require sight of this license for anyone trying to register more than four litters.

Thanks everyone I eventually found the right page on the KC site.

Had a conversation with somebody yesterday, who claimed small toy breeders are annoyed at this because if they get just one single pup which is the wrong sex, they will have "wasted" one of their 4 litters, and so they don't bother registering it, or they use the Mickey Mouse registry. No doubt it happens, but what beats me is -why not simply wait until next year? Sure, it's far easier to have four litters of one or two pups in one year than four litters of ten, but even so? Does anyone REALLY need more than four litters in one single year?

it's a tricky one as the number of pups varies so enormously, difficult to 'police' but perhaps it should be a number of pups rather than litters ;-)  I agree that no one should need huge numbers of pups, but if you've a 'mission' perhaps they need a few... I do look at some breeders with huge numbers and think apart from the health tests and care taken numbers wise there's little difference between them and some puppy farmers..... but I guess it's just a question of scale.... those who do have such numbers have to be registered anyway... people with toy breeds may consider actually being registered and then they wouldn't have to worry, I would imagine it's less irksome than Kc assured registration, but would have a cost implication.  No need for license here - my last litter 18months ago and then some time before then!

If the breeder is in Wales proposals are for 3 or more litters to require a breeding licence.  Somewhere there is a post about a breeder in Wales who has just had a litter registration refused by the KC because it was their 5th in 12 months and they did not have a local authority licence, think it may have been on FB.

well if they've had 5 litters (whether in their own home or with others) then they definitely need a license, so can't really moan at the KC :-(  local variations will only bring the number of litters down....

perhaps it should be a number of pups rather than litters ;-)

That could lead to a dog being mated on every season if they only had one pup at a time.  Some breeds could be exploited on this

true, but nothing to stop them being bred every season any way by unscrupulous breeders (AND it would only be for council license nothing else)