DOG
ORGANIZATIONS: STRUCTURE AND STRIFE
by Fred Lanting
with Martin Wahl
The attempts to get this article
written remind me of my childhood attempts to catch fish in my hands, in the
steam near our home. The target keeps moving, wiggling, eluding
my grasp. Just about the time I decide to sit down and outline the various dog
organizations, with a concentration in certain areas, the animal avoids capture
by changing the “rules”. Since I am an international judge for many different
registries, and travel widely in that capacity, I have been asked to give an
explanation of these organizations. All I can do is try;
somebody else may have a better way of grabbing that slippery fish — good luck.
This
treatise will necessarily be heavy with abbreviations, something I never liked
or got accustomed to, probably because I never served in the armed forces,
where acronyms and abbreviations are rife. One correspondent remarked, “I know
what would be of great help to most novices: an explanation, in fairly
understandable terms, of the main dog organizations (FCI, SV, WUSV, DVG, USA,
WDA, GSDCA, VDH, AKC, CKC, KC, UKC, and others) and how this jumble or jungle
of clubs relates to each other and the dog world.”
We must also follow the primary rule of
education and start with the known before progressing to the new, which in this
case means an explanation of “registration”. The basic meaning of the term is
that someone (whom you can rely on to keep accurate records and stay in the
business) will put your dog’s name and certain vital statistics on a list (now
popularly referred to as a database). That’s all that it might mean when you
say your dog is registered. Many rare-breed clubs have their own independent
registries, and many “new” breeds gain recognition as something other than
mongrels if the developer keeps good records and the dogs “breed true”. In the
U.S., “Is your dog registered?” or, further south, “Hey, Bubba, is yo’
dawg pedigreed?” to most people means “Does the AKC
have records of your dog’s ancestry and do they attest to its purity and the
pedigree’s accuracy?” Until DNA started to become popular or required, those
assurances from AKC were worth no more than anybody else’s. Most of us know how
easy it is for a puppy mill to “register” pups, using “papers” from phantom,
perhaps never-existed, parents. Even with random inspections, the puppy farm
could easily say that the parents had been given away or sold, or had died. The
notorious traffic in “little blue pieces of paper” (now different color and
bigger) is what made AKC’s treasury so fat and their
army of lawyers and bureaucrats so large.
Thus,
millions of dogs have been presented as both purebred and having descended from
certain ancestors, while a substantial percentage actually had different
parentage than shown on the “certified” registration or pedigree papers.
Different organizations have different confidence levels in the public minds.
For example, the modern SV (German GSD club) pedigrees are perhaps the most
accurate in the world, partly because of the Teutonic discipline and (more
recently) partly because DNA samples must now be taken and recorded. Stiff
penalties will be meted to those who attempt to cheat now. Even before the
advent of DNA, fewer cases of fraud had been practiced in Germany than in the
U.S.; therefore, the registrations were more meaningful, on average. I can give
you a handwritten pedigree and say the pup you buy from me is “registered” with
my own registry (filing cabinet, computer), or I can give you that AKC paper,
which might be no more accurate but carries more widespread recognition, or I
could give you the SV Ahnentafel-pedigree (or
equivalent) accompanied by the DNA certifications and a kit for you to send in
a DNA sample of the pup if you wanted proof of the parentage. You could have
your dogs registered with the Racing Greyhound Association, the National
American Pit Bull Terrier Club, the UKC, or any other registration service
(meaning people who will take your money and give you a warm feeling that the
records live in some important files). You can also register a single dog with
a number of registries concurrently: SV, UKC, USA, AKC, etc. In most European
countries, registration and the maintenance of the “stud book” (record of breedings and ancestries) are jealously guarded by the
breed club, at least in that country. Unfortunately, lack of
personnel or perhaps insufficient feelings of stewardship results in many
smaller clubs and some countries’ large clubs having given up the rights and
responsibilities to some all-breed organization like the AKC.
Buyers
want this sort of registration for a few reasons. One most common is just that
they think they should, without any thought-out reason. Their neighbors
do, the parents were, etc. Even if the dog will never be bred or shown, they
think that they are almost compelled to get that magic AKC “paper”; in such a
case it’s probably mere brainwashing and propaganda. You don’t have to have a
pedigree that your dog neither reads nor needs in order to enjoy its
companionship. A better reason to have some registration is to give you
entrance to conformation shows. A third is so you can breed your dog and
convince the puppy buyers that the ancestry is true.
