I believe the AKC BOD wrote the original standard in Dec 94 for Border Collies. A few years later (Aug 96), they qualified a breed club, and have allowed it SOME input on the standard. It actually wouldn’t be too bad, except the show BCs are all rubber-stamped dogs regardless of the standard. That, and breeding for looks vs work impacts work. Imagine, for example, you were breeding race horses, but only allowed black ones with triangular heads. You would have a lot fewer horses to choose from in attaining your goal.
I’ve also known the AKC to view shelters and rescues as competition. Since most families needing a dog would do very well with a mutt, I resent that.
AKC views shelters as competition? Where do you get that? You really have to explain what you mean by that, because it makes no sense, since AKC doesn’t breed dogs (and people with AKC registered dogs don’t *belong* to AKC). So, how exactly are shelter dogs competition? Competition for WHAT?
As for the standards, they are supposed to be written to describe the perfect working dog. If the BC groups don’t like the standard, I would have to say they can blame themselves since they refused to be involved in the process. I remember when we were working on AKC acceptance of Spinoni, the main thing they required in our standard was that it fit their format and that it was understandable.
Unfortunately, there are always people who think that if a little of something is good (say coat) then more is better. I would love to see mentor programs for new breeders, but I don’t think that will ever happen (altho people would be smart to seek out mentors on their own).
However, I will ask you again. How does this impact working BC breeding programs?