1990 AKC Schutzhund Ban:
Presented here are the 1990 AKC Schutzhund ban, a letter in response to Mr. Auslander, AKC Chairman and then Mr. Auslaner's reply.
Response:
Mr. Louis Auslander, President
The American Kennel Club
51 Madison Avenue,
New York, NY 10010
Dear Mr. Auslander:
Your directive of June 18th of this year, prohibiting involvement in Schutzhund and related activities, will exacerbate strife and conflict in the American working dog community into the next century. Many working breeds of central Europe, such as the Malinois, the German Shepherd, the Groenendael and my own beloved Bouvier des Flandres, among others, were created primarily as police style guard and search dogs at the turn of the present century. Over the past two decades an accelerating working dog movement, conservative and fundamentalist in nature, has come forth in America for the purpose of maintaining and enhancing these protective heritage breeds. From the beginning our credo has been fidelity to the purposes and example of our breed founders.
Now you have repudiated this heritage, declared the very foundation of our breeds - the working test - to be unacceptable in the eyes of the AKC. Schutzhund is much more than a sport, is in fact the gauge by which a German Shepherd or Doberman Pincher is properly measured to determine breeding eligibility. It is, quite simply, the instrument that defines the breed. In Belgium, France and the Netherlands the Ring Sport and Police trials, also banned, serve similar purposes. The primary consequence of your directive is that the preservation and evolution of these breeds as functional working dogs will now certainly take place under the auspices of other organizations.
Since your directive - and the attitude it represents - is so fundamentally hostile to the heritage of our breeds, it seems necessary to put forth our point of view for your response. This is thus an open communication, intended to provoke dialogue in the hope of slowing the rapidly developing separation of our "working" breeds into "AKC show dogs" - devoid of their original working character - and seriously bred dogs intended to have both correct type and working aptitude. This is thus submitted for your comment and explanation prior to publication.
The primary question is that if you deny that the protective capability of our Rottweilers and Dobermans is acceptable in America today, would it not be more honest and responsible to simply ban these breeds, that is, cease to register them? Mr. Doberman created his breed specifically as a police style guard and protection dog. If the breed is valid then how can the means of its maintenance - the working trial - not be legitimate? And if you must create a derivative breed, devoid of the original character, would not a new name be in order? (Perhaps "Fellton Pinchers" would be appropriate.)
We are of course aware that recent developments do not necessarily reflect your personal attitude, and that you might well be among those on the board opposed to these misguided actions. Indeed, three years ago you observed my dog, Ch. Centauri's Gambit SchH III, demonstrate the Schutzhund sport at the Medallion Rottweiler Club competition near Chicago. Your personal reaction was certainly not the least bit negative at that time, for you invited this Bouvier and an equally accomplished Rottweiler, also an AKC Champion of Record and Schutzhund III, to demonstrate the sport at the International Kennel Club show. Your invitation was widely perceived as indicative of a more open and forthright attitude at the highest levels of the AKC, a sign that accommodation and working within the system was possible. Mr. Auslander, what has happened during the past three years to cause you to participate - even perhaps with personal reluctance - in this repudiation of the heritage of our police style breeds?
Although the working movement has of necessity caused stress in the fabric of the American working dog community, ultimate reconciliation and accommodation was, until this act on your part, a viable possibility. Many if not most of our founders and leaders are or were active members of the traditional working dog community: senior officers of the national and regional clubs, active breeders and respected judges. Their desire has, over the past decade, been establishment of a viable working heritage within the framework of the AKC. Now it would appear that formal national level entities, inevitably antagonistic to the American Kennel Club because of its open hostility to our most fundamental principles, must be the vehicle by which we seek our destiny.
Although I do not speak here in my capacity as a senior officer of the North American Working Bouvier Association or the umbrella organization, the American Working Dog Federation, my involvement in the founding of these entities provides a certain perspective of interest to our audience.
Neither organization was in a fundamental way antagonistic to the AKC. Indeed, the AKC affiliated Doberman Pincher Club of America was a founding member of the AWDF. As you well know, this fact brought to a head the smoldering controversy within the Doberman community concerning involvement in the Schutzhund sport. Until you chose to intervene, this issue was destined to be resolved in the most democratic way, by a vote of the membership as a whole. Our expectation was a ringing endorsement of the Schutzhund sport and the original heritage of this noble breed. Your intervention indicates that you (the AKC) shared this expectation, and acted to deny the membership the opportunity of participating in determining their own destiny.
