AKC in schutzhund - Page 2

Personally, I am done with AKC. I have come to percieve them as a sort of bully, or wannabe cop. I don't need that sort of stress in my life. I have my dogs for myself, first, to enjoy. Many people have told me over the recent years that AKC was actually involved in turning in breeders to authorities to be raided. Mind you, these are allegations and I have no evidence to support these claims. However, I would believe that, because they do have a mandatory inspection clause and a disclaimer in their inspection notices says that they reserve the right to refer you to authorities for perceived cruelties or neglect. Cruelty, OK, but neglect can be minor and some people just get bent all out of shape, beyond reason.. an overturned waterbowl, for example! I start to get a little bit squeamish at this sort of inspection thing, although I did have two AKC inspections and passed both easily. But I can only wonder if the AKC inspector might be "in cahoots" with a competitor who wants me shut down! And if that were the case, with even so much as a referral from them to the local animal control, a breeder would be "dead meat". Breeders are not treated well in court, these days. We're not "politically correct" and the animal rights organizations have all the lobbying juice. They also want to see breeders put "out of business", permanently. It's open season on breeders, and AKC doesn't seem to realize this. So, I was very much displeased that AKC was playing footsy with HSUS and Santorum, who were hell-bent to get PAWS passed. This makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck! One more thing that I have noticed over the years with AKC which makes me mistrust them a bit: They change their policies (in my opinion) too arbitrarily, and there can be some real unpleasant surprises. They've been known to start up programs like this and then drop them for their own reasons, leaving participants high and dry. It can be very dangerous to depend on them for papers, and then (due to circumstances beyond your knowledge or control) those papers can be pulled. This happened to a Maltese breeder whose dogs' DNA did not check out (according to AKC's DNA auditor / contractor). Allegedly, the problems started long before she even owned the dogs, but the papers got pulled anyway, leaving her with a huge mess, civil lawsuits and a pro-AR (animal rights) state attorney general prosecuting her for consumer fraud. They are really out to destroy this lady, because she is a BREEDER! The prosecutors are having a roast, and AKC brought the charcoal briquettes! I have not bred a litter in seven years, now, and I do not particularly look forward to dealing with the public again. But when I do, I will have buyers sign a contract to the effect that I will provide registration papers from MY choice of registry, and that I reserve the right to replace them from another registry later on, if necessary. This is only to protect the myself. Because NOW, it is not just a matter of refunding the price of the puppy. If you have something happen such as happened to this Maltese breeder, you could end up in major legal trouble, both criminal and civil. By the way, that Maltese breeder had approximately 35 AKC Champions to her credit and raised her dogs at home with two employees and her kids, so by most peoples' standards, she was a paragon of excellence! Go figure!

...speaking of Politically UnCorrect, check out my forum. http://catousa.corecoding.com/index.php

AKC IS the US FCI registry for 140ish breeds. There is no real alternative to AKC. GSDs have **averaged** in round numbers, 11,000 litters and 45-48,000 individual registrations per year for the last 3 or 4 years. $25 + 2 per pup x 11K; $15 x 45,000 PLUS pedigrees, show entries, DNA, foreign registrations etc....GSD = BIG money for AKC If the SV wants the FCI registry to offer the GSD a test and demands that the breed be brought back to FCI type in 10 years {Roger...??? you were there!} then do the math - they are not going to risk losing the income the 3rd or 4th most popular breed generates. AKC is a business. The working dog program placates the SV/WUSV and the domestic show breeders pay lip service to the FCI, although to be fair, many are incorporating imported dogs into their programs...the AKC and GSDCA are not going to risk the loss of FCI status over a program that is nothing more than a token.

AKC is the only recognized breed registry in the UNITED STATES of America SCHUTZHUND USA - is NOT a member breed club or organization of the FCI or WUSV. Schutzhund USA is just recognized and ALLOWED to have a team attend the WUSV AKC is not a member of the FCI or WUSV. AKC is Recognized as the only breed club for the United States of America. Kyle

WUSV is the World Union of GS Breed Clubs - thus both GSDCA and USA are members. It is specific to GSDs. The WUSV is NOT A REGISTRATION ORGANIZATION, but a parent club of all breed clubs. The FCI is an international organization which regulates and recognizes offical member organizations and brings them together under common parameters- there are FCIs for horse breeds and human sports too....maybe even for cat registries! A ruling body with members who set parameters and rules for sport/breeds whatever....The AKC is THE RECOGNIZED FCI Registry in the US. I am not sure of membership rights in FCI - I do think you are right on that Kyle, as the AKC does not require breed clubs to follow FCI published standards for ANY breed. GSDCA is the AKC's *recognized* breed club for the GSD - AKC is the registry - AKC is NOT a "breed club". GSDCA like all other breed clubs in the US, is the offical club for a breed...thus they have a legitimate "seat" in the WUSV by virture of association wiht the FCI recognized registry in the US - AKC UScA is a WUSV member club with team and delegates to meetings - but is NOT an FCI registry - there is only ONE FCI registry per breed per country, and only one breed club per breed in the FCI registry. WUSV allows one team per country and has forced the issue, therefore that should logically [lol] force the two to work together to reconcile their own internal strife. WDA is less than USA as it is associated with GSDCA and bottom line, GSDCA decides it's policies. THEREFORE - only AKC registrations for FCI recognized breeds are offical and legal internationally. If a US bred dog is sold to Germany, it must have a AKC 4 generation pedigree to qualify for re-registration there. Just the definitions and relationships - I don't even want to think about politics, PAWS, Santorum [I live in his offical "home town" - yea right!] or DNA and abuses.....look back a few years at the SVs discoveries if you want to open that can of worms!

ooops - yea, error in 2 am post - USA not FCI member....2 am!!! sorry!

