The AKC & Working Dogs


Your breed wasn't created by the AKC,
but it might yet be ruined by it.


The number of working dogs ruined by the AKC grows every year. Irish setters, once famed at finding birds, are now so brain-befogged they can no longer find the front door. Cocker spaniels, once terrific pocket-sized birds dogs, have been reduced to poodle-coated mops incapable of working their way through a field or fence row. Fox terriers are now so large they cannot go down a fox hole. Saint Bernards, once proud pulling dogs, are now so riddled with hip dysplasia that it's hard to find one that can walk without surgery in old age.

In recent years, protectors of at least two working breeds -- the Border Collie and the Jack Russell Terrier -- have gone to war with the AKC in an effort to protect the working qualities of their dogs.The articles below detail why working Jack Russell and Border Collie owners have tried to keep their dogs out of the AKC -- and how the AKC has systematically worked to undermine their efforts.

  • "We Only Register Dogs" is from the U.S. Border Collie Club newsletter and answers this most common of AKC defenses.

  • Why the JRTCA Fights Application to the AKC is from the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America's web site and details why owners of working Jack Russell Terriers are so anxious to prevent the AKC from ruining the working side of their dogs -- as the AKC has previously done with the Fox Terrier, the Irish Setter and the Cocker Spaniel.

  • How the AKC Works to Ruin a Breed -- is a short history of the Border Collie and the AKC. Read about how the AKC systematically worked to undermine the U.S. Border Collie Club because it refused to put show-ring conformation above the working abilities of these dogs.