American Kennel Club

American Kennel Club (AKC), the largest registry of purebred dogs in the world and the chief promoter of purebred breeding and exhibiting in the United States. Founded in 1884, it records and tracks the lineage of purebred dogs, establishes breed standards, and sanctions some of the most famous dog shows in the world—including the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the National Dog Show, and the AKC National Championship—as well as scores of local canine sporting events. It also provides extensive resources for dog care and training, sponsors research on canine diseases, and tracks legislation affecting dog ownership and breeding. Legislation that the organization lobbies for or against can often be controversial, sometimes angering animal rights groups.

The AKC registers purebreds in some 200 dog breeds in seven categories (sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, non-sporting, and herding). This leaves some 200 breeds—mainly rare, foreign, designer (hybrid), and newer breeds—that the AKC does not recognize; the popular Labradoodle, for example, is not recognized by the AKC because it is a hybrid, crossbred from a Labrador Retriever and a standard or miniature Poodle. Its Canine Partners program, however, registers mixed-breed dogs of any age (some 53 percent of dogs in the U.S. are believed to be mixed-breed “mutts”), which allows the animals to participate in many AKC programs, but not in its “conformation events” (dog shows), which are reserved for purebreds.

Regarding the structure of the organization, the AKC is a nonprofit “club of clubs,” meaning that membership is open only to dog clubs and breed organizations, not individuals. The AKC includes more than 620 member clubs (including the famed Westminster Kennel Club) and some 5,000 affiliated clubs that meet membership requirements but do not have delegate representation or voting rights in the organization. The AKC maintains the records of more than 22,000 dog events annually, from dog shows and sporting competitions to training and health clinics. More than 10,000,000 microchipped or tattooed pets are also enrolled in the AKC Reunite program, which has resulted in the return of some 685,000 lost pets since its founding in 1995.

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History

The AKC was founded in Philadelphia by 13 breed clubs (10 American, 3 Canadian) in 1884. This “club of clubs” met in various U.S. cities until 1886 or 1887 (AKC sources differ), when it established an office in New York City, where its headquarters remain. As Margaret Derry explained in Bred for Perfection (2003), “The evolution of dog shows in North America [such as the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, which began in 1877] brought about the need for regulation, just as it had in Britain, and kennel clubs came into existence to fulfill that need.”

The AKC was especially concerned with publishing a reliable studbook (for recording a purebred’s pedigree and lineage) and establishing breed standards and the rules and regulations for dog shows and judges. An earlier organization, the National American Kennel Club (founded in 1876), had begun a studbook, later shared with the AKC, but dealt mainly with field trials for “gun dogs” (such as pointers and retrievers trained for hunting), not dog shows. The AKC also differed from its British counterpart, the Kennel Club (founded in 1873, the oldest recognized kennel club in the world), by extending membership only to dog clubs. The Canadian clubs pulled out of the AKC in 1886 and formed their own national club (the Canadian Kennel Club) in 1888. The following year, the AKC launched the AKC Gazette, the oldest continuously published dog magazine in the United States.

The AKC had registered nine breeds by 1887, but this number grew quickly in subsequent years. AKC rules regulating dog shows also evolved over time; between 1905–07, for example, the AKC established the now-common point system for dog shows. In 1924 it separated dogs into five breed groups for the purposes of showing and competition: sporting dogs, working dogs, terriers, toy breeds, and non-sporting breeds. All dogs competed within their breed category.

The AKC experienced a surge in membership after World War II, as military veterans returned home, suburbs blossomed, and the interest in purebred dogs spread to all social classes. As Michael Lemonick explained in a 2001 Time magazine article, the AKC was founded by:

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bluebloods who pledged “to do everything to advance the study, breeding, exhibiting, running and maintenance of purity of thoroughbred dogs.” At the time purebreds were status symbols, owned exclusively by the wealthy and prized for their strength, skill and intelligence as much as for their looks. But during the 1940s, as the middle class sucked in vast numbers of new members with aspirations of gentility, these Americans began to insist on purebreds too, and their popularity took off.

The AKC had registered some 70,000 dogs by 1944; this number skyrocketed to some 240,000 in 1949. The AKC reported in 2024 that it registers more than a million dogs annually.

Dog shows

The AKC sanctions thousands of dog events each year, though they are organized by clubs at the local level. The most well-known events are conformation shows. Although often characterized as canine beauty pageants, these competitions measure how closely a dog conforms to the standard of its breed. As the AKC explains, conformity matters “because the closer a dog’s appearance is to the breed’s standard, the better that dog’s ability will be to produce puppies that meet the standard.”

While conformation shows are limited to purebreds, dogs of mixed or uncertain lineage can compete in other AKC-sanctioned events, including sporting competitions, training classes, and recognition programs for service animals.

Controversies and criticism

Although the AKC encourages sound breeding and sponsors research on canine diseases, the organization has been criticized for not doing enough to protect the health of dogs. The limited scope of its registration policy has often been at the center of controversy. An AKC registration confirms a dog’s lineage and breed, allowing the animal to participate in AKC dog shows and breeding programs, but it does not—as many dog purchasers mistakenly believe or are led to believe by unscrupulous breeders who often charge more for AKC-registered dogs—guarantee the health, quality, or temperament of the dog or its suitability as a pet or service animal. “The best use of pedigree papers is for housebreaking your dog,” said veterinarian and AKC critic Michael Fox in Time magazine in 2001. “They don’t mean a damn thing. You can have an immune-deficient puppy that is about to go blind and has epilepsy, hip dysplasia, hemophilia and one testicle, and the AKC will register it.”

Several breed-specific organizations in the U.S. and Europe have expanded their registration standards to reflect the health of the animal, and critics of the AKC have encouraged the organization to follow their lead. Of special concern are the health and genetic consequences of inbreeding, common among purebreds destined for dog shows. Reporter Christie Keith elaborated on this concern in an article about the BBC documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed (2008), which, she wrote, “contended that purebred dogs are prone to being sickly, weak and riddled with genetic diseases, mostly because of the tyranny of the show ring and breeders are selecting their dogs for specific and often freakish traits that win at dog shows but leave them unfit for living the life of a normal dog.” In the wake of the documentary, the U.K. Kennel Club and the AKC banned mating between first-degree relatives and the registration of their offspring. The AKC also launched a Canine Health and Welfare Advisory Panel to address breeding issues and inserted a new introductory paragraph into each breed standard, which included the following: “Breeders and judges should at all times be careful to avoid obvious conditions or exaggerations which would be detrimental in any way to the health, welfare or soundness of this breed.” Because of concerns about the dangers of dog-show breeding, some breeders (of Border Collies, for example) have actively fought against recognition by the AKC, believing it would damage the long-term health and quality of their breeds.

Animal rights activists have also criticized the AKC’s opposition to laws that make it easier to seize dogs suspected of being abused and that ban pet stores from selling dogs acquired from so-called “puppy mills,” which have often been accused of fostering substandard living conditions that harm the health and behavior of the animals. The AKC advocates for the humane treatment of all dogs, but it fights strongly to protect the rights of dog owners and opposes laws that limit consumer choice, such as those that would force retailers to sell pets only from rescues or shelters. The AKC does register dogs from larger-scale, commercial breeders, and some AKC-inspected breeders have been accused of animal cruelty, but the AKC defends its standards and status as “the only purebred registry in the United States with an ongoing routine kennel inspection program,” with “a dedicated team of field inspectors.” Critics have questioned both the quality of these inspections and whether the AKC employs a sufficient number of inspectors to adequately screen breeders.