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You have read it in many publications; now I am even hearing it from some of my friends: the self-defense cry of the AKC. "We aren't responsible! We only register dogs; we don't breed them!" No, indeed, the AKC doesn't breed dogs. But it doesn't "only register" them, either.
The AKC sponsors a number of dog activities--obedience, agility, hunting trials, even "herding"--but its primary sport, its raison d'etre is the Dog Show, the conformation ring, the breed ring, the beauty contest, whatever you want to call it. Last summer I gritted my teeth and went to a Dog Show, one where Obedience was featured along with the Breed Rings. I am told that what I saw was typical--several rings under shade canopies (it was a very warm day) filled with perfectly matched dogs prancing around on the other ends of leashes held by well-dressed, and occasionally over-dressed professional handlers. The Breed Ring. Off to one side, in a couple of uncovered rings, a few people dressed in assorted clothes with assorted dogs. The obedience ring; the poor relation, the country cousin.
The AKC establishes conformation standards for each breed it registers, and it offers prizes, prestige, and financial success to breeders and owners who can produce dogs that look more like The Standard than any other dog in the ring that day. The AKC chooses the judges who decide which dog looks most like The Standard. The AKC decides which breeds are to be registered, assimilated, and codified into a Standard. The AKC is not interested in performance, they are not interested in high quality pets for the public, they are not interested in anything but squeezing the "pure-bred" dog into its own arbitrary mold.
The AKC is powerful. In its own collective mind, and in the mind of most of the public, the AKC is "Dogs R Us." When the AKC sets The Standard, that is what that breed will look like. Books on individual breeds have whole chapters on the set of the ears! An appearance standard has never benefited anyone other than the Dog Show breeders; it is of no use to the pet owner, to the game hunter, or, goodness knows, to the sheep farmer.
Yes, some of my friends also argue that it isn't the AKC who actually sets The Standard. It is the individual Breed Clubs, representing the individual breeds, who define The Standard; the AKC only approves it. But the AKC chooses the breed club to represent each breed. And the AKC approves The Standard before it can be applied. In the case of the Border Collie, the logical choice for breed club would have been us, the USBCC. But we would only accept a Standard which was Performance Only. And the AKC would not approve it or agree to it. So AKC chose no parent club and wrote The Standard itself.
Kathy Kemper, former head of the BCSA and prime mover in the campaign that led to AKC recognition, believed that she could, if her association became the breed club, get the AKC to agree to some realistic Border Collie goals: an open stud book that would continue to admit dogs from the true Border Collie registries; a performance requirement for championships. She found out she was wrong, and now she, too, is speaking out loudly against AKC recognition of the Border Collie. Too late.
In a recent article in the BCSA Newsletter, Kathy explained her reversal: "The AKC had a unique opportunity to prove its many and vocal critics incorrect. It had a singular chance to take a working breed and maintain it . . . Instead, that august body chose to prove its critics correct. It chose to limit the stud books to three years, eliminate the ISDS dogs from entering through the British Kennel Club, adopted the show standard set by the American Border Collie Alliance and completely ignored any working requirement for a breed champion--even going so far as to ask us why we wouldn't require a breed champion before awarding a herding championship! . . . The AKC hasn't welcomed suggestions or comments, nor even entertained them."
Next time somebody says to you "The AKC only registers dogs; it doesn't breed them" explain to them what the truth is.
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