Many Clubs
Besides
the confusion over pedigree registration bodies, there is also the plethora of
organizations (clubs) that present shows and trials. Here I will generally use
the word “show” to denote a competition in which you expect a judge to rate and
rank dogs by anatomical and other characteristics, and agree or disagree with
the many exhibitors who are in effect claiming “My dog looks better than your
dog”, or at least asking the judge for his opinion on that subject. I use the
word “trial” to refer to a performance event in which anatomy or
breed-worthiness may play a much lower or at least substantially different
role, one in which the ability to do certain tasks is rewarded with a similar
sort of ranking by the chosen adjudicator.
The
links in the chains of connections between organizations will vary from one
country to another, but for the most part they are similar in affiliation: from
local to national to international, with regional or multi-national
organization in some cases.
There
are two basic type s of dog clubs (organizations). The most widely known are
the National registries, such as AKC, CKC, UKC, etc. Their function is very
limited and simple: to issue a certificate for a fee, and to provide a forum
for the rewarding and ranking of the competing animals in respect to how
closely they approach the Standards of the breeds. They also get involved with
performance sports events. By the way, I capitalize Standard whenever I
mean the generally-accepted written description of the ideal animal in each
breed. How accurate and useful these Standards are, is a subject for a
different article. The conformation shows put on by these organizations or
subsidiary member clubs are rightly referred to as
“beauty contests”. They have their value, but do not tell the whole story about
the individual dog or the breed.
The
lesser-known type includes the show/working/training/sporting/schutzhund/agility clubs. These clubs do not register dogs,
with few exceptions such as the club for racing Greyhounds. However, they have
an influence on the breeding of working or utilitarian dogs by providing
opportunities for further refining the selection process that is supposed to
ensure the proper future of the respective breeds. An example is the schutzhund sport. This word in German means “protection
dog” although dogs trained for the SchH titles must
be proficient in tracking and obedience as well as the “manwork”
of the owner-protection part of the sport. It is a highly
stylized team choreograph, drawn from incidences and requirements in
real life. Many dog sports clubs are multi-breed, all-breed, or non-restricted.
DVG (Deutscher Verband der Gebrauchshundsportvereine) is
an example of a working sports club with origin and HQ in Germany but “chapters”
in many countries including the U.S.
Schutzhund
clubs provide training facilities and organize Schutzhund
trials, competitions and similar dog sport events for all working dog breeds,
including German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Giant
Schnauzers, Boxers, Dobermans, APBTs, and several
more — even mixed breeds. In Germany, they have to be members in, and are bound
by the rules of, the German “Dog Sport Club” (DHV Deutscher
Hundesport Verein), which
is the “National parent club” or the “Union” of the (performance-oriented) Dog
Sport Clubs of Germany. Incidentally, thanks to Martin Wahl for giving me
information on DHV, as I was not formerly acquainted with it. One of the dog
sport clubs you may have encountered in the past is the DVG. It is one of the larger
members of the DHV and has some branches in the US and Canada (unlike the SV
which is linked to USA and other (SV-like) clubs through the WUSV, described
below). So, the titles earned in DVG are acceptable wherever the SV, USA, and
other schutzhund data are. You can get your SchH titles by combining results of various organizations’
trials that are convenient to you. A recent (2001) slight change in SV rules
says that for a German-resident dog, the SchH
title must be earned under an SV judge. Another type of sports club is the
popular Agility club. Also, there are racing/coursing clubs, hunting clubs, and
others.
To
complicate things a little, either type of club can be a national or
international organization with different purposes; plus, some of the clubs
such as United Schutzhund Clubs of America (USA)
combine both functions: registry (of a sort), and competitions for beauty and
training or sport.
