While we are all eagerly looking forward to seeing the 2002 AKC/Eukanuba National Invitational Championship air on Animal Planet later this month, there are some other AKC events being televised this month that deserve our attention. For the past six years, the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) has been airing AKC Performance Event Championships with much success. Available in a total of over 51 million homes, OLN introduces this exciting facet of canine competition to the general public, and allows the fancy to proudly see some of the sport’s top dogs recognized on national television.
AKC Performance events have a long and exciting history. The AKC has a lengthy tradition of sanctioning and licensing performance events for many breeds of dog, allowing the dogs to fully develop and display their natural abilities. Recorded field-testing of dogs in America dates back to 1876, a full eight years before AKC’s founding in 1884. Field Trials as well as bench shows are a founding component of AKC. More recently, the AKC has approved Hunting Tests, Tracking, Herding Tests and Trials, Lure Coursing, Earthdog Tests and Coonhound Events. These events all help affirm AKC’s conviction that dogs should continue to be bred with their original function in mind.
Performance Events encompass 13 different formats or separate events, and over the last five years the number of people participating in them as a whole and the actual number of events held have steadily risen. In 2002, we held 4,300 field events with a total of over 300,000 entries, compared with 3,911 events and 279,000 entries in 1997.
Specific events have grown even more dramatically. Coonhound events for example have gone from 68 participants in the World Hunt in 1998 to over 500 in 2002. The herding program has also realized significant and consistent growth — the number of tests/trials has grown 30% since 1997, with entries also increasing by about the same percentage.
The Performance department maintains a field staff of 17 and conducts more than 60 seminars a year on topics such as Rules, Regulations and Procedures of the various sports within the Performance groups. Each Performance Field Rep. is cross-trained to work multiple sports and has a minimum of 20 years experience in at least one of the sports, or has been in a sport since its inception.
The increased popularity of these events extends to the television viewing audience, with ratings increasing each year. It is obvious that the televising of AKC events is here to stay. The increased and diverse audiences we reach by televising our conformation, performance and companion events is an ideal way to educate the public about AKC, purebred dogs and what they can do– whether as a pet or a national champion.
I hope you’ll catch at least one of these six exciting events airing on OLN:
- The 2002 AKC Pointing Breed Gun Dog Championships, Sun. Jan 12 at 7:30 am
- The 2002 AKC Master National Retriever Hunt, Thurs. Jan 16 at 3:30 pm and Sun. Jan 26 at 7:30 am
- The 2002 AKC Small Pack Options National Beagle Championship, Sun. Jan 19 at 7:30 am
- The 2002 National Lure Coursing Championship, Thurs. Jan 23 at 3:30 pm and Sun. Feb 2 at 7:30 am
- The 2002 AKC German Shorthaired Pointer Club, Thurs. Jan 30 at 3:30 pm and Sun. Feb 9 at 7:30am
- The 2002 National Open Retriever Championship, Thurs. Feb. 6 3:30 pm will also be aired on Sun. Feb 16, 2003 at 7:30am
Visit akc.org or olntv.com for a full listing schedule.
Ron Menaker
Chairman