Posted on 07/10/2006 8:41:39 AM PDT by girlangler
AKC dog registry welcoming coonhounds to purebred world
By Coke Ellington Associated Press
Raleigh | The American Kennel Club is trying to make coonhounds couth.
The nation's largest and most recognized dog registry is in the early stages of a major push to add coonhounds to its prestigious rolls, hoping both to increase its membership and to assure these sad-eyed symbols of country life stick around a while longer.
"We're interested in the registration of these dogs and their litters, but we're most interested in preserving these dogs for the future," said Steve Fielder, who moved to Raleigh in late 2004 to launch the club's coonhound initiative.
To meet its targets, the AKC has found itself negotiating with governments to assure there's ample hunting land for the dogs, setting up competitive hunts and working to enlist more of the estimated 1.2 million coonhounds in the nation.
It may seem like unlikely work for a club with headquarters on swanky Madison Avenue in New York City and more closely tied to images of pouffy poodles than howling hounds, but Fielder insists it's right in line with the club's mission.
"The AKC wants to be all things canine," said Fielder, one of about 300 people at the AKC's operations center in Raleigh.
To help with its initiative, the AKC began offering free registration last year to coonhounds already enlisted with two other national clubs. The move resulted in about 10,000 registrations, up from about 500 the previous year. The club expects to have another 10,000 registered by the end of this year, pushing the total number of AKC registered coonhounds to 22,000.
Still, coonhounds make up a tiny part of the club's registry. Labrador retrievers were the most popular breed in 2005 with nearly 138,000 registered by the AKC.
Registration costs just $15, but acceptance by the AKC is invaluable to breeders and others who need or want to prove their dogs have pure bloodlines.
For coonhounds, registering also opens the way for the dogs to compete in AKC-sanctioned hunts and competitions that offer titles, trophies and cash prizes of as much as $25,000. Just in July, the AKC is sponsoring about 70 coonhound competitions across the nation, including contests for youth, field trials, water races and night hunts.
Night hunts tie most closely to the tradition of the coonhound owners across the South who once led packs of dogs on late-night winter hunts, forcing the raccoons up trees where the hunters could get a clear shot at them. The raccoon hides fetched $20 to $30 each in the late 1970s, according to Perry Sumner, a biologist with the state Wildlife Resources Commission. With demand dwindling, a raccoon hide today is worth about $5, he said.
A good coonhound can sell for $4,000 to $5,000, with some bringing up to $100,000, said David Gardin, the president of the North Carolina Coonhunters Association..
The AKC first registered black and tan coonhounds - one of six coonhound breeds - in 1945, but during the past 60 years there had been little mingling between hound owners and the AKC. Coonhound owners were more likely to register with the Professional Kennel Club or the United Kennel Club and the AKC didn't seem to mind. Now, their interests seem to have merged.
"The coonhound has been kind of like a subculture in the world of dogs," Fielder said, "but with the AKC involved the spotlight is shining on the breeds."
You describe EXACTLY what happens in GS. I fear it happens to every breed.
On both sides of the pond - the standard as is is basically UNCHANGED from 50+ years ago. Both are perfectly acceptable standards. However (referring much to my "cliquish" comment to you bryt elsewhere), it seems the network of high-level high-power breed fanciers decided what was good and right, and the standard be damned.
To me, it's just like the the Constitution.
The powerful all insist "we conform to the standard", until everyone believes it.
Then you can continue on your non-standard path even while the words are written plain for all to see. Monkey see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. It's become a sham.
That is weird. I know they were a pain for us when we were working on getting recognised. They threatened to kick us out of Misc. if we didn't get recognised. It took forever.
susie
THANK YOU for posting that hypocrisy. Even in the "illustrated standard", the GSDCA STILL shows a '50-era dog.
There was talk the other year of updating the illustrations. Guess it hasn't happened yet. Thank God. Maybe someday Joe Schmoe will call the snobs on the carpet for their hypocrisy.
Exactly what I meant when I said the snobs ignore the standard while telling everyone they follow it!
I'm not sure if there's something about releasing a breed that doesn't keep up some minimum of registrations or such over some time.
It must be very small, because the Wire-Haired Pointing Griffon should be long gone! (I saw ONCE a real, live WHPG and it was a "thrill" for me - I spoke at length to the owner/handler even as I was showing my young GS that day!)
I'm not an expert on shepheds but it would appear to me that THIS does not describe many of the show dogs I've seen in the ring. I would describe the topling as sloping and then dropping away in the rear.
Of course, watch the dogs move in a trot and you will see why they breed for that extreme rear. The flying trot is wonderous to behold. However, I don't know what the purpose is.
susie
There was one at the shows in West Palm Beach this year. I stopped them and admired him, as they are very similar to spinone. I don't think it has to do with registrations. Some breeds have very very few per year and AKC keeps them on. I've really never heard of them kicking anyone out. They all still generate SOME income for AKC! ;)
susie
...but with the AKC involved the spotlight is shining on the breeds."