National and
International Dog Registry Organizations
The FCI (Fédération
Cynologique Internationale),
whose head office is in Belgium, was formed to link all countries’ all-breed
dog clubs internationally in the interest of worldwide uniformity of breed
standards. It has expanded its influence and power beyond that noble calling of
promoting “country-of-origin” breed standards, and now has its own sponsorship
of dog shows, and much more power over judges and member clubs than is proper
or wise. In recent years, the FCI has become somewhat of a superpower or
overbearing giant. Most national clubs of many countries in the world,
including all of continental Europe, part of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and
most of South America are members of the FCI. Even most former east-block
countries have now joined the FCI since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The only
notable exceptions in the western hemisphere or non-third-world countries are
England, Canada and America. And even here, the FCI is a powerful force. The
AKC, UK’s Kennel Club, and CKC have reciprocal agreements with FCI even though
they are not members in the usual sense. Judging in most countries means that
the national club there writes to the “recognized” national club in the home
country of the proposed or desired judge, to get a list of the breeds he is
approved for in their records. In the U.S., despite the honorable and reputable
United Kennel Club (UKC) being over 100 years old, and recognizing more FCI
breeds than AKC does, the AKC is the only registry contacted for that judge
information. There are also other dog show registries in the U.S. that
recognize all the world’s breeds, but are similarly ignored by the FCI-member
clubs. The FCI puts unbelievable pressure on its member and affiliated clubs to
use only those U.S. judges who are AKC-licensed, and
only to do the breeds AKC has approved them for.
The FCI allows only one member
club per country (that applies to those they have a “working agreement” with,
too); there’s that mentality again about government approval for what should be
essentially a free-market enterprise. FCI member clubs all agree to promote the
same FCI breed Standards and run shows more or less in the same manner from
country to country. Although there is great pressure on the national clubs to
choose only judges licensed or recognized by what the FCI considers to be the
legitimate and single national all-breed dog club in the home countries of
those judges, the clubs still have the ability and right to choose judges of
their own liking, and for the breeds they want them to do. For example,
although I am not licensed by AKC for Dobes here, I
was chosen to judge a very important Doberman Pinscher
specialty in India at the FCI Asian show a couple of years ago. Also, I was the
sole judge for two all-breed shows in Pakistan; I was chosen for that honor
because I am an all-breed judge and have done such shows for many registries,
such as the National Canine Association, States Kennel Club, ARBA, Colombia,
Malaysia, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago. When I judged Rotties and Shibas at the big
Scottish KC show (that is a member of the British national organization loftily
called “THE Kennel Club” or “KC”), I drew an overload, but neither club wanted
to give up in their insistence that I be their chosen judge, so The SKC set the
starting time earlier to accommodate the extra load. I have also judged many
national and regional specialties for breeds not yet appropriated by the AKC,
many of which are FCI breeds. But generally, if a foreign FCI club wants a U.S.
expert to judge all or many breeds, or certain breeds that are not in his AKC
license, it can be like pulling hens’ teeth to accomplish it. By the way, the
KC and CKC have similar “working relationships” (reciprocity) with each other
and the AKC as well as with the FCI.
A question I occasionally hear
is, “Does the FCI provide registration for all breeds, as does the AKC?” All
breeds? “All” means different things to different clubs. What is frequently
referred to as an all-breed club seldom really is, especially if your world is
mainly the U.S., Canada, or the UK. These countries have no regular FCI
membership, though they do have a “working agreement”. Besides these notable
exceptions in the “western hemisphere” there are additional ones in “third
world countries”. There is an “FCI world map”
on the “realgsd.net” website dealing with this subject.
States KC is/was a true all-breed
club, and the new National Canine Association (NCA) in the U.S. also is; AKC is
not a true all-breed club; it recognizes some 135 breeds and counting.
CKC has a few more. FCI probably had some 300+ last time
I looked, but worldwide there are about 400-450 “breeds” recognized by one or
another “all-breed” club or collection of specialty clubs. The FCI has been
expanding in its “services” and penetration into the national and local affairs, and that has included hip and pedigree registries.
They also sponsor shows, such as world and regional competitions. The AKC has a
working relationship with the FCI but not with WUSV, and the GSDCA has
membership in the WUSV but not with FCI. Only national clubs can be members of
FCI, and only one per country. There is what can be called a “dotted-line”
connection between the WUSV and FCI, mainly because of the SV officials being
prominent or influential in both.
The SV and similar “breed-specific
registry clubs” in Germany are also members in, and bound by the rules of, the
“Dog Society of Germany” VDH. That stands for Verband
für das Deutsche Hundewesen, literally “The Club for
German Dog Affairs”, though not limited to breeds of German origin, of course.
