THE ABCA NEEDS YOUR THOUGHTS ON ABCA/AKC DUAL REGISTRATION!


ABCA Members: Please Read, Consider and talk to your ABCA Director or join the discussion at www.bordercollie.org (follow the links to BC Boards and scroll down to "ABCA Members" at the bottom of the page). 

Background

When the AKC recognized the Border Collie in December 1994, it said that Border Collies could be AKC registered through January 1998, after which the AKC studbook would close and no further non-AKC dogs could be registered. Disappointed with the small number of registrations received, the AKC later extended the open registration period for another three years, through January 2001. When the BCSA (the AKC's Border Collie breed club) requested a further extension, the AKC Board was at first reluctant, because the first extension had not produced many additional registrations. It agreed at the last minute to a 5-year extension, only after charging the BCSA to increase the number of dogs registered. The studbook is now scheduled to close in January 2006.

Early in March 2002, the working Border Collie community learned that the BCSA's AKC Registration Increase Committee proposed to attract traditional handlers to register with AKC by such measures as cash awards for AKC-registered dogs placing high in the USBCHA/ABCA National Finals and other Open trials, getting their clubs to hold USBCHA-sanctioned events in conjunction with AKC events, and giving prizes of AKC registration at USBCHA trials. The BCSA obtained USBCHA sanction for a trial to be run at Gray's Summit, Missouri on October 14, 2002, the "Welcome Day" for their AKC National Specialty at that site. The BCSA Committee also decided to request the AKC to extend the open studbook for another 20 to 40 years.

When this news leaked out, the working Border Collie community was outraged and the ABCA appointed a committee to look into the matter. The committee included Denise Wall (Chair), Candy Kennedy, Eileen Stein, Penny Tose, Jeanne Weaver, and Donald McCaig. 

What follows is that committee's preliminary report. The ABCA Board of Directors has voted to present it to the membership for discussion until December 1, 2002 after which the committee will re-examine the issue and prepare a final report for ABCA Board action.

Brief History of the AKC

The AKC is the second oldest and largest US dog registry. In 2001, they registered more than a million dogs from 150 breeds and had revenues of 50 million dollars. They publish the oldest and most influential dog magazine, the AKC Gazette, spend more than a million five each year on publicity and have full time Washington lobbyists. They are foremost a dog show organization; only dog show winners can be AKC "Champions" though they offer hunting, herding, obedience and agility titles as well. They advocate breeding for conformation.

Once the AKC begins registering a useful breed, historically there have been two outcomes. Either (a) there's a total split between the conformation and working sectors, with occasional instances (mainly in the hunting breeds) where working ability is maintained in small pockets of non-conformation AKC-registered dogs. Or (b) in other breeds, the conformation breeders so dominate the breed that working ability as defined by the working breeders is completely lost. 

For example, the AKC Cocker Spaniel was once a hunting dog and the AKC Collie once herded sheep. The loss of working abilities is rarely acknowledged by show breeders who will assure you with a straight face that their Old English Sheep Dog hasn't lost any of its herding ability. "He's always herding the kids."

Many AKC breeds originally came from single-breed registries, which ceased to exist after show breeders sought AKC recognition and gave their studbooks to the AKC.

During the recent AKC expansion, the Anatolian Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Jack Russell Terrier were, like the Border Collie, "recognized" by the AKC despite the wishes of the majority of these dogs' breeders. The Anatolian registry collapsed and its working lines are now registered by the UKC. Many Cavalier owners dual registered with the AKC and they are presently voting to accept some AKC only dogs into their own registry. It's hard to see how the Cavalier registry can remain independent. ASCA, the Australian Shepherd Registry remains financially healthy but most of its working handlers dual register with the AKC and it is more difficult to find a good working Aussie than it was. The Jack Russell Terrier Club (JRTCA) resisted the AKC fiercely and has forbidden dual registrations. Of these breeds, currently only the JRTCA and ABCA registries still control the future of their breeds.

The ABCA

The ABCA registers about 20,000 Border Collies yearly with an annual revenue of $200,000. Its Directors are directly responsible to the registry members who include 2500 life members plus those who renew their memberships whenever they have dogs to register. 7200 members were eligible to vote in the last election.

ABCA has from its inception been the guardian for the working Border Collie. Since breeders and owners cannot be expected to share the same goals, it is up to the registry to provide some structure for maintaining the breed as we know it.

Any registry's main job is recording dog births and ownership transfers. The ABCA has been unusually efficient and economical. The ABCA currently contracts with Patty Rogers to keep the paperwork flowing. The ABCA also returns money as state grants, funds the National Finals and funds important genetic research, all to benefit the working Border Collie and preserve its integrity. If the ABCA is to continue as it has, it must retain or if possible increase its registrations. But ABCA registrations are off -- by about the same number as the AKC's Border Collie registrations, which have steadily increased since AKC recognition.


