AWDF: Whose Crisis Is It?
For well over a year there has been an incessant, debilitating crisis eroding the vitality and fragile public persona of the American working dog movement, diminishing our stature domestically and especially in Europe. This has ensued from the expulsion of the United Schutzhund Clubs of America (USCA) from the American Working Dog Federation (AWDF). The rank and file of USCA—by far the oldest, largest and most prosperous of our national venues—has experienced little impact because of the overall size and robust vitality of USCA.
But trainers in other, more fragile, venues—such as the DVG clubs and local training clubs affiliated with the AWMA, Doberman or Rottweiler clubs—have in many instances experienced serious hardship or simply become unable to afford continued participation. This is in general because of the resultant diminished opportunity and increased cost of trial participation, primarily because six out of seven American IGP trials are USCA trials. Many of those training other breeds, even those holding score books from AWDF sister clubs, had relied on the numerous USCA trials to provide local, affordable trialing opportunities. Many local clubs had been affiliated with both USCA and one of the others, fostering a spirit of cooperation and camaraderie. This has largely evaporated, dramatically increasing the cost of participation in terms of time and money largely because of travel to distant trials and onerous surcharges instituted in retaliation by USCA. Potential new participants, most especially those younger or with more family responsibilities, are being driven away furthering the exclusivity and perception of arrogance that is eroding our credibility.
This crisis has been primarily inflicted by the Machiavellian antics and ongoing arrogance of Anne Camper—president of both AWMA and AWDF—aided and abetted by a malignant cast of coconspirators including Chris Smith, Annie Wildmoser, Randal Hoadley and Katie Finley. Wildmoser and Hoadley, having been estranged from their Cane Corso or GSD roots, do not even have a legitimate Malinois persona. It seems that Camper has been running out of sufficiently servile Malinois people and thus been forced to cast a net amongst the dregs of those estranged from other breed communities. This small Camper cabal is in complete control of the AWDF as well as the AWMA, which is the crux of the problem.
Relief may be in sight. Over past weeks the precipitous expulsion of Waine Singleton from the AWMA and the withdrawal of his judging license—politically motivated and based on trumped up charges—has provoked a firestorm within the AWMA. Every IGP judge is gone—expelled or resigned in protest—and there have been numerous resignations of senior officers and escalating turmoil and anger amongst the membership at large. It is no exaggeration to note that the Camper cabal is spinning out of control, both of the AWMA and the AWDF.
This has greatly diminished Camper's credibility, support and influence in both contexts. As a result she is under enormous pressure to seek resolution of the impasse with USCA, and has issued messages indicating an interest in working out a reconciliation. But she is coming from weakness rather than strength, with much less leverage, bringing forth one paramount question:
Whose crisis is it?
The short answer is that it is an AWDF crisis rather than an issue of serious consequence for USCA, which is functioning quite normally and easily capable of going on indefinitely. The AWDF on the other hand has become a hollow shell providing no real benefit or service to the constituent breed clubs, their only real purpose being the provision of a virtually private FCI IGP qualification trial for an elite group of professional or quasi professional Malinois trainers. USCA need not and should not compromise on the eradication of the Honda organization, the Americanization of DVG or integrity of sport judge qualifications, particularly the exclusion of professionals.
The long answer is more nuanced.
To a significant extent the ultimate outcome will depend on the course of the FCI / WUSV struggle in Europe, which has been ongoing at one level or another for years, and is likely to linger. The salient point is that USCA is functioning normally with very little deleterious impact on the rank and file membership, and this is unlikely to change over coming months or even years. If the international German Shepherd community, the WUSV, becomes increasingly and permanently estranged from the FCI then there is no real reason for USCA to be a part of the AWDF and American cooperative arrangements would likely fall in line with what takes place in Europe. If on the other hand the FCI gains the upper hand and tightly limits the ability of the WUSV to run international GSD affairs then there will be more reason for a closer USCA relationship with AWDF. Time will tell, and in the meantime USCA is in the driver's seat.
On one level the only serious issue for USCA is reasonable access to a fair FCI IGP qualification trial; and as things stand now those few who really want to go can find a work around. But more fundamentally the broad public perception of chaos and crisis in the American movement casts us all in bad light and in the long term diminishes our potential to grow in stature and influence. In the big picture this is the primary reason for USCA to seek resolution for our current crises.
Early on there were absurd demands that USCA pay punitive damages to AWDF to gain reinstatement, but this would have been giving in to extortion and ransom and emboldened the corruption in the Camper faction; pay once and they would be open to paying a thousand times. This is pertinent now as a reminder of the self-serving and conniving agenda of these people.
For the other AWDF clubs and their members the crisis is an existential threat to their long term sustainability. Although the overall vigor and credibility of the American working dog community is suffering greatly, the real losers in all of this are the rank and file members of the non USCA local training clubs, both DVG and the various breeds, including the Malinois which as mentioned has no current judges.
The reality today, especially in light of the firestorm in the AWMA, is that the pressure is much more on AWDF to sweeten the pot rather than USCA to make concessions on principle. The following should be nonnegotiable requirements in order to reestablish a formal relationship with the AWDF:
- Eradication of the absurd Honda organization.
- DVG severing German ties and becoming a legitimate all breed American entity. There was and probably still is a significant faction within DVG that wanted to become American which likely would prevail if the alternative was standing alone. USCA took a principled stand; to back down from this now would mean that their integrity was negotiable, that principal is of consequence only when convenient.
- Rigorous adherence to the integrity of the judges programs, including exclusion of professionals, that is those deriving a substantial portion of their income from commercial canine activities. (This was included the original AWDF constitution as I wrote it in line with USCA guidelines.)
Compromise is held out as the civilized and desirable way to resolve such an impasse, but compromise on principle extracts its own price in the end. In the foundation of America our constitution was based on an egregious compromise, made the preservation of slavery the law of the land, a mockery of "all men are created equal." The Missouri compromise further extended the institution of slavery, but in the end it all led to the conflagration of our Civil War and decades of subsequent strife and struggle.
The USCA leadership must stay the course, for time, integrity and the vigor of a forty year history is on their side.
Meltdown in America
Wildmoser Suspension
Glossary
Orginizations and Conflicts
Legacy Lost, the Other Breeds
The Americans