Home breeders may or may NOT be involved with registered dogs.
Some of the best AKC registry breeders are home breeders who spend thousands of dollars on pre-breed testing, on puppy exams, on researching pedigrees and interviewing potential studs or dams, spend even more thousands of hours socializing puppies in their kitchens, living, bed and bathrooms and who practically FBI background check potential puppy parents. Some other home breeders are in love with dogs that no registry recognizes, but they put the same love and concern into their dogs and puppies as any registry recognized breeder. This is usually how a rare or disappearing breed is saved--by a few home breeders who love their dogs too much to lose them forever.
Backyard breeders get that name because their dogs are yard bred and yard raised, and puppies are generally not well secondarily socialized with people, making them problematic from the start; some dogs never fully get over their lack of early socialization.
And I'll take on the AKC rant, since I walked past the puppies in the window last night and am still steaming mad about the "AKC registered" signs on the glass in front of those little faces!!!!!
BYB's and puppy mills are ABLE to make huge profits off dogs because all AKC requires to register a litter is the name and address of the owners of the Dam and Sire, a few other boxes checked on a 1 page form, and a Visa or Mastercard number. That's it. That's all AKC asks for, and if you doubt me, go to the AKC site, and look at the downloadable form for registering a litter. It's appalling. (Yes, I am the local president of "AKC Critics Not Anonymous", I'm afraid. I think AKC's tolerance tars a lot of truly great home breeders with the BYB brush. It's why you've even asked this question!)
Neither does AKC require any record of health certifications from new owners who are transferring the regsitration of their dogs after purchase from the breeder. It's supposedly a BREEDING REGISTRY, mind you--you'd think health certs would be critical, but they couldn't care less if you poked them with a cattle prod.
They put on a public face
of 'presuming the honor' of every breeder--pretending everyone who uses the AKC registry is an honest dog lover who is doing all the recommended testing, all the recommended vet checks and all the recommended client screening before placing puppies in homes. AKC knows that this presumption is a big fat lie, but doing anything to change the status quo would cost them big bucks.
A BYB or a puppy miller breeds 'pure' dogs that have these easily obtained AKC registration numbers, and sends in a litter form with a Visa number. Per their own rules, AKC doesn't require DNA profiling for males until they sire more than 7 litters a year--which means that a byb with 3 females and a male can have puppies ready to sell every 2 months, year round, forever, without AKC even questioning them. You do the math if they keep some of their puppies and line breed!!!
Maybe I need to just stay out of The Beverly Center until they finish re-installing the other escalator so I don't have to walk past the Puppy Jail on my way to buy Body Shop Vitamin C night creme and grapeseed body butter.