Last night I attended my local dog club meeting. The club's AKC rep was speaking about the losses from registrations. MY INTERPRETATION of his opinion, was that AKC should loosen up their registrations...making it possible for AKC registrations to compete with XYZ registrations at the puppy stores. The newcomers to the registration market offer papers, paid & "registered" at the time of purchase at the pet store. AKC doesn't allow that, so AKC misses out on registrations. "Why", he asked, "would a puppy buyer go with AKC over these other registries?" Well... I register with AKC so that my dogs can compete in AKC events. Other registries don't have the events I'm interested in. AKC is also the brand name registry & the others are store brand or generics. If the average pet buyer just wants a pet & doesn't care to do herding or whatever, they just want a dog.... why would they go with AKC? I was in favor of AKC staying out of the instant registration at pet stores because they shouldn't be encouraging people to buy their puppies from a factory. That it might be an ok way to buy a gerbil or a bird or goldfish... but not puppies. He countered that that was a MORAL opinion... and didn't/shouldn't factor in to the registrations are a source of income discussion. He said that "in America" you can't tell people they can't do something. (Like sell puppies to pet stores, I guess.) ??? So... As a club's representative to AKC... is "my" representative supposed to support the opinion of the majority of his club (i.e... not supporting puppy mills & pet store puppy sales) or his personal opinion? Thanks! Diane ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2008. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================