So my company just launched a new product, a kit that includes genealogy charts for dogs, health forms, and paper sheets that can be shared with caregivers and vets. This blog post discusses how the product came to be.
A few years ago, I received a question about one of the genealogy products I sell on Amazon. The product is a pedigree chart, printed on archival quality paper, intended to help genealogists track back up to eight generations along maternal and paternal lines.
The question wasn’t about using the charts to track people. It was about dogs:
When I first saw the question arrive in my email inbox, I had a double take. I assumed that it was obvious the charts were for people tracking their own ancestry. But as soon as I saw the replies from my customers, I realized that there was another use case for the charts: People tracking the pedigree of their dogs.
And no wonder. There are millions of owners of pedigree dog breeds who want to track their dogs’ lineage. Here’s a list of the top 15 breeds (out of 192 total!) for 2018 from the American Kennel Club:
- Retrievers (Labrador)
- German Shepherd Dogs
- Retrievers (Golden)
- French Bulldogs
- Bulldogs
- Beagles
- Poodles
- Rottweilers
- Pointers (German Shorthaired)
- Yorkshire Terriers
- Boxers
- Dachshunds
- Pembroke Welsh Corgis
- Siberian Huskies
- Australian Shepherds
But that’s not the only group interested in their dogs’ pedigree. There are millions of dog owners who simply want to track their dogs’ genealogy because they love them deeply. Dogs are more than pets, they are members of their family. Why not use high-quality charts to track their dogs’ lineage?
Over the next 12 months, I considered whether there was a market for dog pedigree charts. I also thought about how paper forms might be used by dog and puppy owners for other purposes — tracking health history, or informing veterinarians and caregivers about canine behavior, preferred dog food, and dog activity notes.
The end result — the Friend Forms Dog Health, Activity, and Genealogy Forms Kit (21 Sheets) — was released earlier this month. There are three features that I think set it apart:
✅ Dog vaccination sheets to record vaccinations, microchip numbers, and other health data
✅ Share activity notes, food requirements, and your vet’s contact info with caregivers
✅ High-quality folder holds forms, receipts, and other pet documentation
Are there apps for this? No doubt. But some of the great advantages of pet health forms, pedigree records, and activity sheets is they never need batteries and are easier to share. They can also last for decades if stored properly — unlike digital devices or the data stored on them, which may become obsolete or deleted as accounts expire or tech companies get sold or go out of business.
Here’s what the kit looks like:
Learn more about it at the official website or purchase it here or on Amazon.