It is the “national”, “parent”, or “main” dog club of Germany, and in turn is a
member in, and bound by the rules of, that international or “World Dog Club”,
the FCI. One observer reminds his website subscribers that “The VDH is not
only a ‘conformation competition sports type of club’, but the absolute-top
‘anything to do with dogs in Germany’ type of organization”. The same scenario
is played out in other countries, where breed clubs are in some way typically
under the umbrella of a national kennel club. In most countries, there is such
a level of socialism (the definition of that political philosophy being a high
degree of other people’s control over your individual rights)
that there is only one national kennel club, and it usually is under the
control of politicians in some branch such as the Agriculture Department, or
the Ministry of Whatever. Whenever people who have no vested interest in your
activity (dogs or anything else) make decisions about your hobby or sport, many
things suffer: liberty, quality, and fraternity, to paraphrase the French
national motto. For example, police departments and the public good would
benefit tremendously from the use of K9 partners, but in most U.S. cities,
mayors and newspaper publishers/editors who influence such decisions are very
seldom dog owners. And if they are, it’s usually their kids’ Toy Poodle.
Similarly, very few of the people running the AKC are dog owners. The further
from the people, the worse the regulations, and this applies to the dog sport
as well.
It
has been said that the VDH does not appear to have much, if any, backing from
the law in Germany. Anybody can breed and handle dogs without VDH blessing and
against VDH rules in Germany. However, they do advertise quite a bit, hold
shows and operate an office and a puppy referral system to guide the public in
the right direction. And in many breeds, the recognition as purebred and
approved comes through the breed clubs like the SV; if you don’t have an
SV-approved breeding dog, you would find it almost impossible to sell GSD
puppies. Many can imagine that any Federal government would prefer to have a
single (national) entity they have to deal with, concerning dog questions or
legislation, instead of several competing ones. But there are non-AKC-monopoly
types of organizations for that purpose, so a government club is not the
answer. In the U.S., they could deal with ADOA, American Dog Owners
Association, for legislative matters; ADOA does not seek to rule the country’s
dog owners, but to be ruled by them. Lincoln would have approved of
that.
By
the way, there are two European dog clubs with the initials VDH, the other
being the German Shepherd Dog club in the Netherlands, Vereniging
van Fokkers en Liefhebbers van Duitse Herdershonden, a long name that is abbreviated into the
first and the last two words. The word “Fokkers”
means “breeders”.
Start at the base of the
pyramid: the individual joins with like-minded sportsfriends
in a local club. It may be oriented toward conformation, or some performance
activity. For the sake of equal footing under uniform rules to operate under
whenever there is competition, local clubs are affiliated with or divisions of
larger umbrella organizations. For example, suppose you are a dog owner and you
are affiliated with a local all-breed club, as is common in the U.S. and
Canada. Your Podunk KC is probably either a member of the AKC or is licensed to
hold shows and obedience trials under its regulations. The AKC is “a club of
clubs”. The UKC has a similar network of clubs across the U.S. and Canada. A
different situation exists with the Canadian Kennel Club, though, because
individuals, not clubs, make up its membership. While the AKC has no
governmental sanction, authority, or official recognition, the CKC is a
semi-governmental agency that manages studbook registries, shows, and
performance events in that country. On the other hand, perhaps your dog
activities are solely or mainly in the realm of the specialty club for your
breed. If you are a member of the Smallville
Hungarian Trufflehound Club, that is probably a
branch of the national breed club. This specialty-club approach is the major
means of dog sport enjoyment in Europe, where everything is so much closer
together, and you can generally find plenty of other Trufflehound
enthusiasts within easy driving distance.
Likewise, your schutzhund club in Moosetail,
Manitoba may have affiliation with the German Shepherd Schutzhund
Club of Canada (GSSCC) and its Prairie Provinces Region (some of the names I’ll
use are fictitious). In turn, this national club may be a member of WUSV, the World Union of GSD clubs (Schäferhunde
Vereins). Even if your Moosetail
Club has an interest only in the schutzhund sport, it
is thus affiliated with other clubs in Canada and abroad that might be active
only in conformation (beauty pageants) competition. In fact, if you include the
AKC and CKC world, there are far more “breed clubs” centered on conformation
than there are single- or multi-breed clubs doing schutzhund.
In Latin America, the performance sports take a distant back seat to the
conformation part of the sport, even if you are looking solely at the GSD,
which, by the way, is almost entirely of the international/German style or
lines. In North America, most clubs that deal with this style dog, truer to the
Standard, are schutzhund clubs, and few put on
conformation shows except when hosting the USA or WDA Sieger
Show. Some are multi-functional regional or local branches of the USA or WDA.
