The Poodle Papers / Summer Edition

Page 28

The Poodle Papers / Summer Edition

Page 29

The Poodle Papers / Summer Edition

Page 30cont. on page 31

From AKC-Update!

Judging Conflict of Interest PolicyNo AKC judge may have a significant interest in a dogregistry or dog event-giving organization deemed by theAKC Board to be in competition with the American Ken-nel Club. Significant interest would include, but not be lim-ited to ownership of, employment by, a directorship in, andholding office in.Any AKC-approved judge, who shall judge a purebred dogevent in the U.S. not in accordance with the rules of AKC,which apply to such purebred dog events without the ex-press permission of the AKC, may be disciplined even tothe extent of having his or her AKC judging approval re-voked.An AKC-approved judge may judge breeds that are not AKCregistrable and/or that they have not been approved for byAKC at non-AKC events. The AKC Board has also givenpermission for the judging of certain other events basedupon the following criteria:1. AKC has no comparable events in place.2. While AKC has a program in place, AKC judges haveofficiated at events under the aegis of the other organiza-tion for years before the AKC program was initiated.3. The type of event is not or would not be perceived asbeing contrary to the best interest of AKC and the sport of purebred dogs.4. The event is a breed or type of breed-specific perfor-mance activity.No AKC approval is needed to judge versatility or perfor-mance activities developed by AKC Parent Clubs and spon-sored by such clubs.Events held by the following organizations meet the abovecriteria, and AKC-approved judges may continue to judgethem:* American Sighthound Field Association CoursingEvents* American Working Terrier Association Earthdog Events* American Herding Breed Association Events* North American Versatility Dog Association PointingBreed Hunting Tests* American Field Pointing Breed Field Trials* United Kennel Club Coonhound Events* Professional Kennel Club Coonhound Events* Any of the various organizations sponsoring AgilityTrialsOther activities may be added to this list at the discretionof the AKC Board.Frequently Asked QuestionsQ: Why did AKC adopt this policy?A: AKC believes that its judges are among the best in theworld. Among Conformation, Performance, and Compan-ion events, AKC spends millions of dollars every year toeducate, train, and approve judges to ensure that this is thecase. This encompasses things like processing applications,testing, interviews, observations, recording assignments,communications, education, and even liability insurance.When individuals apply for and are granted approval asAKC judges, they are granted a certain status in the Sport,which is recognized both nationally and internationally.In fact, many overseas registries will not approve indi-viduals from the United States to judge their events, un-less they are AKC-approved judges. In return for this sta-tus as AKC judges, AKC believes that they in return havea special responsibility to AKC and the Sport as governedby AKC. AKC does not object to other organizations spon-soring events in conflict with AKC events, but does objectto AKC-approved judges giving those events the credibil-ity that comes with using AKC-approved judges. Thiswould not be in the best interest of either AKC or its li-censed and member clubs.Q: How does this effect judging rare breed events?A: The policy specifically excludes breeds that AKC doesnot register. It also excludes breeds that an individual isnot yet eligible to judge.Q: Why are certain events excluded from the policy, whileothers, e.g., Obedience and Tracking, are not?A: There are some types of Performance events that AKCdoes not sponsor. There is no objection to anyone judgingthese events. There are also some activities, which otherorganizations may have been sponsoring long before AKCbecame involved. In some cases, the initial pool of AKC judges may have come from those organizations. In thesecases, those events have been excluded from the policy.Q: Why are some organizations included in the list, whileothers are not?A: The list of events excluded from the Judging Conflictof Interest Policy, was prepared based upon input from