I am not personally a huge fan of the AKC. I think they could do a better job with their Marketplace site, ensuring that all of the dogs listed for sale meet the minimum health certifications listed by the governing club for the breed, in our case the GRCA. I also think that they have started doing things to make more money, and could spend some more of that money helping the breeds that they service. I think they could provide more information along the lines of what K9Data and OFA does. If the GRCA stepped away from AKC and started doing it all on it's own I would definitely not mind buying a GRCA registered dog, but that's just nonsense. I do rely on the AKC as the register of all pure bred dogs here in America. I also rely on their titling system to let me know what attributes the lines I'm looking at possess. I would not pay money for a dog that I could not verify parentage on with the AKC. I personally research AKC, OFA, and K9Data when looking at any puppy or dog.
I think you are asking AKC to do what the breed clubs SHOULD BE DOING.
GRCA is pretty solid and most breeders who are active and responsible members are almost neurotic (in a good way) about dotting the I's and crossing the T's.
Other breed clubs are a lot more slack. This concerns breeding close relatives, breeding dogs who failed clearances, etc.
It's up to the owners to educate themselves and avoid really bad breeders out there. If somebody is saying there should be fly by night registries to compete with AKC, that sadly demonstrates lack of knowledge about all this stuff. And it's not their fault consider there are breeders who know very well that they can lie their faces off and people who just want a dog will assume they are hearing facts and truths.
This includes vets by the way who are in a position of authority for a lot of people, but some vets out there are as clueless as anyone else. More and more frequently, you might not have a regular vet who even owns a purebred dog. Some of the younger vets out there primarily own rescue dogs.
Again - if AKC got more involved, you would have upset breed clubs crying foul about AKC stepping on their toes.
Also. <img src="http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/images/smilies/smile.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" />
I agree with somebody else that a breeder sending a puppy home with worms or other issues... isn't that great. Most breeders I know have wormed the pups before they go home and they will send notes home with the buyers to take to their vets.
The only puppy I brought home who had worms was the first one from a backyard breeder.
Another pup had coccidia, but that's a different issue (it's more stress related).