When I was a boy the spotlight shined on the coon.
It's not a 'conformation championship' though, that's merely the way most people in the past have treated it... like a beauty contest. Truly, if you want to measure whether the dog meets the intended standard for the breed, that includes both looks and temperament to do the work the breed was intended to do. I like it. I'm not sure, but I think the British registry requires that hunting dogs pass some rudimentary hunting aptitude test before titling them.
I don't know, my dog's breed is recognized by everyone, even if it is a fairly rare breed. Everyone asks me when my "airedale puppy is gonna grow up and get some black hair"
LOL
I bet that dog produces upwards of a gallon of drool each day.
But you're right . . . gatekeeper, scorer, timer, scorer's assistant, score runner, leash runner, and at least three jump crew, plus the steward and steward's two assistants at the steward's table. Keeps us on the hop!
Hope your club takes it on . . . you'll have a great time! (Remember to point your SHOULDERS and FEET the way you're going!)
As a matter of fact, I'm off to agility class right this minute! Back in awhile. . ..
I agree. AKC Conformation is often at cross purposes with function and health. That is not what it is supposed to be.
Some breed groups fight to stay out of the AKC for fear the breed will be ruined.
Actually, in the UK they can be a Show Champion without a hunting test. If they have something like a Working Certificate (not sure what they call it there but I believe it's a basic hunting test) they can then just be called a Champion. This is not really different than what we have here, it's just semantics. Here that dog would be Ch INSERT DOGS NAME WC. Just a different way of looking at the same thing.
I'm all about people getting titles, especially working titles. However, I don't understand why people always say AKC should do this or AKC should do that. Anyone who doesn't like the way AKC does things is free not to participate, to participate in a different organization, OR even to start their own.
susie
Just pick up our marbles and go home eh? No point even lobbying to the AKC for improvement?
Honestly, I don't think there's a lot wrong with many of the show dogs not having a lot of working experience. Most people who buy Labradors and Goldens don't hunt. Hunters shouldn't pretend they are the only market.
What I don't like to see is the show type and the working type divergine radically in how they look. Either the standard is wrong, in that case, or somebody's not breeding to the standard.
Working German Shepherd Dogs do not walk on their hocks the way the cartoonish specimens in the show ring do.
Labradors should be neither the stubby fat sausages with legs of the ring, nor huge leggy monster dogs of the field. They should be a gentleman's hunter, strong and muscular but compact enough for a hunter to haul back into a small duck boat after a retrieve :~D
I don't think the AKC ruins dogs necessarily, I think that's an over-simplification. What I think happens is there seems to be a competitive resentment between working and show breeders, and while some of us might think they ought to have the same goal, they don't necessarily. Goldens with big poofball feet and glorious long blond hair is of no value to the field trial people, but the pet buyers love it. The purposes of dogs change over time sometimes, I guess.
I didn't mean the working tests were a beauty contest. Most people don't even know the AKC has such a thing. They think of AKC as show dogs. You are very into your dogs and obviously love doing agilities and thats fine. And not every breed of dog is for every person, sorry your so put off by the Bulldog. Mine makes me very happy, after 4 years not a day goes by that he does not make me laugh out loud looking at his smushed face. BTW, he does not have ANY health problems. I also have a 1 yr. old Newfoundland, if I knew how to loom the fur I'd be able to open a sweater factory. He also needs a bib because of the drool. We don't do agility or shows, we go to the lake, to the park, play in the yard, they follow me everywhere and just give me great joy, gas, snoring, drool, hair and all. They can be anywhere in the house and they know when I'm getting ready for bed. As soon as I turn the corner to go upstairs they're at my side and sleep on the floor next to my bed. While I do research a breed, I have my dogs as companions. The showing, breeding and working etc is not my cup of tea, but that doesn't make me any less of a dog lover.
There is a BIG difference. Shelley's just about half way in between. My only real criticism of Tori (she is a splendid dog and one of the best hunt test dogs I've ever seen. I have seen her NO-whistle a 250 yard blind) is that she's lost the typical "otter tail" of the Lab, which I think is an endearing and totally necessary attribute. She has a long, almost hound-like "whip tail" which you really can't see in the picture.
There are people who will spin your dog hair into yarn for you. You can knit or weave with it. Google it -- I know there are some around (you can't spin Lab hair - the outer hair is too coarse and the undercoat is too fluffy, and it's ALL too short!)
The little one doesn't even look like the field dogs that are popular here. The field dogs here push 100 pounds or more.
Tori is probably at the small end of the scale - she's about 1/2 inch taller than Shelley but MUCH longer in the back and about 10-12 pounds heavier (Shelley looks chunkier because her back is almost six inches shorter than Tori's - we measured) - but around here our field trial bitches tend to be about 55-60 pounds and the boys around 75-80. But of course they are very thin, they are kept lean on purpose, on a lot of them the ribs are visible. 90 pounds is considered a way big dog -- one of the guys in the club wound up with one, good old Ranger, who is a sweet dog but TOO BIG.
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