If you follow the links in the
chain leading through the GSDCA and the more than a hundred other breed clubs
that come together under the AKC rules and structure, you see that such a
monolithic arrangement is definitely run from the top down. The bureaucrats
making up the “staff”, instead of acting like hired help,
wield tyrannical power over judges and local clubs. Specialty (breed) clubs may
have a tiny bit more influence on their own rules and affairs than the typical
all-breed club does, but not much. The local breed club usually is almost as
much controlled by its national “parent club” as under the thumb of the AKC
staff. Some very few decisions are made by the AKC Board of Directors and its
various committees, and even fewer are made by the representatives of the
member clubs, called “Delegates”. In this way, it is much like the army of
non-elected rulers of the U.S. who grind out the policies of various
departments of the government. The SV and WUSV also represent a monolithic
arrangement, but it is much more like a combination of beneficent dictatorship
and a parliamentarian system of operating. Much more good common sense is
practiced there and in many European breed and all-breed clubs. The AKC is a
monopoly, flagrantly operating in violating of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but
prosecution under this law is only possible when the political climate in
Washington DC swings back to focus on these matters. Even businessmen who flirt
with monopoly in other commercial fields are not bothered by the Feds
these days.
A somewhat similar situation
exists in the U.K., and in Australia. One area of possible change in the U.S.
is that schutzhund may once again be “allowed” in
conjunction with AKC-sanctioned events (it was outlawed in the late 1980s).
There does not seem to be any similar relaxation in the Kingdom (Queendom?) or the Land of Oz, and schutzhund
is still a dirty word in those circles. Dog people have to practice the sport
incognito or risk losing privileges in The KC, and presumably in the Australian
National Kennel Council, their rough equivalent of AKC. In the GSDC of
Australia, you dare not advocate schutzhund if you
want to keep any standing in the breed club. The sports people are very much in
the minority there, at least regarding positions of power.
In other countries, the same type
of hierarchy is found. Local “Ortsgruppe” clubs of
GSD fanciers are organizationally part of a regional “Landesgruppe”
and members of the SV. The SV is the chief member of the association called
WUSV, but within Germany it is also a member of the government-recognized VDH,
which in turn is a member of the FCI. So there are two horns branching upward,
one through the breed organization and one to the all-breed organization. German Rottweiler
clubs likewise band together in the specialty club ADRK, another VDH member.
And the same scene is played on different stages. It is the breed club that
registers dogs in most of the world, with some countries also requiring
additional registration in an all-breed club in order for you to sell puppies.
It’s just another rip-off, since the best people to control the breeding are
the breed clubs.
The
WUSV, World Union of Schäferhund (GSD) clubs,
currently representing more than 60 countries, was established in 1974 with the
aim of bringing all GSD clubs worldwide closer together and with the SV in
Germany. The president of the SV has always been the president of the WUSV. The
WUSV is allied to the FCI through direct communications, as well as through
membership in the FCI club, Germany’s VDH. Clubs like the United Schutzhund Clubs of America (USA) also have a dotted-line
connection to the FCI and a direct connection to the WUSV, and that strongly
encourages them to abide by both FCI and SV (which is really what WUSV is, for
the most part) regulations. But USA has no connection to a national all-breed
club like the AKC (thank heavens!). If the position of the SV among all those
dog clubs is a bit confusing, there are several reasons for that. First,
because of the immense popularity of the German Shepherd everywhere outside of
North America, the SV is not only the largest breed specific registry in the
world, it’s also the most active of all clubs, thus overshadowing many of its
all-breed national or the international union of breed club organizations by
its size. Second, besides being a single-breed registry club, the SV also
strongly promotes working-dog activities of all kinds, thus having performance
as well as breeding functions.
