Protect the Ability of Children to Compete in Spaniel Field Trials

Members of the 2017 Field Trial Committee ("FTC") are determined to adopt rules at the National level for American Kennel Club Spaniel Field Trials that would bar the children of professionals from participating in AKC field sports as amateurs.

No one should be discriminated against by virtue of the circumstances of their birth, or their parents. No one is a better ambassador of the sport than a young person who has grown up learning about and participating in it. It will be the next generation that is charged with growing, expanding and extending the sport of dogs in the field. They should be supported and encouraged, not subject to the insecurities and inadequacies of those who seek their exclusion.

The impetus behind this rule change under the thin ruse of "leveling the playing field" is the threat the success of a 15 year old minor posed by winning an AKC field trial earlier this year. After this child's win, people on the FTC, many of whom were also competing at the field trial where this child won (and they did not), want to prevent this child, who is now 16 and any other like her, from beating them again.

We wrote to the American Kennel Club and they agreed that this child should never have been treated by the hosting club so badly, just because she won. The impact their hostility and intimidation had on the 15 child was unconscionable. How she was treated was after her win, the hosting club banned her from competing two days later by falsely threatening AKC rule violations. The American Kennel Club demanded the club in question apologize to this child and her parents for their unscrupulous conduct and take measures to ensure the conduct is never repeated. Now many of the the same folks are at it again. Yes this is a gifted young child, but the awful experience she endured for being talented must not be visited on any more children, not even her-ever again.

Most children who participate in AKC field trials are the children of professionals or have worked with a professional. The FTC's proposed rule change would bar most all of these children (effectively most children in spaniel field trials) from participating in AKC field trials unless they decided to compete in the Open Stakes.

There are far more obvious ways to "level the playing field," if this actually is a goal. One way would be to prevent adults, who accept compensation for the training and boarding of dogs, from running in Amateurs when they are for all practical purposes, acting like professionals. Another way would be to allow only exclusively amateur trained dogs-dogs that have never been trained by a professional. We invite the FTC to look inwards on this-of course they will not want to because the two changes above would affect them. For the record we are not advocating either of these as rule changes, but they are at least a more honest attack on an arguably manufactured issue.

Children are the future of all AKC events. Everyone who enjoys any AKC event, be it conformation, tracking, agility or hunting, should encourage and foster the participation of children in AKC events, not drive them away if they are perceived as being too big of a threat to the ability of adults two to four times their age. This impetus is a disgrace, and the purpose of this petition is to shed light on it.

All of those who enjoy this sport should be looking for ways to mentor young people into dog sports and to encourage outsiders to participate. Narrowing the field of entrants just to allow a few adults a better chance to win, is a bad policy for the future of the sport, it is very poor sportsmanship, and it goes against the interests of the American Kennel Club.