Rules Of Eligibility For Registration. A blessing or a nightmare?

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1 Rules Of Eligibility For Registration A blessing or a nightmare? The Canadian Kennel Club functions as the registration body for purebred dog breeders in Canada. In fact a purebred dog is defined as a dog which is registered or eligible for registration with the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC). This organization is over a hundred years old and it has carried out this function effectively over this time span. Up to this point, breeders simply selected purebred individuals of their respective breed which had the characteristics that they wished to perpetuate, bred them together and registered the puppies with the CKC. This allowed breeders to control the direction of their breeding programs. If you wanted to produce a field trial dog you did so. If your interest was tracking you could breed for that specific purpose. If you wanted to compete in conformation shows your breeding program focused on that endeavor. In all cases the breeder had the right to select whatever animals from within the breed they desired to produce what they felt was the perfect dog. The CKC referendum in November of 2014 may take away that control from breeders forever. The CKC executive along with David Trus, the federal government representative that administers the Animal Pedigree Act have decided that individual breeders should not have the right to take their individual breeding programs in whatever direction they see fit. In an effort to control dog breeding activities in Canada they have developed a new set of rules for whether an animal is eligible for registration. These rules will be presented to the CKC membership for approval in a special referendum from November 1 to 30, These rules involve the development of a group of physical characteristics that each individual of a specific breed must adhere to in order for that individual to be registered. Furthermore the parents of the individual must also meet all of these characteristics. In essence a purebred dog is not just a dog that is born to parents of the same breed, the individual must also be evaluated to determine whether he meets the physical criteria that has been developed for that breed. If he does

2 not meet the criteria he will not be eligible for registration and therefore is not purebred. It is certainly true that the Animal Pedigree Act requires breed registries to have in their bylaws rules for eligibility for registration. However, how stringent those rules are is at the discretion of the registry. Previously the CKC rules indicated that a dog must be born in Canada and must be produced by two individuals of the same breed. The Ministry of Agriculture approved these bylaws years ago. They met the requirements of the Animal Pedigree Act at that time and they still do today. THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO CHANGE THEM. In fact if you examine the Animal Pedigree Act Secretary s Manual it states Where a breed is well established and the definition of purebred is 100% (i.e. closed herdbook), it is common to reduce or even eliminate eligibility rules related to breed standards and just concentrate on the pedigree. Clearly Mr. Trus and the CKC executive feel differently about this situation and interpret the Act to their own ends. Interpretation is the key to the new rules of eligibility. During the development of these new rules Mr. Trus sent the CKC recommendations for developing new breed specific rules of eligibility. In general these rules should include physical traits that can be objectively assessed by the average person, be repeatable if assessed by another person and should distinguish the breed from others of the species. The CKC started with a small number of breeds from the Sporting group and in consultation with breeders of those breeds developed a list of physical characteristics which would form the rules of eligibility for registration of individuals of each of those breeds. A link to these rules is provided for each of the breeds for which they have been developed: Chesapeake Bay Retriever Curly coated Retriever Flat coated Retriever English Setter

3 Gordon Setter Irish Setter Irish Red and White Setter The first thing one notices about these characteristics is that many of them are subjective. Height, weight, colour (nose, eyes, coat) and coat type are the only totally objective characteristics that are easy to use for breed differentiation. Yet in none of these cases does weight appear and size is listed as medium/large for all seven breeds. This leaves colour and coat type as the only totally objective criteria that can be easily used. Criteria that require interpretation are only as good as the individual doing the interpretation. For instance the Irish Setter rules indicate under ear shape/placement: Pendulous, close to head, set well back, low. There is no reference to size so would a Basset ear not also be pendulous and lie close to the head? The flat coat retriever rules under unique characteristics: The head is unique to the breed giving the impression of the skull and muzzle being cast in one piece what does this mean? Can you not cast a Cocker head or any other head in one piece? How does that description differ from a Collie or Borzoi head? In the Gordon Setter rules a solid red dog can be registered yet under coat colour the dog is described as black and tan. If the entire premise of this project is to prevent breeders from changing breeds why would you accept a solid red Gordon Setter? All breeds carry recessive genes which have the potential of producing traits that are not acceptable under the conformation breed standard. If an individual possesses a trait which is considered a fault in the conformation ring he either isn t shown at all or he simple does not win if he is shown but to jump from there to say that dog is not eligible for registration and by definition is therefore not purebred is quite a leap. If CKC members approve the new rules of eligibility for registration what might be some of the ramifications? When a breeder goes to register a litter and individual dog he or she will have to guarantee that the parents and the puppies meet the rules of eligibility. If I breed a litter of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers from two Canadian champion individuals I might obtain a litter of ten puppies in which two of the puppies have poor ear carriage. Instead of the correct high set ear

4 their ears are low set. At the time of registration I will indicate that the puppies do not meet the rules of eligibility. They therefore would not be eligible for registration. So even though these puppies have the exact same pedigree as the other eight they would not be eligible for registration and would be considered to be non purebred. Article 7.2 of the CKC bylaws states (members) shall not engage in the breeding, buying or selling of dogs that are not purebred. So now I can be expelled from the club because I have bred and sold dogs that are not purebred simply because two of my puppies had an incorrect ear set. Breed standards are not universal from country to country. The breeding of dogs is an international undertaking. Dogs are frequently moved from country to country for showing, training, and breeding. For example the rules of eligibility for the Irish Setter state Colour Markings: Solid red no trace black, small amount white on toes, chest, skull acceptable. The AKC standard under colour states: Mahogany or rich chestnut red with no black. A small amount of white on chest, throat or toes or a narrow centered streak on skull is not to be penalized. If a stunning AKC male Irish Setter was available for breeding you might be inclined to use him until you find that he has a quarter sized white spot on his throat. He clearly meets the American standard but he does not meet the Canadian rules of eligibility. Any puppies produced by him in Canada would not be eligible for registration. Similarly if you were to purchase one of his puppies from an American breeder that puppy would not be eligible for registration with the CKC even though it would have AKC papers. Rules of eligibility have the potential to limit Canadian breeder s choices in the purchase and breeding of foreign dogs and could also prevent some foreign dogs from being shown in Canada. As you can see the decision to implement these new rules of eligibility could have some profound effects on Canadian dog breeders and the decision should be thought through carefully. The Animal Pedigree Act Secretary s Manual states it clearly. caution should be exercised in establishing rules of eligibility which place undue emphasis on trademark characteristics or other breed standards. The risk of too much emphasis is to limit the effective population size, limit selection pressure on other more economically important traits, limit the ability of the breed to evolve (breeds are dynamic populations), and perhaps even decrease

5 genetic variability in critical traits. Not all CKC members are breeders and not all breeders will be affected equally by these changes, before you vote in the November referendum, consider the big picture. These new rules will change the landscape forever. YES NO X Shawn Haas DVM Rosethorn Newfoundlands