How the American Kennel Club and Dog Shows have changed from a Gentleman's Sport to Everyman's pastime to a profitable, political playground for The Elite.

AKC HISTORY AND FUTURE

The American Kennel Club was founded in 1884 by a small group of wealthy men to compare and improve breeding stock.

In order to do so, they had to keep track of wins and pedigrees.  That led to formation of the AKC, conceived as a "club of clubs" to formalize budding competitions across the country. It was a great and noble beginning.

Prior to WW II, the sport of breeding and exhibiting dogs was defined by the comfortable rich with time on their hands.  As Americans prospered, more families could afford to keep dogs as pets rather than for utilitarian reasons.  By the fifties, AKC shows had become a gathering ground where common folk could socialize and show off their pets.  Dogs were still judged more on using ability but gradually, esthetic beauty became paramount.  This came as a result of women moving from the whelping room into the show ring.  As women's rights became fashionable, they were no longer content with nurturing pups and then turning them over to the men to exhibit.  Women began to take dogs into competition and all the way to top honors.  Stylized grooming techniques and showmanship caught on.  Dog Shows had not only arrived, they became a family sport.

During the seventies, Americans became urbanized.  We worked shorted hours and had more disposable income.   Gone were the days of 300-dog entries where an owner handled dog could win the Group.  A bale of hay in a NC tobacco barn turned into a throne when Lina Basquett sat down beside me.  Gesturing with her long cigarette, she said "Look at them BJ!  There's the OE and Woody, Jimmy and the Shepherd, Carlos and Dino!  What are they doing here in this God-forsaken place?"  I risked the observation that they were here for the same reason she was here.  She flared her nostrils and replied, "But dear, I will win the Group so they are just wasting their time!"  We stayed to cheer her on to BIS, which she also won, defeating all of four hundred dogs.

By the eighties, most breeds needed professional handlers.  Entries were averaging over a thousand dogs.  "Politics" had always existed but what had once been human nature became a way of doing business and could be embarrassingly flagrant.  It was hard to sell a show puppy and let the buyer think they could do it themselves.  Honest breeders advised serious exhibitors to get a handler and after a decade of education and networking, they could possibly win as owner-handlers.  Whereas in the past most exhibitors were breeders, an increasing number of buyers only wanted to show.  The dog show was a social event, the dog itself more of an accessory than a hobby of the heart.

The United Kennel Club (UKC) was unchallenged in hunt and field events and AKC was the king of Conformation.  Peripheral registries had yet to be defined, much less considered alternatives.  Rare breeds were formalized by organizations such as ARBA, the American Rare Breeds Association.  Roadside signs proclaiming "AKC Puppies For Sale" had yet to reek of commercialism.  Puppy mills were only gestating, about to be born as Vietnam vets received generous federal funding and learned that raising dogs could be a viable business.  Puppy mills were born when dog farming also caught the attention of farmers strangled by agri-business monopolies.  Suddenly, dogs and everything connected with dogs became a bountiful money crop.

Enter the Nineties.  Records computerization by the end of the eighties came just in time for an explosion of shows and registrations.  AKC began to see possibilities of expansion, not-for-profit not withstanding...  What was once free or considered part of a show or AKC service was now for sale.  Everything from parking spaces to points verification now came with a price tag.

The Millennium came and went with blinding speed.  In a February column, AKC judge Sari Teitjen astutely noted problems facing AKC's continued success:  "AKC support of and commercial alliances with the commercial pet industry... has led to an erosion in confidence..." and a "declining interest in AKC registration..."  Wayne Cavanaugh, former AKC Communications VP, was also critical of AKC's failure to define its positions and the value of registrations as its primary product. 

Indeed, AKC has a long-standing obligation to the dog owner of the new millennium.  Whether for exhibition, breeding, or simply for companionship, the dog must be a WELLbred dog.  An AKC certificate must mean it will look and act like the chosen breed because it is that breed.  It will be healthy because it was created by someone who understands genetics and would never want their dogs to be sick or die prematurely.  The papers must signify quality created by an individual who loves dogs.  The dog of this century must not become a crop - a product hawked by an AKC that may have forgotten its avowed Mission.  The dog must not be merely an accessory to glamour or a means to provide ancillary income or ego gratification.

For most Americans "A boy and his dog" is a part of American history.  It is so, not because of AKC or any other registry.  The family dog was a precious part of childhood for both city and farm kids, and whether purebred or mongrel, it was a DOG, not a product.  The family pet was not something legislators and tax collectors viewed as revenue.  It was not a pawn for humaniacs.  A dog was your best friend and should remain so until there is no more life on earth.

The next decade for the American Kennel Club will decide its future.  Our parents took for granted what we now must fight to preserve.  Some of us entered professions which sustain a lifelong love of dogs.  As handlers, trainers, veterinarians, breeders, writers, we must condone the mass production and mass marketing of the purebred dog or choose another profession.  We can not profess to love dogs and what they mean to us - and accept that dogs mean only $$$$$ to others.  Would you sell out your best friend for a business deal?  Well? Would you betray your heritage for another "endorsement" fee?  Would you? 

It's Election time.  How will your Delegate vote?  Do you have a commitment from the candidates to put the American Kennel Club's 1884 Mission first, before profit, production - and a new version of PAWS?  Does your club hold its Delegate accountable to the wishes of the majority of members?

Are we too little too late?

http://www.thedogpress.com/ClubNews/AKC/History&Future_Andrews-0503.asp #053122

revised, updated, reprinted from    March 2005