AKC SOLICITS MEMBERS to change dog's name - Page 5

Note the following condition of name change: 

If the dog has received any awards at an AKC event.

This clause does not protect the working dogs entered in schutzhund trials, or any other working endeavour that is not AKC sanctioned.

 

Additional updates on AKC's solicit of name changes:

Today I contacted Joy Schultz, at the WDA.  I explained this situation to her, and she is in agreement that there should not be the allowance of a change of name, once the dog is registered. They do not have access to the same database that AKC maintains for it's own registry...so this will make it very difficult on dogs having their names changed, to track the birth origin of dogs wishing to compete in WDA trials, to send in hips for rating with the SV...and many other areas which she is in agreement on, in that it will create many future problems.  

At her suggestion, I am writing an email letter, ATTN:  GSDCA-WDA Board of Directors.
This email will describe in detail the solicitation of name change by AKC and supply further copies of email correspondence with AKC as it is unfolding. 
I will be emailing this to Joy, and  she will insure that it is forwarded on to the Board of Directors, so that this can be brought onto the floor for discussion at WDA's next board meeting in January, 2011.  This will allow the members who own registered dogs to have a say in allowing this rule by AKC to continue.  
Joy is also going to have this topic entered into their newsletter for their members.  

I will have my letter to her by Friday.
If any of you have had problems with name changes of your dogs...please, now is the time to make a difference and to have it be addressed with AKC in a permanent manner. 

Please send any important info, or pertinent experiences you have personally encountered, with regard to name changes and/or problems ... 
directly to:
Joy Schultz, wdaoffice@cfl.rr.com  
Please reference the thread below in your correspondences: 
AKC SOLICITS MEMBERS to change dog's name

 If this rule can't be eliminated in it's entirety,  perhaps there can be an exclusion added to the rule, excluding the GSD from changes being allowed to be made, once the dog has been registered. 

This video is the reason for my suggestion posted above, for AKC to require the health screenings of hips and elbows, and that acceptable, breed worthy ratings be received before they are allowed to show or compete in AKC sanctioned events.  Lots of money for them to make there, in requiring owners must first pay a fee for AKC to certify their dogs have received their hip and elbow ratings issued by their Orthopedic Organization.. for the dogs born in the US or the dog's individual country of Origin if the dog is an import ...OFA< SV< FCI< etc. , prior to being able to enter the competition.  
This would be a far better avenue for them to pursue to make money on..for the betterment of the breed.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/bulletins_read/444829.html

I'll be writing a nice letter to Mr. Roberts at AKC asking to re-examine the facts of my forgery/name-change/kennel-prefix-removal fiasco of last year.

I hope this time it gets corrected... Thank you Jean for getting the ball rolling... there has been too much complacency about this process.

Sometimes its easier to just roll your eyes in disgust, and toss the letter onto the "to do" pile....  (I am guilty of that).

Denese Wolfson
DenWolf German Shepherds

Thank you Denese...Please forward to me via PM or email,  any info you can, and i will include this as documentation of proof of a sampling of the problems, along with my email letter to the WDA. 

Any one else who has similar experiences, please do post them here or email them to me via PM.

Thanks to all... and remember, there is power in numbers.
Jean

Updates on progress: Below is the letter I wrote and sent to GSDCA-WDA Board of directors, via care of WDA, Joy Schultz, with cc to WDA President, Cindy Jones Petersen. Anyone who has name change issues and hope to have them addressed should send copy of documented proof to Joy Schultz, or WDA President Cindy Jones Petersen, requesting that they be included in the documents which will hopefully be presented during the January meeting by GSDCA-WDA. If the Board Meeting can produce a passing vote to present the request to AKC not to allow the changes of names, then following this, it must be presented to the AKC Delegates, which then goes before the Board of Directors for AKC, for a vote whether to remove this rule, modify it or issue an addendum to it.


