To the everyday person who loves dogs, the rules and regulations of some nationwide dog registry associations like the American Kennel Club (AKC) can seem unusual, to say the least. Whilst you would expect a puppy registered by the American Kennel Club to be a healthy, high quality purebred, this is not a guaranteed outcome. You can only be certain of getting a pedigree puppy. The health of the puppy’s genetic line, and the quality of the breeder, are not monitored by them. This can come as a shock to a lot of dog owners who would naturally assume that a prominent dog association like the American Kennel Club would provide such fundamental regulatory care. And it shows why some breed clubs, such as those for the Australian kelpie dog breed, have decided not to implement the requirements for AKC registration. Dogs not recognized by the American Kennel Club may not enter in the numerous American Kennel Club run dog shows. It does, however, protect the breed’s health.

What the AKC wanted breeders of the Australian kelpie to do was effectively limit the natural genetic variability of their dogs. Dogs in American Kennel Club recognized breeds, and with an American Kennel Club issued pedigree, have been bred for show, according to fairly limited characteristics. The result has been that a lot of these dogs can no longer do the things for which they were once well known, such as hunt. It has also meant a lot of genetic health problems, as a result of injudicious inbreeding to keep the lines ‘pure’. Dogs are bred back to their parents and grandparents, all because it creates dogs that help win dog shows. An article on the University of Wisconsin website discusses this in detail. They write:

“First, the AKC defines quality in a dog primarily on the basis of appearance, paying scant heed to such other canine characteristics as health, temperament, and habits of work. Over the years this policy has led to destructive forms of inbreeding that have created dogs capable only of conforming to human standards of beauty. Many can no longer perform their traditional tasks–herding, tracking, hunting–while more than a few cannot live outside a human-controlled environment.” (Source)

Of course, this isn’t the reason some dogs aren’t recognized by the American Kennel Club as a separate breed. Many are thought of as a size variation of a larger breed rather than a separate breed. This is the case with dogs like the small German spitz and the toy Manchester terrier.

In any case, unless you want a show dog, registration by the AKC is not as important as finding a good quality dog from a breeder who breeds healthy dogs that still retain the abilities for which the breed was once (or still is), known. Breeders who breed primarily for show are more likely to follow breeding practices that create genetic defects. And it could result in dogs that have less than desirable temperaments as pets. Whilst there may be some instances where this is not true, in the long term, excessive inbreeding can only create problems for a breed.

Tags: AKC, American Kennel Club, australian kelpie, breeds, dogs, small dogs

This entry was posted on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7:18 AM and is filed under Dog Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.