PuppnDogs, by the record

USDA-licensed dog breeders in Ohio

Ohio has 247 dog breeders and dealers with a federal license, 12% of the national total. This is what USDA inspectors found when they visited, from every inspection report published since 2014.

Source: USDA APHIS license list of Sep 15, 2026 and inspection reports to Sep 18, 2026.

247 active USDA dog licenses in Ohio: 227 breeders and 20 dealers

21,357dogs counted at each licensee's latest inspection

1,078inspections from 2023 to 2025

75.2%found no problems, against 88.7% nationally

#3of 26 states by licensed dog breeders

Ohio has the third most USDA-licensed dog breeders

12% of the 2,063 active USDA dog licenses in the US are in Ohio.

Active USDA dog licenses by state, top 10
#	State	Licenses	Dogs counted	Clean, 2023 to 2025
1	Missouri	680	46,635	96.3%
2	Indiana	379	17,172	93.8%
3	Ohio	247	21,357	75.2%
4	Iowa	152	11,055	86.5%
5	Oklahoma	82	4,265	91%
6	Kansas	77	5,921	89%
7	Wisconsin	77	4,747	63.8%
8	Arkansas	67	3,929	92.9%
9	Pennsylvania	52	4,482	82.8%
10	Illinois	37	1,236	91.2%

How often USDA inspections of Ohio breeders find a problem

Share of inspections with at least one citation. Visits where nobody was home are left out.

In 2014, 17.8% of inspections in Ohio found at least one problem. In 2025 it was 23.2%. From 2016 to 2022 inspectors could log a minor issue as a “teachable moment”, which isn't a citation, so part of the drop is a change in how problems were recorded. A falling rate can mean better kennels or lighter inspections. The records alone can't tell which.

Show as table

Year	Inspections	Found a problem
2014	243	17.8%
2015	288	18.6%
2016	366	11.1%
2017	341	12.6%
2018	360	5.4%
2019	382	6.6%
2020	136	4.8%
2021	315	6.4%
2022	267	7%
2023	413	26.2%
2024	312	24.6%
2025	353	23.2%
2026	288	19.1%

What USDA inspectors cite most often in Ohio

The rules behind Ohio's citations since 2014. Separately, inspectors arrived 573 times and found nobody available to let them in.

Rule	What it requires	Cited
3.13(a)(3)	Veterinary care for dogs	140
2.40(b)(2)	Methods to prevent, control, diagnose and treat disease and injury	133
3.13(b)(3)	Veterinary care for dogs	57
2.40(b)(3)	Daily observation of all animals to assess health and well-being	48
3.1(c)(3)	Hard surfaces must be spot-cleaned daily and sanitized	46
3.11(a)	Excreta and food waste removed from enclosures daily	46
2.75(a)(1)	Records of every dog acquired, held or disposed of	30
3.1(c)(2)	Worn or damaged surfaces must be repaired or replaced	29

Why a Ohio breeder can be missing from these records

Breeders who sell face to face don't need a USDA license

USDA only licenses breeders with more than four breeding females who sell to pet stores, to brokers, or to buyers they never meet, which includes most online sales. A breeder who sells only to people who visit in person is exempt. So a breeder missing from these records may be unlicensed or simply exempt, and a clean USDA record covers only what an inspector saw on the day.

Sources for these figures

Active licenses: USDA APHIS, List of Active Licensees and Registrants, as of Sep 15, 2026. Public domain.
Inspections and citations: USDA APHIS inspection reports through Sep 18, 2026, collected by the Data Liberation Project. Dog counts, repeat citations and rule counts use its parsed files, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the figures on this page are shared under the same license.
A licensee counts as a dog breeder or dealer if it holds a Class A or B license and dogs were counted at any inspection since 2014.

USDA-licensed dog breeders in Ohio

Check a breeder's USDA license number

Breeders who sell face to face don't need a USDA license

Sources for these figures