Outside Counsel

In these fraught times, I am always gobsmacked when I hear someone say, “I don’t do politics.” 

 

Respectfully, there is no one in my circle of friends, real or Facebots among them, who has the requisite wealth and privilege to successfully insulate themselves from politics.

 

Or, as Nina Turner so succinctly puts it, “Well, baby, politics is going to do you, regardless.”

 

Recently, there have been a flurry of posts on social media about what I’ll call the “state of the sport.”  From reaction to the low entry breed lists, to the status of pending legislation, to folks bemoaning the impact of the economy on their ability to show, the forecast sounds dire.  Most of the observations are interesting and thoughtful, and highlight a number of issues and challenges facing the sport. The disparate nature of the problems cited and analysis provided reveals that there is no silver bullet, no one answer that will solve all of the problems in our sport, and we have lots of work to do on a number of fronts. 

 

The comments to such posts are equally revealing.  Some folks comment from the perspective of breeders, well acquainted with the conundrum of finding suitable pet homes for their puppies, encouraging AKC registration for puppy buyers who often see no reason to register, ensuring spay and neuter at appropriate ages for pets, and trying to encourage future involvement in dog sports, all while the public increasingly shows a preference for mutts and designer dogs.  Other commenters are more focused on conformation shows, and the rising costs of traveling and exhibiting, the hunt for majors, and showing to judges with minimal knowledge of their breed.  Finally, some folks express their frustration as they scramble to hold together a club with a declining and aging membership, put on events with a handful of volunteers, and cover the increasing costs of hosting them. 

 

In some of the comments, you occasionally get the perfunctory, “AKC needs to….”

 

But nowhere, not in the posts on social media, nor in the comments, is there an acknowledgement that the vast majority of problems, issues, and challenges facing our sport, and the world of purebred dogs, can be attributed to the politics of the Great American Kennel Club.

 

We need to face the fact that we have reached a point where the AKC, and as a

result, the sport and our world of purebred dogs, is being crushed under the weight of its archaic system of governance.  If things don’t change, it’s simply going to slowly suffocate and die.

 

And the comments I read from folks demonstrate that people have no idea because the majority of the folks in the sport and breeding dogs have little clue how the AKC operates, nor do they care. 

 

But they should.

 

I remember what it was like when I was active in the sport.  My interactions with AKC were limited to an occasional registration.  Showing in conformation at mostly local shows or specialties.  The time I got divorced, and it threw a whole bollix into showing in Bred By with a dog registered in my married name (or vice versa). 

 

But understanding the AKC, how it worked, the significance of the delegate’s report I heard or read occasionally?  Those things, and their impact on me and the sport of dogs, were lost on me. 

 

It wasn’t until I started working at the AKC that I finally learned how much was decided there that impacted what I did as a hobby, with my discretionary money.  What I did as a volunteer and for fun, with my free time.  What most impacted the dogs I loved and chose to own.

 

And I was shocked how much of that happened with little pushback or questioning from the delegate body. How few folks on the Board understood basic business issues, or corporate governance, like how to read a profit and loss statement, or conflicts of interest.  How many skilled and talented and experienced and highly educated folks we had on staff whose opinions were dismissed and their work discounted because they weren’t “dog people.”

 

So you can spend all day arguing on social media or getting down in the weeds about there being too many shows, or how judges get approved, or whether limited registrations are useful or the devil—don’t get me wrong, all valid concerns--but until you understand that nothing fundamentally changes until the AKC governance changes, you are just debating as diversion.  Until the system which rewards longevity, which rewards mediocrity, which rewards quid pro quo, is completely dismantled, nothing of significance is altered.  Until there’s accountability demanded by club members from officers, especially the delegates, and accountability demanded by delegates from Board members, expect the slow death march to continue.

 

You can keep doing what you’re doing, but rest assured, the AKC is going to keep doing you.