Want To Give A Little Back? Join A Club!

By William Given

If you enjoy dogs and the thrill of canine competition, you can multiply your pleasure many times over by joining one or even more dog clubs. If you enjoy both dogs and good dog people, membership in a good dog club should prove to be a personally rewarding experience.

Kennel clubs have several reasons for being. One of the most important of these is bringing together people who have common interests, goals and objectives so that, through their mutual association, they can find a greater enjoyment in the ownership and sport of purebred dogs than they possibly ever could as an individual. In short, a good dog club should be a medium for making friends and creating happy, fun-filled social occasions. When it has done that, the way is open for it to function as a highly effective service organization.

So, what are some of the ways our clubs serve their membership? They offer the membership many opportunities for the free exchange of ideas. A good many clubs are very good at providing educational programs. They often provide speakers with expertise in various fields of canine endeavors, and these speakers can be brought in to speak to members and guests. I have been to a number of panel discussions on advances in breeding technology and innovations in modern veterinary medicine.

A good dog club can and should interest itself in any fraudulent sales of puppies in the area. The Labrador Retriever Club of Greater Denver took an active stand to protect puppy purchasers when a breeder was offering Lab puppies as AKC-registrable when the breeder knew the puppies could not be registered. Some dog clubs, such as the Monsona Kennel Club go a step further by supporting canine adoption from municipal animal shelters and breed rescue groups. Good dog clubs, as a group, like the Colorado Federation of Dog Clubs, can and should work diligently to combat anti-dog legislation in their state and take action to encourage favorable legal protections of dogs and for the rights of their owners. Good dog clubs sponsor many different training programs, for example, the Scott County Kennel Club and Southern Colorado Kennel Club provide Canine Good Citizen classes through advanced obedience and agility courses for dogs and their owners.

Some parent clubs, like the Doberman Pinscher Club of America and the Bulldog Club of America, operate highly successful breeder referral programs. These are a sort of non-profit brokerage between reputable breeders and families who want to find a good dog, but do not know quite where or how to start. I have heard of some clubs offering rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those who have poisoned dogs and dognappers. Dognapping and dog poisoning have been on the increase in recent years but they are certainly nothing new. In 1905 the San Francisco Kennel Club offered a reward for the identification of the resident poisoning dogs in the city. And, in 1891 the Saint Bernard Club of America offered a reward for a dognapper. Many other clubs have taken a similar stand to deter those who would commit animal cruelty.

Many charitable organizations, particularly those researching diseases in dogs, have been given much-appreciated financial support by dog clubs. Although a club of clubs, the American Kennel Club has, over the years, contributed millions of dollars. Many parent and local breed specialty clubs have contributed great sums of money for researching genetic diseases common to their breed. And, since almost all dog clubs are non-profit groups, such organizations are almost invariably the eventual beneficiaries of some amount of profit arising from club activities. Clubs such as the Hangtown Kennel Club and Terry-All Kennel Club use a portion of those profits to fund veterinary scholarships for deserving and needy students. The Heart of America Kennel Club and the Lakes Region Kennel Club provide scholarships for selected students enrolled in veterinary technology programs at colleges in their communities.

Some clubs like the Lebanon Kennel Club host microchipping clinics and the Kanadasaga Kennel Club has held eye exam clinics, and the Greeley Kennel Club hosts an excellent cardiology,

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Posted by Alex on May 12 2016. 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.