Well, my first meeting for the New Trial Period is Wed. Jan. 3rd. This aut to be good beings I have a group of 13 taggin along and the board members for my local County Kennel Club is a handful of Retired folks. Something tells me .... it doesn't look good.
Well, I think the trials will be hard on the eyes, and for the sole purpose for breeders to put titles on thier dogs to make thier puppies more apealing.
I am glad the Malinois was not included in the breeds allowed to compete.
IMHO the Malinois was not included because they have taken over the podium in most other "sports" - gotta leave the other breeds somethin' Whoops did I actually write what I was thinking
on a more serious note....We have been contemplating at our club. what if this takes off? The FCI only recongizes one registry per country. USA is the AKC. as of now we can register our mals with AKC and compete under the AWDF and still be eligable for the worlds. But if the AKC takes off, and proceeds i am sure they are going want a piece of that action. not just a piece but all of it. This could be determental to the AWDF.
Once again a breeds balance lies in the hands of the AKC and the track record they have is not that good.
I agree Gunny with your assessment of AKC wanting a piece of the action in most things BUT do you really think that they will get involved in IPO? I don't think, well more like hoping, that they would disqualify dogs because of their breed that have been/are competing in this sport but then again they've surprised me more then a few times. I really believe that AKC offered the WDS because UKC is offering a similar program and many in the USA are registering with UKC because of the experiences they've had with AKC - it was a way to keep their revenue and registrations up. Great just another "thing" to be concerned about.
Actually Gunny you can enter the FCI worlds only under the AWMA, since we are the recognized breed club of the AWDF for the Malinois. For the FMBB it's exclusively AWMA membership that get's you there. This "WDS" is under discussion with many board members of the AWMA, USBSDA, and ABMC, but whatever the AKC has ever touched has not been improved and that should speak for itself.
Lacey that's what we'd like to believe, but it's simply not true. The AKC can only benefit from increased breeds in the program. The difference is that the ABMC and other 'recognized' breed clubs of the AKC do not want involvement. "THEY" (the breed clubs) know they can't handle it and know nothing of it. I could site you conversations with many of these people, but it would be unfair b/c many of these discussions are on going. The goal is to make something like this work out best for the owners and competitors, not the associations themselves. But there is simply no answer yet. You have the "GUNG HO" working dog people working on things like this weekly and then you have the "CARE LESS" show dog people that haven't given this a second thought since it's inception. There are a few people in between that are interested in a possible program, but with no desire to put any work in to make something happen.
The FEAR: That the system will be a washed out version. This will be a guarentee. I would love to debate this is someone really does not see a difference between judging and quality of training between the AWMA, USCA competitors, compared to DVG, compared to WDA. I would trial at a WDA event if it was the only access around...I would change sports!
IMO: I may be wrong, but you'll have a system that gets destroyed with little resemblence to it's former self. Consequently having results of lesser dogs and lesser trainers competing. Eventually the ppl that train good dogs will switch sports and FR and some of it's ugly step children will grow in the US. I could go on, but then it starts to sound like a scary George Orwell novel.
Mike, I have had this conversation with many in the dog world, particularly the mal world, and they, nor I would like to see the mal get into bed with any entity of AKC other than paper handling. I know your pretty active in the AWMA keep us from making a deal with the devil man. I see no good in the long run from Mals getting involved in this. I'm very happy to see that powers that be have not just leaped in between the sheets with AKC from the get go on this. We have plenty of other FCI recognized organizations to play in without AKC. Frankly I think AKC needs to learn, know and understand, they are not the only pathway for internationial IPO work.
~CHRIS DUHON
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"You goddamned yellow belly, how dare you breath the same air as these men!!" ~GEN. GEORGE PATTON? WWII
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Whoops did I actually write what I was thinking 