FCI stands for Federation Cynologique Internationale, or something like that (not sure of the exact spelling), meaning that it is an international federation (of organizations) specific to dogs. Cynologique = dogs. So, you cannot have an FCI for horses, but I get your meaning, Kougar. It would be more correct to say that all or most European sports activities are organized into clubs, which in turn are members of other federations. FCI is an "umbrella" organizations. They do not seem to have a lot of influence over the activities of their member organizations, except that they do have a charter, and they only recognize and allow as members one breed registry per country. They do have rules which must be complied with, of course, and they have their own sanctioned competitions and awards, but they don't get involved with the normal functions of their member organizations. To my understanding, AKC never wanted to be a member of FCI, because they did not need them and would give up too much to join. Simply put, AKC is to it's member breed clubs (GSDCA, etc), what FCI is to it's member clubs (SV, ADRK, etc), with one exception: AKC performs all the studbook functions and registrations for it's members. As such, it is firmly in control of the cash flow. Cha-Chingggg!!! Why would they want to give that up? LOL And FCI basically must recognize AKC as the central registry, because that is the way that AKC has set things up for itself. There is commerce involved, of dogs going between USA and other countries, both ways (not so much in the GSD, but definitely there is a significant export trade between the US and Japan in other breeds). This exchange requires documentation for purposes of transferability of registration privileges, and AKC has an almost exclusive control of that. But FCI has no relationship with AKC, and AKC is probably only recognized by them because there is not much else to recognize. AKC has always had a sort of defacto monopoly of dog registrations in the US. By granting "recognition" to member registries, these umbrella organizations effectively lock other clubs out of the loop. It's competition, designed towards market-protection, in my opinion. It's been a long time since I last went to Germany, but when I was there, I bought a dog magazine at the airport magazine rack, and I saw then that the longhaired GSD people and the white GSD people were making their own clubs. To me, this makes perfect sense! I have never fully understood why people feel that their dog is undervalued unless it is "recognized" by "authorities". On that note, I know that the Japanese crave this sort of distinction and recognition, traditionally, and will pay big bucks for a dog that has been highly honored, whereas the same dog without such honors would not interest them, at all. It's a cultural thing, but culture is changing fast in Japan, and the old classist / chaste system is falling away, so this cultural quirk may fall away, also.

I think that the most important thing to remember is that it remains in the domain of the citizenry to form social and sport clubs, which are engaged in legal activities, and which are lawfully observant. The government has no jurisdiction over these sorts of activities, to the extent that they do not affect commerce and public safety, especially. The US government, especially, has a "hands off" relationship with non-profits, and tends not to look very closely at their activities (unless they are sending money to banks in unapproved countries!) When people speak about registrations of animals within studbooks and such as "legal" (vs "illegal"?), I wonder what they are thinking, and what motivates them to want to belong to big organizations, as opposed to smaller, better-defined ones. I was a foreign member of the SV for 25 years, got my little "award" for it, and then I quit. Sometimes I wish that I had kept it going, but at the time, I was pretty well disillusioned and burned out. Had I kept it up, I would now have 32 years. All I can say is that it was not the same breed anymore, as when I started. It is not the same organization, either. For a long time, I thought that I would NEVER let my membership go, and that I would be a member 'till I died. Then I began to realize how much things had changed, and I had changed, too.. So, the old magic was just not there, anymore. I really have no regrets in my decision, except that I miss the old SV and the old breed, as I knew it. The excitement is gone for me. Now, it is as if these dogs are stamped out by cookie-cutters. They are beautiful, yes, but they are boring to me now. And I am sick to see what commercialization has done to the breed. Some people will say that the progression of years has brought about "improvement", but I have to ask, "for what, and for whom?". A growing global interest in these dogs has brought huge windfall profits to many people; Even created an industry!.. and I suppose that is not an altogether bad thing. But the original breed, as I knew it, is gone. I think that some of these lines should have been preserved. And what irks me is that the system now is designed to push the entire breed and membership along one path, so that many (most) of the old, indigenous lines have been effectively extinguished, forever. The old breed presidents sought to preserve genetic diversity, but that concept has not been promoted for a very long time, now.

I would like to add one more important point. Kougar is correct. AKC is a business, and businesses have a "bottom line", or profit incentive. AKC (American Kennel Club) is NOT a "non-profit". What AKC is, is a "not-for-profit" corporation, which basically means that they are a standard "C" corp, without shareholders. They apparently also have a clause in their charter that they will not accrue profits, annually. I was told that they have a "break even" fiscal policy, but they have things that they put money into, like their dog museum (We may need this, someday!). It is my understanding that they pay very generous salaries to at least some of their executives, and there may be bonuses for some of the officers at years' end, if there is a surplus. This is speculation on my part, but I can only go by what I hear and see and from there, I try to draw my own conclusions. I used to know someone who worked at AKC and he told me some things. About the only thing that has assured AKC a domination of the market is the fact that they have been around for so long. They are very well embedded. But they also stand to lose huge market share rather quickly if they are not competitive and responsive to changing client preferences and market pressures. I think that they know this, and that they are trying to get more new programs going as soon as possible to head off competition. Every unfilled void in the dog registration / event market which they leave for others to fill is a potential threat, even if it is currently only a small niche.

The AKC hates schutzhund, but the money forces them to maintain indirect contact with the WDA through the GSDCA. Most folks in the GSDCA aren't all that wild about it either.