AKC Announces It Will Ruin Three More Breeds

This purina ad from the 1960s is targetted at raccoon hunters.

The American Kennel Club has formally announced that it intends to ruin three more breeds of working dogs -- the Redbone Coonhound, the Bluetick Coonhound, and the Boykin Spaniel.

All three dogs will be eligible for AKC conformation shows beginning Dec. 30th. 

• The Redbone Coonhound, named after 19th Century raccoon hunter and hound breeder Peter Redbone of Tennessee, has existed in fine fettle and without help from the AKC since the mid-19th Century, and has been registered with the United Kennel Club for more than 100 years.   Its rootstock is English Foxhound crossed with Bloodhound.
  
  
• The Bluetick Coonhound, named after its coat color and pattern, was devloped in Louisiana and has existed in fine fettle and without help from the AKC since the early 20th Century.  It has been registered by the United Kennel Club for more than 60 years.  Its rootstock is mostly English Foxhound mixed with Bleu de Gascogne Hound from southwest Franc, Black and Tan Foxhound, and various strains of Louisiana Cur (aka Catahoula Leopard Dog).
  
  
• The Bokykin Spaniel was created by L. Whitaker Boykin in South Carolina around 1900, from a mixture of old-style field Cocker Spaniels, Field Spaniel, Water Spaniel, Chesapeake Bay Retriever and Springer Spaniel.  The dog is mostly used as a turkey-hunting dog, and is South Carolina's official state dog.  The Boykin Spaniel has always had a very small gene pool, and as a consequence the dog is plagued with serious health problems, including a very high incidence of hip dysplasia (over 1/3 of all dogs).   Why anyone would want to pull a breed of terminally ill dogs into a closed registry system is beyond me, but the AKC has done it before (and recently) with the Dogue de Bordeaux. 

Why is the AKC so eager to bring new breeds into their registry? 

Simple:  Their business plan is in free fall and they are desperate to boost numbers.

AKC registrations have fallen 55% over the course of the last 15 years

The AKC's main push, as I have noted before, is to enroll more puppy mill and pet shop dogs, and they have gone so far as to install a special computer program so that more puppy mill dogs can be registered at pet store point of sales.

Their second battle front, however, is to add new breeds to the AKC's roles, especially breeds that already have a devoted  following, such as Border Collies, Jack Russell Terriers and various types of Coon Hounds. 

Of course, devotees of true working dogs have pushed back on the AKC, and for a simple reason:  The American Kennel Club has never created a working breed of dog, but they have ruined every working breed they have drawn on to their roles.   

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