Gone FSSin'...
The AKC Foundation Stock Service(FSS) was created in the 1990s to fast-track rare breeds to full recognition status in that registry. Unfortunately, the current FSS Black and Tan Coonhound mess is a direct result of AKC not bothering to follow their own stated FSS regulations. AKC Black and Tan Coonhounds only registered about 117 last year. Frankly, if AKC had really wanted to bring in these domestic dogs from other registries for the purposes of improving and protecting the breed there should have been a whole lot more work put into making the Parent Club willing to open up their studbook instead of trying to stuff it down their throat.
On AKC's website the B&T breed standard is listed as applying to the FSS B&T as well and the proposed name "trail and tree hound" comes from the very first sentence of the B&T standard, "The Black and Tan Coonhound is first and fundamentally a working dog, a trail and tree hound...used principally for trailing and treeing raccoon... ."
More importantly, the FSS regs clearly state that, "The FSS is not open to 'rare'breeds that are a variation of an AKC-registerable breed...This includes but in not limited to differences in size, (over & under)coat type,... [etc.]." Since Black and Tan Coonhounds have been recognized by AKC since 1945, the registry had no justification to take into FSS the same breed from other registries - except perhaps the thought that goin' FSSin' for the thousands of Coonhounds in the other registries might pump up AKC's sagging registration base.(This certainly begs the question,"If AKC recognition is so beneficial to the various breeds, why does AKC only register a little over 100 B&Ts per year while the other registries process thousands?")
To obtain full recognition FSS breeds must be "documented as a distinct breed over a period of many decades." At present, all these FSS B&Ts are is a separate gene pool from other domestic registries. Besides the fact that most of these other dogs can actually hunt, the physical difference are merely slight variations of type, not gross differences which could support recognition as a separate breed. FSS B&Ts are listed on the AKC website and FSS registration forms as Black and Tan Coonhounds. The AKC message board lists them as such and since 2003 the AKC Board of Directors put them on the permitted list to compete in obedience,agility and tracking - so they have hardly been a distinct breed for decades.
They are, as we all know, Black and Tan Coonhounds.
On AKC's website the B&T breed standard is listed as applying to the FSS B&T as well and the proposed name "trail and tree hound" comes from the very first sentence of the B&T standard, "The Black and Tan Coonhound is first and fundamentally a working dog, a trail and tree hound...used principally for trailing and treeing raccoon... ."
More importantly, the FSS regs clearly state that, "The FSS is not open to 'rare'breeds that are a variation of an AKC-registerable breed...This includes but in not limited to differences in size, (over & under)coat type,... [etc.]." Since Black and Tan Coonhounds have been recognized by AKC since 1945, the registry had no justification to take into FSS the same breed from other registries - except perhaps the thought that goin' FSSin' for the thousands of Coonhounds in the other registries might pump up AKC's sagging registration base.(This certainly begs the question,"If AKC recognition is so beneficial to the various breeds, why does AKC only register a little over 100 B&Ts per year while the other registries process thousands?")
To obtain full recognition FSS breeds must be "documented as a distinct breed over a period of many decades." At present, all these FSS B&Ts are is a separate gene pool from other domestic registries. Besides the fact that most of these other dogs can actually hunt, the physical difference are merely slight variations of type, not gross differences which could support recognition as a separate breed. FSS B&Ts are listed on the AKC website and FSS registration forms as Black and Tan Coonhounds. The AKC message board lists them as such and since 2003 the AKC Board of Directors put them on the permitted list to compete in obedience,agility and tracking - so they have hardly been a distinct breed for decades.
They are, as we all know, Black and Tan Coonhounds.
posted by Anne M. Hier at Friday, July 15, 2005
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