AKC in schutzhund - Page 1

My trainer said that AKC was going to start doing schuthund. I did not ask but it seems that he was saying that somehow it would be directly handled by the AKC. What would happen to the GSDCA WDA and the USA? Would they all join together? Would you even need to belong to or have schutzhund clubs? Could be interesting. Apparently the exhibition last Feb at Westminster Dog Show was a planned thing to intro it to the dog world in general. Can someone explain or help me understand how this would work? D'Mann

AKC will allow GSDCA to have 5 - FIVE trials a year. WDA has 45+/- clubs USA has 200+/- clubs if the WDA clubs have 1 trial a year and USA have 1.5 [some have 3, some have 1 - lets be conservative] and we round it up - that is 350 trials a year held in America under the current system.... Do the math!!!! Even if AKC does allow this - so far, the GSDCA has only allowed INVITED dogs to participate in their 1 time a year trial held with their Nationals.....where will the dogs go that do the other 345 trials a year. Politics will rear its ugly head again - the WUSV team is even more debatable, or "at risk" if GSDCA insists they come from the AKC trials Of course if every member of USA joins GSDCA and votes in new leadership ............

Kougar How is the WDA-GSDCA affiliated? or are they? D"mann

not sure how it works but i can tell you a little insight. AKC has a provisional acceptance of sch titles by the SV. Usa nor Wda has that currently. ALso AKC and GSDCA are already partners so WDA seems to in prime position. I also know that AKC invited some of USA judges to AKC judges. This is good for us because no longer do we have to bring in SV judges to get our titles recongized. Also AKC sends an all breed agility team already to FCI agility championships so im worried about AWDF more than anything. ALso David Laudau is now on the WUSV Board so that should give a little more strength to WDA side. I can't wait to see what will happen with them. ceddy

OK, according to the AKC Gazette, the AKC-Working Dog Sport is currently open to just four breeds: Bouvier des Flanders, Doberman, GSD, and Rottweiler. What about Malinois??? There will 5 events for each breed a year.

Doggman, the W.D.A. (Working Dod Association) is a branch of the G.S.D.C.A.. The G.S.D.C.A. is recognized by the A.K.C. and shares titles with them. Kougar, I like your thinking. U.S.A. has never had a serious threat since they became U.S.A. and tossed out all of the other types of working dogs that were not GSD's. Perhaps they will start paying some attention now? Kennel von Lotta, I did not realize that the Malinois may not be invited. That is a true shame if that's true, as they are some excellent working dogs in this group. Bob-O

<<>> Bob-O....BINGO! USA would never have as many problems as they have now if they would have just stayed as a SchH organization up until the early 90's rather than become a GSD breed Organization.

AKC - Official FCI registration body for GSDCA in USA GSDCA - parent breed club under AKC [not sure if 'under' is right word!] umbrella WDA is a subgroup of GSDCA - was never and still is not acknowedled as anything official - titles or shows! - BY AKC though....maybe now some AKC perks, but after the Working dog 5 trials a year program was approved, WDA's elections/officers primarily now GSDCA domestic show people, not schutzhund, Euro line breeders. IMO - program by AKC is twofold 1. responding/lip service to need of working dogs for LE type jobs post 9/11 2. placate SV by having program so AKC does not lose hundreds of thousands of dollars generated by registrations, pedigrees, shows, etc of the GSD

2 am - caffine wearing off USA - schutzhund club, supplemental breed registry with ties to SV - and SV has a breed book for US dogs and issues and records pedigrees for litters which meet SV standards as a supplement AKC -> as FCI member fields WUSV team USA -> as FCI member also fields WUSV team SV has dictated that WDA and "USA cooperated and only can appoint one team jointly.

What I do know about AKC, is that their registrations have fallen off dramatically in recent years. They have done some things which were sort of dumb or short-sighted, I think. Here goes: We've all heard about the "puppymills" controversy, right? Well, this is a long-term campaign against commercial pet dog breeders, begun by so-called animal rights organizations. They have used it for many years to goad, lampoon and torment AKC, saying that AKC was "responsible" for substandard commercial kennels, as seen on television expose's. AKC finally did some damage control in the form of mandatory kennel inspections, surprise visits, etc. and apparently some of the real commercial breeders (usually family operations) in Missouri, Kansas and so forth felt they were being treated badly and underappreciated. So, they started using their own registry, APRI (American Pet Registry, Inc.) and others. Similarly, USA started their own registry to suit their goals, and other breeders in other breeds have been walking away from AKC. But the most devastating loss to AKC was the widespread loss of the midwest commercial breeders. I read that AKC lost 10% of their puppy registrations and 20% of their adult dog registrations in one year, and the losses have been compounding annually. Since then, they have tried various things to get these breeders back, or even to force them back (sort of), such as joining a push to broaden USDA breeder licensing requirements. They have even gone so far as to joint HSUS and Senator Rick Santorum to back the dreaded PAWS bill!.. This sent a lot of the AKC breed clubs (including the Dobermann Pinscher Club of America) into a tizzy! AKC had to back off from support of PAWS for now, because they were courting a breed club revolution, and a lot more people were very angry, talking about using other registries. So, AKC is feeling the heat of competition along with changing politics and markets, and they are rather desperately trying to staunch the flow of money from their coffers. Look for them to do things now that they would have never done before, including a stepping up of the process of integrating rare breeds, offering registration services to breeds which heretofore maintained their own studbooks, and even sanctioning Schutzhund, which no one was EVER able to prevail upon them to do, times past! AKC enjoyed a virtual monopoly in dog registrations in times past, but the party is over, and they're going to have to compete for once!