The Eddy Awards: How Does Your Parent Club Educate?

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90 – August, 2026

By Caroline Coile

What education does your parent club offer? Chances are, they have an active Judges’ Education Committee. That’s the committee everyone wants to be on, because it’s the one that wields power when it comes to influencing future judges. But judges aren’t the only ones seeking information. What does your club offer for prospective and new owners, or even breeders?

The AKC recognizes the importance of this education by offering the Eddy Award to club websites that contain outstanding information for breeders and prospective breeders–which include new and prospective owners.

It may not be glamorous to educate the masses about how to cut toenails, train a sit, or enter a first dog show, but it’s just as important. Most parent club websites contain an obligatory section on “Is this breed for you?” and maybe even a page on breed history as well as how to find a breeder (in their club). Many contain a few pictures of the breed performing in various sports, boasting how their breed does it all, but few have any information about how the newcomer could do any of it. A few may have links to books with more information, but most don’t want to admit somebody else may have written something with more information, so most don’t.

But a few clubs go well beyond that, providing more information than most breed books (after all, internet pages are cheap compared to paper pages). The AKC even recognizes parent clubs with the best education materials for breeders with the Eddy Award (see sidebar). Your club website is the very best place to educate members and future members–many of who might become breeders. But how much is your club really doing? The better question is “How much could your club be doing?”

Does your club have access to writers? Artists? Veterinarians? Trainers? Geneticists? Groomers? Handlers? Find out what strengths your members have and challenge them to create an educational page focused on their expertise. Chances are, unless yours is a massive club, you won’t have experts in everything. Think hard about what aspects of a topic are non-generic when it comes to your breed. Back to toenails, for example: They may sound generic, but a well-trimmed Saluki nail is not at all the same as a well-trimmed Doberman nail.

Many clubs do make use of generic dog care information, which is good as long as it’s been screened to make sure it’s not too generic (a section on how to safely bike your Chihuahua is probably not a good fit, unless it’s how to teach him to stay in a basket–and yes, in my days of writing For Dummies dog books, I had an editor call me out because my Pom book did not have a section on road working your Pom next to a bike, like the other books had.) A common mistake is including generic information about health problems. If you do this, specify whether it’s a breed problem or just general dog information, because otherwise it can mislead readers into thinking it is breed specific. So, for example, don’t include hip dysplasia and bloat but do include luxating patellas and alopecia in your Pom health section.

Start small, with just a single section. And for inspiration, check out these parent club sites:

Click here to read the complete article
90 – August, 2026

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Posted by AnthonyA on Aug 8 2026. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.