I'm registering Cosette with the AKC and need some advice on naming conventions. I'm not registering her as a purebred—she's Africa-born, we don't know her pedigree, and we aren't planning to breed her anyway—but I still think it'd be fun to give her an informative name like those breeders use.
To that end, I've been looking around online and in the forum archives, but I haven't found a good, concise guide that explains how the registered names of purebred basenjis work. I understand that the breeder/kennel name will be in there somewhere, and sometimes the individual litter will have a theme (or even a name of its own?). What order do these elements go in? And is the call name added in there somewhere?
It's my understanding that dogs of unknown origins can be registered with the AKC as a "PAL" so they can compete and earn titles. (http://www.akc.org/register/purebred-alternative-listing/)
I don't think it matters what you register them as with PAL. I know people who just have the dogs call name as their registered name and if it's unique enough that would work. They don't need a kennel name because as a dog of unknown origins, they don't have one! I do know of some people who use their last name as a "kennel name" for their PAL registered dogs.
Some breeders use a prefix ie "So-and-so's Registered name" and some a suffix "Registered Name at So-and-So's" and some dogs with multiple breeder's use a combination of the two. This would be more for dogs with known origins who's parent's are already registered. As for themes, breeders do this for fun and/or to keep track of each litter. My breeder did letters until he ran out of letters and now they do random themes often playing off the parent's registered name. ie.. my dogs "Make me a Star" was from an "M" litter, "Sweet Sensation" was from a "SS" litter and "Don't Stop Me Now" was from a "Songs by Queen" litter because their dam was named for a Queen Song.
If you are referring to basenjis being registered as pure African stock dogs then I don't fully know how that works. I think there is a process that involves being evaluated by a group of experts or something like that.
Thanks for the insight! Yeah, we weren't planning to get Bamidele registered as African stock; she'd be great for it in my opinion, but I understand the stud books are currently closed to new imports, and we have no plans to breed her anyway. I was just hoping for a little more clarity on the meaning behind show dog names I've seen around the Internet, and your information helped explain that.
Just a quick followup: So, can the kennel name come at the beginning or end of the full registered name, depending on the kennel's preference? So, for instance, Ch. Meisterhaus Make Me a Star could have just as easily been called Ch. Make me a Star of Meisterhaus?
(And the Ch. there is a title, for "champion," right?)
@Baba-Bamidele Kennel names always come first... leaving off Championship titles here is an example Klassic-Tanza Color Me Tri, Klassic is the kennel name of the breeder, Tanza is my kennel name. Another example AB Day Trip to Tanza-Jamaa. AB is the breeder kennel (stands for Adventure Land), Tanza is my kennel name, Jamaa is the other owners kennel name. Another Example is Tanza-Jamaa Tri-Light Princess, Tanza & Jamaa are the kennel names of the breeders.
Where did you get your Bamidele?
I have seen people put the kennel name last but that might not be an AKC thing. (maybe another country?) Yes the CH. was his championship title.
If you plan on registering your girl with AKC's "PAL" program I wouldn't worry about a kennel name. I have a friend who does agility with her yorkie (not AKC registered as far as I know) and her PAL registered name is "Little Piper Parkins" with Parkins being her last name. Kennel name doesn't matter for PAL!
To that end, I've been looking around online and in the forum archives, but I haven't found a good, concise guide that explains how the registered names of purebred basenjis work. I understand that the breeder/kennel name will be in there somewhere, and sometimes the individual litter will have a theme (or even a name of its own?). What order do these elements go in? And is the call name added in there somewhere?<<
Okay let me try to simplify it.
The purpose of kennel names isn't much different than your last name... it shows who you belong to, it shows what kennel/breeder the dog came from. Some kennel names are registered with AKC and cannot be used without the owner's permission. ( http://www.akc.org/registration/kennel-names/ ) So you need to go here and make sure the name you want is allowed: https://www.apps.akc.org//apps/reg/namecheck/
Some breeders choose and name every puppy in a litter before they place them in homes, or perhaps allow an owner to choose from a list, or come up with their own name (after the kennel name) or a name starting with a letter or a theme (such as types of guns, weather conditions, star clusters etc). Those help identify not only the breeder, but also the litter.
Okay so your dog isn't from a kennel, so unless you knew the breeder and wanted to recognize him/her, then truly there isn't a need to make up a "kennel name". Like it was said before, some people just use their last names. You could use where your dog is from, or put Africa's Cosette (I just checked, you can use that). So with a pet being registered for possible agility or other type competitions, you can use anything you want. That said, I regretted naming my first dog with my name instead of thinking of a kennel name (which I did with my first litter). So I suggest you make up a list of names, have people look at it and see if you might be missing some awfulness 
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@tanza She's from Southeastern Bénin, very close to the border with Nigeria. We didn't set out to get a basenji, but the more I learn about the breed, the more I realize that's exactly what she is!
Thanks, everyone, for the explanations. We want to register her with PAL so she can do lure coursing. (She's got quite the chase instinct...) We don't need a kennel name, but I was more asking just for my own curiosity. If she were to have a "kennel," it would be the streets of the region where we got her, the Plateau Department, since there's very little human intervention in dog reproduction in that part of the world.