I
have heard that there is a “special” relationship between SV and FCI, but I
suspect it is something else. The SV, being the biggest club in the world as
well as in Germany, is almost running the VDH for all practical purposes, and
thereby is a VERY strong voice in the FCI. The WUSV, through its various
national-club members but mostly the SV, has great influence on FCI... in most
countries, the GSD is the most populous breed, and has the most powerful group
of fanciers. Does the FCI “run” the WUSV or does the SV? The pres. of the SV
has historically been the pres of the WUSV. The pres. of the VDH as of this
writing is Uwe Fischer, a man who is pictured with me
in my book, after his judging the GSD at the Dublin show (I had done the breed
a week before in another part of Ireland); he is a respected GSD judge, much in
favor with the SV and not about to cross it. So in a small but significant way,
the hand of the SV is on the VDH and FCI steering wheels. As I understand it,
only “all-breed” clubs are allowed to be members of FCI, and I do not see that
scene changing. In my opinion, the FCI has grown too fat and is gradually
encroaching on the rights and responsibilities of the true guardians of the
breeds, the breed clubs. Instead of
being a useful lean track-and-field athlete, it is turning into the Sumo wrestler
of dog organizations, with far more power and weight than it should, or was
originally intended to, have . The licensing of judges
is just one area that should be left up to breed clubs and the hiring all-breed
clubs in a free market system of demand and local choice.
SV
has been a driving force and a trendsetter from the beginning and therefore is
sometimes being mistaken as a large international organization. One example of
that perception is that of the schutzhund sport. It
was the SV under Max von Stephanitz that started to
test dogs for suitability to do police work, which later evolved into schutzhund and military work. But in 1956, several of the
breed-specific clubs (led by the SV) and several of the working dog sport
associations (such as the DVG, described above) formed the “Association of
breed registry and working-dog sport clubs”, AZG (Arbeitsgemeinschaft
der Zuchtvereine und Gebrauchshundeverbände). The AZG has the purpose of
administrating uniform international schutzhund/IP
rules via the FCI to assure inter-club and international conformity, making it
possible to hold identical or similar international trial competitions in many
countries. Some people still think the SV is the international schutzhund administrator. However, that is because it is
the largest and most visible part of the sport. With the SV’s
blessings, the AKZ implemented changes to take effect on January 1,2002 in the area of requirements for breeding, and the SV’s version of the rules change is this: the AKZ titles (SchH, IP, etc.) that allow a dog to qualify for use in
breeding must in the future be achieved under an SV judge (that is, for dogs within Germany).
Not many exceptions would occur, anyway, but suppose a COAPA or USA schutzhund judge were to award a SchH
title to a dog, and that dog were to go to Germany — it would have to do the schutzhund trial over again, there, in order for it to
“count” if he would be bred in that country. Not much for most North Americans
to worry about.
One
WUSV member, the United Schutzhund Clubs of America
(more often simply called “USA”), has established itself as the only German
Shepherd Dog breed club in the US that complies with international (FCI) rules,
and WUSV breeding practices. It promotes an SV-USA registry “addition”,
formerly so much mistaken for a real registration that many people failed to
register succeeding generations with any internationally recognized registry.
It was only after the revelation that the SV, WUSV, and FCI did not recognize
any U.S.-born dog’s pedigree unless it was registered with the AKC, that the
brown stuff hit the fan for many deluded fanciers. Every dog born in the U.S.
must be AKC-registered in order to have any standing in FCI countries. USA has
also started to implement the SV breed survey system in the US, although it has
no homegrown Körmeisters approved. In addition, it
is, like the SV in Germany, a strong supporter of working dog sport (schutzhund) activities, with over 200 local member clubs
working under AZG/VDH rules throughout the US. The United Schutzhund
Clubs of America has been representing the US in international WUSV
competitions with remarkable success (sometimes winning the event) since 1977,
but failed to send a team shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks on America. The WDA, a subsidiary of the GSD Club of America (member of
both AKC and WUSV), sent a team, with members placing 42nd, 46th,
and 54th. Canada’s GSSCC team members placed 9th
(Pat-John Brown), 32nd, and 59th.
The
absence of a USA team, while understandable in the light of worries about safety
and care of dogs, may have bolstered the GSDCA’s
bargaining position as the breed representative in the U.S. The USA in its early years lost the
opportunity to become the first (and voting) member of the WUSV; a few years
later, the GSDCA jumped into that vacuum and has had the one-vote-per-country
advantage ever since. The WUSV is a non-voting member, and the two U.S. clubs
are being pressured to resolve the competitive situation soon, or else the WUSV
will do so for them. That is, if they don’t decide on how to select one team to
represent the country at the WUSV schutzhund
championships, the WUSV will decide for them. It is likely that the GSDCA (the
voting member and the oldest in membership) will be chosen. Because the GSDCA
refuses to accept the world Standard for the breed, does not educate its (AKC)
judges toward conformity to it, and ignores suggestions to encourage
responsible breeding in the areas of using only titled, radiographed-acceptable,
minimum-age, and breed-surveyed dogs, as well as other areas, that would be a
bad choice. Bad for the breed as well as the sport of dogs.
