What a Chinese Crested Folder Should Contain
A Chinese Crested puppy may weigh only a few pounds at handover, but the paperwork should be anything but slight. Expect a signed contract naming the breeder, the puppy's date of birth, variety, sex, and microchip number, plus registry paperwork or a lineage record tracing at least three generations. You should also receive a veterinary record showing the litter examination, worming schedule, and which vaccinations have already been given, with dates for what is still due. If anything is promised verbally — a health guarantee, a return clause, help with registration — it belongs in that contract in writing, not in a hallway conversation.
Hairless or Powderpuff: Why the Variety Must Be Written Down
Cresteds are unusual because a single litter can contain truly hairless puppies and fully coated Powderpuffs, and the variety shapes daily care for life. A hairless puppy needs a skin routine — gentle cleansing, sun awareness, and watching for clogged pores — while a Powderpuff needs regular brushing through a soft double coat to stop mats forming behind the ears and under the legs. Your breeder's written care sheet should match the puppy you are actually taking home, and the registration and vet record should identify the variety the same way. If the papers simply say Chinese Crested with no variety noted, ask for that to be added before you leave.
Parent Screening Worth Asking to See
Responsible Crested breeders screen breeding dogs for eye conditions, including progressive retinal atrophy, and for loose kneecaps, which are a recognised concern in small toy breeds. Hairless Cresteds can also have missing or fragile teeth, so ask what the parents' dentition is like and what the litter vet found when checking your puppy's mouth. You are not looking for a guarantee that nothing will ever happen; you are looking for evidence the breeder tested, kept the results, and will hand you copies rather than summaries. A breeder who shows you certificates unprompted is telling you something important about how the litter was raised.
Checking the Puppy's Own Early Record
Read the litter vet entry line by line before you travel home. It should cover heart and lungs, eyes, bite, hernia check, and, for males, whether both testicles can be felt. For a hairless puppy, look for a note about skin condition at examination, and ask whether any sunscreen or moisturising advice the breeder gives is written on the care sheet. Confirm the microchip number on the record matches the number scanned in front of you, and ask which database it sits on and how you transfer it into your name. That transfer is easy to forget in the excitement and awkward to chase months later.
Your First Fortnight of Filing and Visits
Book a vet check within the first few days and take the whole folder, not just the vaccination card. Your vet can confirm the next vaccination dates, start a dental-watch habit early for a hairless puppy, and weigh a toy puppy whose growth is measured in ounces. Keep receipts, insurance details if you arrange cover, and notes from that first visit in the same place as the lineage record, because future groomers, sitters, and vets will all ask for pieces of the same story. When it is all gathered in KinsLe, the Pet Passport turns that scattered Crested folder into a single packet you can hand over at the vet, the groomer, or a border crossing without hunting through drawers.