The Registration and Customer Services division comprises the Registration, Customer Service, and Special Services departments.

The Registration department reports that the first full year of the Online Litter Registration program was remarkably successful.

By October 2004, more than 100,000 litters were registered on the Internet, accounting for 30 percent of all litters registered.

In February the division launched Online Dog Registration, a process that staff continued to refine through the year.

Both of the new online services offer a more efficient process and faster means for completing business with AKC. Breeders and dog owners can now enter their information themselves, eliminating redundant data entry and mail time, and enabling the immediate delivery of registration data.

Of course, the bulk of AKC registrations are still done on paper, and a newly redesigned, user-friendlier paper form was developed during the year for an early-2005 release.

The year’s top breeds in individual dog registrations were Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, Beagle, and Yorkshire Terrier.

There were 958,400 total dogs and 437,460 total litters registered. This was the first upward trend in both litter and individual registrations since 1996.