The American Kennel Club® has announced that the 2006 AKC® World Coonhound Nite Hunt and Bench Show Championships will be held September 25 through 30 at the Kosciusko County 4-H Fairgrounds in Warsaw, Ind. The Sportsmen and Farmers Conservation Club of Silver Lake, Ind. will serve as the host for this prestigious event.

The 2006 event continues a long tradition of coonhound World Championships held by AKC with the very first championship being held in Wycliffe, Kentucky in 1948. The contest, featuring the top-winning coonhounds from across the nation, covers six days of competition and culminates with the running of the Final Four on Saturday evening. No game is taken, nor are firearms used in the competition.

“We are very pleased to be coming to Warsaw for our Coonhound World Championship,” said Steve Fielder, Assistant Vice President of Coonhound Events at AKC. “This is one of the best areas in the nation to hold this type of competition. Raccoons abound here, providing the perfect testing ground for these wonderful sporting dogs. We won’t be harming the raccoons at all but will “score” them with pen and paper, leaving them to run free. Competitive coon hunting through AKC coonhound events is one of the most popular of all dog sports in the nation.”

An awards dinner hosted by Black Gold Dog Food will recognize the Top 16 finishing coonhounds in the World Coonhound Nite Hunt Championship on Saturday evening prior to the running of the Final Four. A live “play by play” of the final round of competition will be posted on the AKC coonhound website at www.akccoonhounds.org.

The AKC World Coonhound Bench Show Championship will be held on Saturday, September 30 at noon. The main event will be the crowning of the 2006 AKC World Bench Show and Reserve World Bench Show Champions, selected from a class of six World Champions of Breed. The public is invited to join in the fun at the fairgrounds throughout the week. The World Championship coonhound show is always a spectator favorite.