What goes in a puppy pack in the UK?
A UK puppy pack carries the microchipping details and the transfer of keepership, the record of vaccinations and worming, the puppy’s date of birth, description and any health results for the puppy and for the sire and dam, breed-specific care information, and the breeder’s contact details — plus the contract of sale, which is exchanged separately from the keepsake folder. "Puppy pack" and "puppy go home packet" describe the same set of documents on either side of the Atlantic.
Puppy pack, puppy packet, go home packet
They are the same thing. British and Irish breeders say puppy pack, Australians mostly follow the British usage, and American breeders say puppy packet or go home packet. Search results split along the same line, which is worth knowing if you are reading breeder advice from the other side of the ocean and wondering why nothing matches.
The contents converge more than the words do. Every version of the list contains identity, pedigree, health record, microchip, feeding and the breeder’s contact details.
What the kennel clubs expect
The Kennel Club’s guidance for first-time breeders on creating a puppy pack asks for the contract of sale and microchipping details, a record of the vet treatments the puppy has had — vaccinations, worming and the rest — breed-specific care advice, the date of birth, a description including colour and markings, and any health results both for the puppy and for its registered sire and dam. Breeders are also encouraged to write up the puppy’s first six weeks: socialisation, feeding and vaccinations.
The Kennel Club has also offered a free online puppy pack since 2024 as part of KC litter registration. It is worth knowing about and worth using if it fits: it is free, and it is tied to registering the litter with them. What it is not is yours to lay out — it is their document, in their design, generated from what they hold. A breeder who wants the growth chart, the socialisation log and a letter in their own words is assembling something different.
Microchipping is compulsory before a puppy is sold in the UK, and the breeder must be recorded as the first keeper, with the transfer to the new keeper happening at handover. The packet should say plainly how that transfer is done and on which database — it is the single most common thing a new owner fails to complete.
The details American templates get wrong for you
Paper size and date order, and both of them matter more than they sound. A US Letter PDF printed on A4 loses its margins and looks like a mistake on a document whose whole job is to look considered. And 04/09/2026 means the fourth of September to your buyer and the ninth of April to the template that generated it.
PuppyGoHomePacket sets both explicitly: A4 or US Letter, and UK/Australian or US date order, chosen once for the litter and applied to every page of every packet. Weights are recorded and printed in kilograms and grams or pounds and ounces, in whichever units you actually logged them — it does not quietly convert.
Related
Make this packet without retyping it eight times
PuppyGoHomePacket is a puppy go home packet maker for breeders: you enter the litter once — sire, dam, pedigree, weights, vaccinations, feeding plan — and it generates a finished packet for every puppy, a ZIP of the litter, and your own litter record. The editor is free and there is no account: build the whole thing and preview every page with your own dogs in it before deciding anything.
Last updated 2026-09-13.