The
USA organization, with main office in St. Louis but the power really wherever
the officers live, is a founding member of the American Working Dog Federation
(AWDF). This is similar to the multi-breed sport clubs DVG (international) and
AZG (basically European, with the real force coming from Germany). Breeds such
as the GSD, Dobe, Rott,
American Pit Bull Terrier/AmStaff (same breed but with
a different registry), Boxer, Belgian Shepherd, Beauceron,
American Bulldog, Airedale, Schnauzer, and Bouvier
are represented via non-AKC specialty clubs. AWDF announced its first
multi-breed conformation show, with specialty judges for each member breed
club, for November 16-18, 2001, but chose a weekend that was already heavily
advertised as being the dates of the WDA Sieger Show.
The latter had been in the plans of many who would otherwise have gone to both.
Politically and publicity-wise, it was a very unfortunate move on the part of
AWDF and USA.
It
has been proposed by at least one writer-activist, that North American dog
fanciers form individual breed registries, and should get together and organize
a new “U.S. national union of dog registries” to represent the USA internationally
(similar to what the VDH does in Germany?) so that AWDF or something like UKC
in the U.S. could then finally become a member in the FCI. Basically, that is
the thrust of the AWDF, which has not yet received the support it deserves.
That same writer has said, “The AKC has an agreement with the FCI to recognize
each other’s registration certificates as well as judges, even though
membership is not required in this agreement. This may be the cause of much
gridlock. With this agreement, the AKC has won FCI recognition for their
(worthless) papers, but as a non member does not need to abide by FCI rules and
therefore can and does set rules to suit its own agenda, even if they go
against all other internationally recognized rules, or
for that matter, operate without rules. Thus, the AKC is in an excellent
position and has no need to make any changes. Why should the AKC risk losing
members by instituting new tougher rules? They won’t. Because it is the FCI
that made a mistake in recognizing AKC papers, the only way to bring North
America up to international standards is to bypass the current system and
establish a new system that is structured somewhat similar to most FCI
recognized systems, that can prove to the public that is stands for true
quality and is truly in the interest of each individual breed. And, if it can manage to get properly
organized, it could then be recognized by the FCI in a full membership
agreement. This would require that they should help each other get established
and to deal with the AKC’s and CKC’s
attempts to squash new clubs).”
I have mentioned Canada, and
this might be a good time to revisit. There is one government-sanctioned and
regulated dog club in Canada, the Canadian Kennel Club. It supports shows for
specialty and all-breed clubs. Some years ago, clubs for a few non-CKC-registrable breeds tried to start up an ARBA-style
association of rare-breeds, but ran into CKC-instigated government roadblocks.
This political maneuvering was later followed by a rush on CKC’s
part to recognize all those other “rare” (not previously included). Similarly,
the AKC has rushed to “recognize” (spell that acquire and appropriate) so many
of the “rare” (not previously included) breeds, that it had an adverse effect
on the American Rare Breed Association (ARBA) which had been growing in
activity. It also was growing in numbers of dogs that represented more money
for AKC through new registrations. There persist, however, some very few clubs
that do not seek or welcome CKC oversight and control. One is the GSSCC, German
Shepherd Schutzhund Club of Canada. This small but
active club holds conformation shows, including an annual Sieger
Show, and several schutzhund trials. Its main
activity is in the more populated provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and
Quebec, with less in the Atlantic and prairie regions. It is a WUSV member, as
the GSDCC (GSD Club of Canada, CKC-affiliated) has not chosen to disobey the CKC’s ban on schutzhund.
Another correspondent asked,
“Theoretically, if we were some dog group from a third world country, would it
be easier to get FCI recognition? Is it the monopoly of the AKC that makes all
this so difficult?” If there were not already an FCI representative in that
country, and your third-world-country’s club met the requirements, yes. If
there were an established club, then it would be rough going. And yes to the
second part of the question, too. The monopoly of AKC is part of the problem;
the other part is the notion in more-socialistic countries that government has
some eminent right to control dog clubs, and these (FCI) people see the AKC as
though it were like theirs, an arm of the national government. That mindset is
hard to overcome, as witness all those Russians who want a return to the
“stability” of Communism.
