Dog-Owned Life


AKC opens some doors to mutts


The Washington Post has a story on how the American Kennel Club has opened some competitions to mixed-breed dogs, a first in the organization’s 125-year history.



Makes sense to me, although I would think there are plenty of skills contests out there that have never required dogs to be purebreds. The AKC is obviously trying to broaden its appeal (and likely generate more revenue in the process), but I never really had a problem with the exclusion of mutts. How Bandit would do in a beauty competition has no relation to his value to me.

Do you think this was a change that needed to happen?

Categories: Breeds, Contests, General
Mark Ramirez

2 Responses

  1. D says:

    Ok my thinking on this is that the reason its only purebreds is because its easiser to classify them into groups. Ex. Beagles, bloodhounds, and bluetick hounds all in the “hound” group, so on and so forth. So would they just put every single mutt in the “mutt” group? And with mutts you can breed out traits you dont like about a certain breed, so maybe you could someday breed some super mix that is good at all the events, i dont know

    And whats up with the group name? is “All Americans” the new liberal, PC, sugarcoated way of saying mutt now?

  2. Heather says:


    The reason it has only been purebreds is because PB = $$$. The AKC has a ton of money and continually goes against mandatory spay/neuter laws and laws that allow owners to only own a certain number of dogs. Breeding = $$$; hence, showing dogs = $$$. Not saying that they are all “bad” – there are a number of individual breeders who are responsible and are involved in breed rescue…but the AKC leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

    They call mandatory spay/neuter “draconian”….I would prefer to call it “responsible”.