It’s not primarily about the ribbons and titles but about forging a closer, more fulfilling bond between dog and owner. But let’s face it: After all that time and effort, adding an official title to your dog’s name can be awfully satisfying. Let’s take a look at the latest ways the AKC has enabled you […]

  Since the first issue of AKC Family Dog in 2003, we have been telling the stories of service dogs who guide the blind, hear for deaf, perform household tasks for wheelchair users, indicate on impending seizures and diabetic trauma, and perform many other jobs for disabled owners. During our 13-plus years of interviewing service-dog […]

I’m a caricaturist. I draw funny faces. That is, I draw faces funny. It’s an important distinction. Any decent draftsman can draw a funny face; a caricaturist finds the funny in a nondescript or even beautiful face. And caricaturists who aspire to a certain level of sophistication, those of the "New York School" whose dean […]

The Scottish Terrier is among the most recognizable of purebred dogs. It has been a mainstay of American iconography since its great wave of popularity in the 1930s, when the breed was a celebrity fad. Humphrey Bogart was a Scottie owner. So were Charles Lindbergh and Shirley Temple. Both Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were […]

Among the marvels of human ingenuity is the way various breeds of dog were developed, mentally and physically, to tackle specific jobs. Consider the farmer’s eternal war against rodents and other burrowing mammals that devastate grain stores, raid henhouses, tear up fields, dig away riverbanks, and carry disease. As their number-one weapon in subterranean warfare, […]

Got a minute? If so, you can learn the essentials of any breed. Not enough to call yourself an expert, of course. But in the time it takes to watch a TV commercial, one of our “60-Second Seminars” can provide you with just enough breed knowledge to bluff your way through a conversation at the […]

If you’ve landed on this page, you probably already know that the lovable Beagle is an irresistible pet. But these merry little hounds with the shoe-button eyes and melodious bark weren’t bred to be just the perfect companion hound. Here, five dog experts, past and present, explain the original working function of the breed and how […]

Happy Father's Day! To celebrate all things paternal, we are featuring eight great sires in AKC history. These studly champions did some of their best work outside of the show ring. Standard Poodle: Ch. Nunsoe Duc de la Terrace of Blakeen Ch. Nunsoe Duc de la Terrace of Blakeen, the 1935 Westminster Best in Show […]

Deep in the AKC Gazette photo archive is a battered old Kodak film box. It contains several rare—and extremely fragile—glass negatives taken by Rudolph Tauskey. They date to the early 1920s. Canine photography buffs have assumed for years that all of Tauskey’s glass negatives were lost, but six survive. Using a sophisticated scanner, the AKC Publications […]

It’s National Dog Week! You have a right to be skeptical of these “national weeks.” It seems like every Monday brings the start of another national something week: National Kumquat Week, National Duct Tape Week, National Braunschweiger Week, and who knows what else. Mostly, PR flunkies of limited imagination concoct these faux celebrations because they […]