Opening The Studbook

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136 – October, 2026

By Caroline Coile

What if you could go back in time and bring over more foundation dogs for your breed? To a time before the stud book was closed?

For most breeds, that’s impossible. Maybe they died out in their native land due to war or lack of need, or maybe they were manmade from a restricted foundation to start with, or maybe the dogs are there but it’s not possible to integrate them.

But that’s not the case with a handful of landrace breeds–breeds that still have representatives “in the wild,” so to speak. In other words, breeds that still have unregistered individuals in their region of breed origin.

They’re not really “in the wild,” of course. But they may be in the hands of indigenous people who are still using them as working stock, and who couldn’t imagine the idea of a dog show or a restricted stud book.

What if your breed had too few founding dogs? What if your breed had a hereditary health problem due to one of those founders carrying it? What if you could bring some of these dogs back and expand your breed’s gene pool?

In some cases, you can.

But first, a brief history of the AKC and the closed registry. In the late 1800s several stud registries existed. In 1886, the newly (1884) formed American Kennel Club took over The American Kennel Stud Book, which had three years worth of registrations. That grew into the American Kennel Club Studbook in 1887. By necessity, it was an “open” registry, allowing dogs claimed by their owner or breed club to be of a certain breed to register them as such.

In 1888 the AKC established rules allowing a dog to enter the studbook if: 1) both parents were already registered in it; 2) the dog had an authenticated three-generation pedigree; or 3) the dog earned two first prizes at an AKC show. In 1916, this policy was changed to exclude the third option. In practice, if a dog’s parents are not registered with the AKC, and the dog does not have an export pedigree from a foreign or domestic kennel club with which the AKC has a reciprocal agreement, the dog cannot be registered.

But again, not necessarily. The best-known cases are the Saluki and Basenji, but they’re not the only ones.

The Saluki: From the Oasis

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136 – October, 2026

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