Another
organization for GSD clubs, which may be a model for other breeds, is the
fledgling COAPA, the pan-American association of national GSD breed clubs in
the Western Hemisphere. Most recent
members are the USA and GSSCC. COAPA started in South America and is now a true
all-American organization. Right now, conformation is of primary interest to
most COAPA member clubs, but the “total GSD” is being stressed more and more.
The individual members are members of WUSV, and there is forming an additional
relationship through COAPA.
There
is some sort of problem in Slovenia with the largest GSD club being shut out of
the FCI-member all-breed club’s respect and recognition, yet their own “chosen”
GSD club is smaller and is not a member of WUSV. Something similar exists in
Chile. The Schutzhund-USA magazine carried my report
of the show I judged there; it was sponsored by the larger GSD club, which is a
member of WUSV and COAPA (as USA is). The FCI-member all-breed club had their
nose out of joint because I, like Walter and Hermann Martin and other previous
SV judges, was not invited by them, the KC of Chile with their GSD
subsidiary. Slightly different rivalries in other countries increase the
confusion: there are two pedigree registries in the U.S., for example; the UKC
has introduced many innovations that the AKC has later copied. There are
apparently two Belgian registries: St Hubert and NBVK.
Speaking
of Belgium, there are two GSD clubs there, too, but they have worked out an
arrangement whereby one year the one will be represented at the WUSV meeting,
and the other will alternate the next year. I believe they also take turns
sending teams to the WUSV world schutzhund
championships; in the 2001 report of competing teams ranked by scores, the
listing for the 14th place team was Belg.
(VVDH). The listing for the U.S. teams read “USA (GSDCA)” because the USA
(United Schutzhund Clubs of America) did not compete.
Otherwise both clubs would have been listed. In the United Kingdom, there are
two main organizations with WUSV ties, the older GSDLeague
(which has the vote) and the larger and more active BAGS (British Association
of German Shepherd clubs), which is an amalgamation or society of various local
and regional clubs. At least for a while, there were also two GSD clubs in
Ireland, also. The latest move in that direction that I have heard of is the
“National GSD Club of Pakistan”, organized by dissident breeders who were not
happy with the leadership in the established “GSDC of Pakistan”. The new club
enlisted the support of a moneyed individual who is relatively new to the
sport, but it may not get off the ground.
Where can dog fanciers participate and
compete in dog events? Most competitions, even those with a locality
implication such as “The Argentina Sieger Show”, are
open to all dogs with acceptable registrations. In the GSD breed, for example,
that would include SV, AKC, or any FCI member or affiliate club’s registered
dogs. Some events are limited to dogs of the country — almost always, these are
performance events. You can enter your SV-WUSV-FCI registered dog in any
conformation show, provided it meets the breed survey, age, and other
requirements. You can probably compete in international schutzhund
competitions like the WUSV event mentioned above, but to do so, you have to
qualify with high enough scores and other prerequisites in your own country and
national club, and that club has to be a member of the WUSV. Other
“qualification trials” may be restricted to dogs of their home country. The
national schutzhund championship trial known as the Bundessiegerprüfung (BSP) is open only to dogs registered
and living in Germany. There are Sieger and other
conformation shows in almost every developed and many developing countries.
There are schutzhund trials, hunting trials,
obedience trials, agility and other competitions in many countries.
© by Fred Lanting
[ “realgsd” site Webmaster Martin Wahl's note: If
some of the passages in this article appear familiar, they have been taken from
my dog-orgs page in the SV-registry section (with my encouragement). M.W. 2001 (Anyone with
additional knowledge on this topic, please feel free to advise us. In 2002,
Martin discontinued the site and related forum-chatlist
because of high maintenance requirements and no help.) ]
--------------------------------
[
Author Fred Lanting is an internationally
respected show judge, approved by many registries as an all-breed judge, and
has many years experience with AKC and SV. He presents seminars worldwide on such
topics as Gait-&-Structure, HD and Other Orthopedic Disorders, Anatomy, and
The GSD. He also gives hands-on help in imori\oving
training techniques and results, combined with analysis of training problems.
He lives in Alabama, where he actively trains in schutzhund,
and he breeds for occasional litters. He can be reached at
<Mr.GSD@Juno.com> and his dogs can be seen on his co-owned website,
<vonsalix.faithweb.com>. Most articles can now be found on
<http://SiriusDog.com>. ]