A professional dog handler has warned local buyers to be on their guard after questioning the authenticity of a purebred dog brought to the island as a pet.

However, the dog’s breeder in Britain said that dogs were often legitimately registered with organisations other than the official Kennel Club, owing in part to onerous restrictions.

Bermuda’s Kennel Club (BKC), which maintains the island’s official registry for dogs, continues to deal only with other Kennel Clubs overseas.

“A lot of puppies come in to Bermuda without the right paperwork,” said Carole Havercroft, the BKC’s registration officer.

“There can be problems; you could end up having a dog with a health issue, or you might not know if you were breeding a brother with a sister.”

As a result, she said, the BKC would only accept paperwork for imported dogs backed by the Kennel Clubs of their home countries.

“Otherwise they are not official papers as far as we are concerned,” Ms Havercroft added.

Dog groomer Zeth Landy approached The Royal Gazette after documents arrived for Chico, a chihuahua puppy purchased in 2013 by Blanche Jones, who has sought to breed her pet.

Mr Landy maintained that the papers, supplied by the Kennel Certificate Company in the UK, were “a mess”.

“They’re not affiliated with any registered club at all, and the company’s site says they will basically make the paperwork for you,” Mr Landy said.

“I am afraid that other people bringing in dogs will use this company to make papers.”

The Kennel Certificate Company’s website cautions that the business is not registered with the UK Kennel Club, advising clients: “Registering a dog without papers is easy.

“If you do not already know the heritage of your dog then you can create your family tree here.”

It states that with the rising popularity of mixed breeds, or “designer dogs”, the company is compiling a database to allow breeders to ensure that inbreeding does not occur. However, Ms Jones said she had spent more than $3,000 on her pet, only to find that she could not breed him in Bermuda even with a registered purebred.

While the local suppliers, Pic a Pet, agreed that Chico’s documents would not be accepted by the BKC, the store stood by the Kennel Certificate Company and said that nothing was holding Ms Jones back from breeding her dog.

Under Bermuda law, owners seeking to breed a dog can apply for a licence to do so through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Meanwhile, Betty York, Chico’s breeder in the UK, told The Royal Gazette that many reputable breeders preferred not to operate through the UK Kennel Club.

A breeder of Yorkshire Terriers with more than 40 years’ experience, Mrs York said she had opted instead to work with a company called Kennel Registration.

“There are too many restrictions with the Kennel Club; people are fed up with them,” she said, calling the snubbing of other registration groups “snobbery”.

She said the UK Kennel Club had deemed her Yorkie terriers “not true to the breed” because of their colouration.

Similar issues arose with the Biewer Terrier breed, increasingly popular but still not recognised by the British Kennel Club.

Mrs York said other breeders had tired of the organisation over its decision in 2012 to cut the limit on the number of litters that could be registered from six to four.

“Part of this is my fault,” added Mrs York, conceding that she had mistakenly sent Ms Jones documents via Kennel Certificate Company instead of from Kennel Registration, but that the company wished to contact Ms Jones nonetheless.

According to Kennel Registration, the company’s database now had details for more than 250,000 animals.

Its managing director, Colin Dean, said its breeder registrations were “taken and processed in good faith, exactly the same way in which they would be with any other club, register or organisation (the Kennel Club included)”.

Ms York added that she had sold Chico as a pet, and that her business did not sell dogs for showing or breeding.

“I’ve had dogs going to Bermuda for nine years,” she said. “I’m very particular about it — it’s my name.”

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