The Working Border Collie Community

The great majority of ABCA registerers are farmer/rancher/ pet owners who are not active in the registry. Some of these chose ABCA because they actively prefer a working dog registry dedicated to the Border Collie breed, others register with the ABCA because that's the papers they already have. A much smaller group -- most are Open trial handlers -- are more influential in the registry and it is from this group that ABCA Directors are usually chosen.

The working Border Collie Community is generally opposed to conformation breeding of their dogs but is divided as to how strong a threat conformation breeding is. It is largely unaware of the threat from versatility breeding. The Border Collie Community tends to be "libertarian" and despite major recent disagreements about Finals Qualification and Judged Cattledog trials, prefers to decide policy by broad consensus.

Although few ABCA registerers have experience with the AKC, a small but growing minority of trial handlers have come to traditional trials from AKC performance events and a handful compete their dogs in both AKC and USBCHA venues.

A Clear and Present Danger

With the AKC's increased presence in the explosively growing sport of agility, its reputation with uniformed pet buyers who see "AKC reg" as a guarantee of quality, its enormous budget and sophisticated PR staff, and its intent to increase registration of Border Collies, the AKC is a formidable rival. If it keeps its studbooks open and entices Border Collie owners to first dual register their dogs, then register AKC only, it may very well marginalize the ABCA to the point where the ABCA is no longer viable. Obviously, the working Border Collie as we know it cannot survive without a registry dedicated to its preservation.

But even if the ABCA were to survive as a registry, the working Border Collie as a breed will be endangered by a growing acceptance of dual registration. Dual registration creates a single breeding pool of AKC dogs and ABCA dogs. Because the AKC advocates and rewards conformation breeding, the number of show-bred dogs-which are useless as stock dogs according to many who've tried to train them-will steadily increase in this pool. Moreover, the BCSA's ideal, and the secondary ideal of the AKC world (its primary ideal being conformation) is the versatile dog-the dog who can excel at every title-winning activity including conformation and herding.

This means that working breeders who wish to sell excess pups to the AKC market will be influenced to breed dogs who meet show ring fashions. While there are such dogs among good working dogs, selecting them for breeding in favor of others who don't meet current show ring tastes distorts the working gene pool. It also means that AKC owners will be motivated to breed their show and sport dogs to real ABCA working dogs to get the "herding credential." This co-mingling can only lead to the lowest-common-denominator dogs being marketed by AKC people as "ABCA working dogs." And it means that the AKC becomes the definer not just of their dogs but of ours, increasing public confusion about what a real Border Collie is and dragging down our dogs with each future generation of AKC-inspired breeding.

Right now, ABCA-registered Border Collies greatly outnumber AKC-registered border collies. ABCA dogs are the "normal" Border Collie; AKC dogs are the exception. Only a small minority (possibly 5%?) of Border Collie people currently dual register with the AKC, generally because they hope to sell pups to AKC obedience and agility competitors, or as a marketing tool to pet buyers. But if dual registration continues, the balance will gradually shift the other way, as it has with other breeds. The committee believes that the number of working Border Collie owners who dual register has increased in the last couple of years, and will continue to increase unless attention is focused on the threat this presents to our breed. The committee further believes that without a large pool of dogs bred for work, the few that are kept and worked by top trial handlers and commercial livestock raisers will not be sufficient to keep the working breed viable. The Border Collie will become a jack of all trades and master of none. 

As the following tables show, AKC registrations have been steadily increasing over the past five years while ABCA registrations have been even more steadily decreasing. Continuing to allow dual registration would only exacerbate this effect, since once a dog is dual registered, in all likelihood that dog's progeny will only be registered with the AKC. The registration data below support this interpretation, roughly indicating that for every registration gained by AKC, ABCA has lost three.


ABCA versus AKC Individual Dog Registration, 1997-2001

AKC versus ABCA Changes in Registration from Prior Year, 1998-2001

*Note: Though Individual Dog Registrations of Border Collies with the AKC decreased between 2000 and 2001, AKC Litter Registrations of Border Collies increased (as they have every year since recognition), from 327 to 392. 

The committee unanimously feels that the ABCA must act to discourage dual registrations, and that the time to act is now. Should the practice spread further it will be much more difficult to restrict it.

Committee Discussion

The committee discussed strategies at length and although we regretted not having better options available than the six outlined below, most of our attention was devoted to two possible rule changes, B and C below. 

A) De-registration 

Under this proposal, dogs registered with the AKC would be excluded from the ABCA registry, and no AKC-registered dogs would be accepted for registration by the ABCA in the future. Members would be notified of the policy, and the ABCA registrations of dual registered dogs would be cancelled.

Advantages:

• A complete separation between ABCA dogs and AKC dogs.