See Letter Below
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: JeanESchrader@aol.com
To: wdaoffice@cfl.rr.com
CC: cindyntill@msn.com
Sent: 11/12/2010 1:35:05 A.M. Pacific Standard Time
Subj: Fwd: AKC SOLICITS Dog Name Change


To: GSDCA-WDA
Attention: Board of Directors

Dear Board of Directors,
I wish to bring to your attention a problematic new policy now being promoted within AKC;
that of soliciting members who have just registered their dogs to change the dog's name.

I respectfully ask, as a member of WDA, as a breeder, and as one who registers their dogs through the registry maintained by the "Not for Profit Organization of AKC", that this name change policy be brought to the floor for discussion and vote, by the Members of the Board and members who attend the next WDA meeting, in January. I am hopeful a vote will be successful to remove the AKC rule which currently allows this practice of changing a registered dog's name.
If the rule allowing a change of a registered dog's name can't be successfully removed in it's entirety, then an addendum for an exclusion might be entered, to exclude GSD's from being allowed to have their names arbitrarily changed, without "good cause"; with said "good cause" reasons being specified in detail, following which a process is in place which will require owner and breeder to be in agreement as to the reason for having the name changed.
I did not ask for this name change. I was solicited to have this name changed.
I am against the changing of name of a dog, once it has been registered.
There is already much human error in the input of pedigree data.
I contacted a breeder member of the Canadian Kennel Club...The CKC does not allow name changes of dogs once registered.
I contacted the SV, they do not allow any change of a dog's name once it is registered.
There are no reasons I can deem necessary for allowing, and more specifically promoting a name change of a dog already registered, without very good cause such as to correct spelling or an inaccurate date, etc.
Allowing the changing of registered dog's names will create unnecessary errors in the inputting of information, due to human error. Many will change names simply because they can. I believe it will be highly problematic in tracking pedigrees, and in verifying the identification of a dog presented for trial or shows. Microchips and tattoos become useless with regard to verification of ID for the dog it was originally intended.
(continued)

Page 2 (continued)

Case in point: Just a sampling of the problems this can cause..
1. The dog they asked if I was interested in changing the name on is a foreign born dog. Their bylaws do not allow this dog to have it's name changed...yet they sent me this email asking if I would like to do so. When I called AKC and spoke to them about this, they said that I had received this email to change my dog's name in error.
Human Error in not recognizing this dog was of foreign birth origin, and did not meet AKC's own criteria required for name change.

2. I called again, to ask why this dog did not show up in my breeder management profile. AKC said they did not show any dogs at all listed for me. In looking closer, they found that on my certificate, my last name had been spelled incorrectly, so this foreign registered dog had technically been registered in someone else's name. No other dogs were listed under "my new incorrect name" and he was not associated to me with any of my currently active dogs.
Human Input Error of information.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter regarding this important matter. I believe the impact of allowing registered dogs to have names changed could be detrimental and far reaching, in a number of areas.
Please see copies of all my correspondence pertaining to the name change solicitation below.

Sincerely,
Jean Schrader
WDA Member

i sent an e-mail to them and the response was that if the dogs were regerstered to a kennel with the kennel name and the kennel waqs regerstered with the akc it could not be change and went on to give several other examples of what they would not change or could not be changed.

Thus the point of all this...AKC doesn't police their own policies well enough to insure this doesn't happen.

I could find no other registries which allow a name change once the animal is registered....It is nothing but a can of worms for errors to be made which will then prevent proper tracking of these pedigrees.

My situation I described above proves my point.  AKC didn't get this dog registered properly into my correct name even BEFORE they asked me if I wanted to change the dog's name.   So, had this not been a foreign dog, and they allowed me to change the dog's name, and had there been this person with the same last name as they  "gave to me"  by mistake,  would I have been able to correct this and get him properly registered to me after the fact, since I was not listed properly as the dog's owner?  

 I would have had to spend countless hours, which I don't have,  just to fight AKC to get the dog registered correctly? !  And trying to get this done with a name change of the dog involved...the possibilities for problems arising are staggering. 

I see no need for them to have this rule to allow name changes once the dog is registered.