A friend of mine has asked me to go into partnership with her ona new dog she plans to get. I am interested but was wondering if anyone here has had any experiences with co-ownership of dogs, good or bad. If you do would you mind haring them ith me? All i can see is the pro's at the moment and dont want to jump into anything without knowing of the implicatins i could face.

Thanks,
Julia

I own a dog in partnership with 3 frinds, one of whom Vanhalla also posts on this board.

You have to be clear from the outset what form this partnership will take, and draw up an agreement of how long it is to last, and what happens when the partnership is disolved.

in our case one of us has an account into which we all pay money as and when needed, and out of this all the dogs expenses are paid.  the person with whom the dog lives is reimbursed the cost of his keep.

A freind of mine has a dog in partnership, and to all intents and purposes the dog is hers, she pays for all his keep, and the other person pays nothing.  In this case the partner owns the sire and he was her stud fee pups, which she gave to my freind free of charge.  If the dog is used for breeding then she will also have to agree as will be required to sign the litter registration form, but I think any stud fees will be kept by my freind(this is the sort of area that needs to be convered in an agreement).

Co ownership can be awkward if you begin to disagree on certain issues, such as how the dog should be used at stud ,showing ,working ect ect
also theres always the issue that one of you may want out ofthe deal later you need to decide what happens then.
it is amde awkward as it is a buisness deal but it also involves a living probally much loved animal.
if you enter this agreement do take the advice of  a solicitor and get everything down in writting and signed by you both in case a dis- agreement occurs.:)

I co-own several dogs, most with the same person, but several in other partnerships too (one of my co-owner is Dawn who also posts here).  Never had any problems at all. In our instance, we are breeders of all the dogs we co-own, and the partnerships are on various different terms , it is important to get the details sorted out and set down on paper at the outset.
bye
Gwen

All partnerships and co-ownerships are as good as the contract drawn up right at the beginning and the understanding of that contract by all parties. A date for termination of the agreement is also a good idea or you could find yourself locked into an agreement to pay half the expenses and then find the dog is not good enough to show, can't or wont breed and lives with someone else to a great old age but requiring lots of vets attention.

Get a proper contract drawn up with the requirements of all parties covered.

Would advise reading the 'Appalling behaviour' post in Breeding.