But you have by no means diminished the Doberman working movement. Rather you have split the community and set the stage for a new national club and open conflict and antagonism. Now that the AKC has burned the last bridge those who believe that a Doberman Pincher, German Shepherd or Bouvier des Flandres is first and foremost a working dog must of necessity ally themselves with other national organizations in order to preserve and protect these breeds.
In your notice you state "AKC has consistently prohibited clubs from holding Schutzhund trials or demonstrations in conjunction with AKC events." How do you reconcile this statement with the fact that for a number of years such trials have been held in conjunction with the major Doberman and Rottweiler events, and that a demonstration was held at one of the largest and most prestigious AKC conformation shows at your personal invitation?
You refer to "hundreds of man hours" and "hundreds of thousands of dollars in combatting breed-specific, anti-vicious dog legislation." The problem to which you refer is the proliferation of breeds developed in Britain and America for pit fighting among irresponsible elements of American society. Such things were virtually unknown on the continent where the police style protective heritage breeds evolved, and have nothing at all to do with traditional canine sports such as Schutzhund and the Ring. The modern police breeds do not descend from the fighting dogs or estate guard breeds of Britain, or the aggressive game hunting dogs. Rather they evolved from the farm and stock dogs of central Europe characterized by discrimination and intelligence rather than the one dimensional aggressiveness or the "gameness" prized by the pit fighting enthusiast. These protection sport dogs are on the whole exemplary canine citizens, not the vicious dogs you are attempting to portray.
It is becoming increasing evident that the strategy of the faction within the AKC seeking the emasculation of our protective breeds is to try and tie "the Pit Bull problem" and the Schutzhund sport into one neat package, label it "vicious dogs," and kill two birds with one stone. This fundamentally dishonest effort is in fact the most offensive aspect of your notice.
It is quite evident that your action - especially its timing - was motivated by the desire to come to the aid of the entrenched elite of the Doberman community, engaged in an historic confrontation where the real issue is the character of the Doberman Pincher. Nobody questions that the breed was created as a police and guard dog, or that in America today the vast majority of "Doberman Pinchers" are not suitable for this original working role. The fact of the matter is that American Dobermans have become only "pets" and "show" dogs. The "Doberman establishment" is not only responsible for this metamorphosis, they are for the most part proud of it. The fact that after ten to fifteen years of strenuous effort the rank and file of the club was on the verge of acting to rectify this situation caused panic among the elite.
I believe that AKC opposition to our protection sports - the fundamental heritage of our breeds - will prove to be a mistake of historic proportions. Until now ultimate reconciliation, a unified American canine community, remained a possibility. Now you have made it quite clear that those of us who believe that serious working tests are essential for the maintenance of our breeds must seek other avenues of national and international organization.
Those who believe that an AKC command from on high will cause us to slink away are most seriously mistaken. The American working dog movement has reached critical mass, is beyond the control of any external person or organization, including the American Kennel Club.
In the long run our movement will succeed or fail according to our own individual conduct and character. If on the whole we prove to be selfish, arrogant or stupid - all things we as individuals have at one time or another demonstrated a propensity for - then we shall fail. But it is my belief that we have matured and passed our internal crisis. Now you have provided the common adversary against whom we will rally, and thus perhaps insured our success in a way that was beyond any of us.
In summary, the AKC has made an enormous mistake in shutting the door to understanding, accommodation and compromise. For twenty years the working dog movement has been divided between those who believed that we should work within the system, that keeping American canine affairs under one umbrella was of primary importance, and those who believe that striking out on our own is the only way to establish an effective American working dog heritage. Because of your action of June 18th, the last advocates of working within the system have been forced to abandon life long commitments to the AKC system and embrace new organizations.
Sincerely,
James R. Engel
Response from Mr. Auslander
Louis Auslander was personally much more open and accepting. Prior to becoming AKC Board Chairman he had been present at a Medallion Rottweiler club protection demonstration and been impressed enough to extend an invitation for a repeat performance at the Chicago International benched show, which was a very big deal. One of our Bouviers and Pete Rademacher's Rottweiler Dux did in fact make the presentation, as covered here: