DogPedigree field guide
How to organize dog breeding records on a Mac
A useful breeding archive has to answer two questions quickly: what happened to this dog, and which records belong in the next handoff? The easiest way to get there is to keep relationships and events structured while leaving original documents attached to the correct animal.
1. Give every dog one stable record
Start with a unique internal identifier plus registered name, call name, sex, birth date and current status. Keep these fields separate so exported records remain sortable and names can change without breaking relationships.
2. Link parents instead of retyping pedigrees
Store sire and dam as links to existing dog records. A relationship graph can then show the same parent consistently across every litter and prevent spelling variants from creating duplicate ancestors.
3. Record events on a timeline
Add heat cycles, matings, litters and health events as dated entries. Do not replace the previous event with the newest one; the sequence is what makes the archive useful when planning or answering a buyer.
4. Separate the archive from the handoff
The private kennel archive may contain much more than a buyer needs. Build a selected export containing the puppy, pedigree and relevant health documents, then keep a manifest so the contents can be reviewed later.