Why Join Your Parent Club?
By Roseann Fucillo
Published AKC GAZETTE September 2003

Membership in a parent club provides many opportunities and educational resources, including newsletters, handbooks and other publications.  It is a major support to breeders and breed fanciers alike, with an emphasis on education.

The best education for a breeder or fancier is to attend the parent club’s annual national specialty, where there are breed seminars, health clinics, and other services.  Most importantly, it is an opportunity to meet club members and to evaluate breeding stock through competition.  Top dogs from around the country perform in a variety of events, from agility and obedience to junior showmanship and conformation.

Here the breed standard is interpreted in what the breeders produce and in the dogs to whom the judges award their ribbons.  It makes you realize just how significant every breed standard is – approved by the AKC and safeguarded by our parent clubs.

Included at the national specialty is an awards banquet where the club gives recognition to the efforts of breeders and junior handlers and to the lifetime achievements of members who have done outstanding work for the club and for the sport of purebred dogs.  The parent club also recognizes dogs that have earned tittles or made great contributions to the breed during the previous year.  In most clubs, if you are not a member, your dog is ineligible to receive an award.

In order to preserve and maintain the health of the breed, it is the parent club’s responsibility to encourage all its members – breeders and pet owners alike - to take part in testing for genetic disorders.  The clubs raise funds through their membership to actively support research to help eliminate any serious health problems that afflict their breed.  The future of every breed depends on its parent club’s determination to see that these measures are taken and that the integrity of the breed is preserved.

Parent clubs help find loving and caring homes for dogs that have been rescued from shelters and elsewhere.  And there is always comfort in knowing that most parent clubs will provide emergency rescue or aid to a member’s pets in the event of his/her illness or death.

Your level of involvement is up to you.  As a member, you can attend meetings and activities and vote to elect the board, which does as the membership dictates and makes decisions on behalf of its membership.

You can volunteer to serve on committees and help with events, but you are not required to.  It is not easy volunteering your time for no pay and often never hearing a thank you, but it can be rewarding.  Join your parent club and get involved.  You can make a difference!

Published with permission from the AKC GAZETTE.  This article is not to be copied, whole or in part, without written permission from the author.