AKC and CKC
Traditional "all-breed" national registries. (Except that they don't register literally "all breeds" by any stretch of the imagination -- they interpret that phrase to mean "all the breeds that WE think are worth recognising"! CKC, for example, recognises only 160 breeds.) They are run mostly with a keen eye to making a profit and making sure that no doggy is admitted without a ticket (registration number from their own or another approved registry). They demonstrate relatively little concern for dog welfare, working qualities, "total dog" balance, etc.
Neither one recognises or registers "Seppala Siberian Sleddogs" as a breed. Seppalas managed to perpetuate their existence for six or seven decades by "hiding under a rock" in the Siberian Husky registries of AKC and CKC, bred by a small handful of knowledgeable people as if they were a breed apart, shut off by a self-imposed "pedigree barrier" from the showdog majority. Harry Wheeler, Millie Turner, William L. Shearer III, the Belfords, Donnie McFaul, Keith Bryar and others bred them this way, as "Seppala Siberians" -- a special closed strain. Of course this situation resulted in a constant leakage of the gene pool as Seppalas were bred to non-Seppalas or sold to those who bred them to show Siberians -- or to Alaskan Huskies; constant loss without ever any in-migration to compensate, no way to refresh or rejuvenate the dwindling gene pool. All the worst features of the "closed studbook" were amplified by this ghetto existence of Seppalas within the Siberian Husky stud books. By the 1990s those who knew something about Seppalas realised that this couldn't go on forever.
The American Kennel Club Website
The Canadian Kennel Club Website
AKC FSS
The senior registry's "Foundation Stock Service" -- it is claimed NOT to be a registry by AKC, but a "record-keeping service" for rare breeds. It keeps individual animals' records for various breeds, it does pedigrees -- so how is it not a registry? Some claim it is a stalking horse for rare-breed takeovers by AKC against the will (usually) of those who introduced such breeds to the USA, promoted them, and kept records for them while AKC was not interested. Some 48 breeds currently use it. Soon some fool will propose that Seppalas should be enrolled in it and we'll then be on our way to showdogdom! (For more information see: The AKC Takeover of Rare Breeds.)
UKC
An alternative all-breed registry based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the United Kennel Club has been around for nearly a century. It's very similar to AKC but professes more of a concern for balance; they make a lot of use of the "total dog" phrase, but in the end aren't that different. UKC doesn't recognise or register SSSDs; it would (and did) accept for registration the Siberia import dog that Canadian Kennel Club and ISSSC both refuse to accept.
The United Kennel Club Website
FCI
Not a registry itself, this European organisation (Fédération Cynologique Internationale) is an umbrella registry-of-registries that deals with breed recognition, provides breed standards on a transnational level, and organises the many small European (and in some cases Asian, etc.) national or breed registries, regulates them and allows them to stamp "FCI Export Pedigree" on their registration papers so that dogs can be sold internationally with some degree of order. AKC and CKC do not subscribe to FCI! And FCI does not recognise the SSSD as a breed.
The SSSD Project
That's the outfit that operates this SSSD website. This breeding project in the Yukon Territory (Canada) originated the Seppala Siberian Sleddog concept, which was first proposed in 1995 in "Seppala Network" bulletin, published by J. Jeffrey Bragg. That was where the breed name was originated and first used. The SSSD Project was solely responsible for getting Ag Canada's recognition of the evolving breed, and did the hard work that resulted in the chartering of WCAC. At the time when the possibility of doing this was discussed in "Seppala Network," nobody was interested; input was asked for and hardly a soul responded. (Doug Willett's only response was that any such independent breed thing would have to be FCI compatible for him to be interested in it, since a large part of his market was European!)
The SSSD Project itself is not a registry, but it was responsible for the founding of the first structure to provide an independent and separate existence for the Seppala Siberian Sleddog, the Working Canine Association of Canada.
The SSSD Project Website - General Information
WCAC
This "Animal Pedigree Association" was chartered in 1997 by Agriculture Canada for one breed only, the Seppala Siberian Sleddog -- as an "evolving breed," meaning a breed under development, on its way to becoming a fully recognised and "registered" "purebred" breed. Like any purebred-animals organisation in Canada, it operates under the constraints of the Animal Pedigree Act of that country. Under "evolving breed" protocols, animals are "identified" and have "certificates of identification" -- "registered" is reserved for later when full breed recognition is granted by Agriculture. It cannot "identify" stock outside Canada, but if there is such a thing as a "parent registry" for Seppalas, it is WCAC.
Its definitions and guidelines for the breed were set in place five years before the ISSSC was anything but a glint in its founders' eyes. Those guidelines define Seppala Strain in the traditional way, the way in which Wheeler, Shearer, McFaul and the others defined it. As a result, it has no real place for the "percentage Seppala" concept. It defines Seppalas in terms of descent from the 10 "Second Foundation" dogs of the Markovo/Seppineau era, since those bloodlines were the ONLY ones to survive in pure-strain form. No "other" Malamak, Bryar or similar Seppala lines appear to have endured past the 1970s.
WCAC also has a place for new Siberia import stock written permanently into its ground rules. The Solovyev (Russian) strain is described and provided for in the breeding guidelines, along with possible future imports from other breeding.
The WCAC founders had to convince Agriculture Canada that the Seppala breed was fully distinguishable from other Siberian Husky bloodlines. A crucial part of the distinguishability argument was the continued existence of that "pedigree barrier" that separated Seppalas from other SH bloodlines for seventy years. And that is why the common "percentage" RSH-Seppala stock is not considered eligible for WCAC status.
Continental Kennel Club (ConKC)
A non-national for-profit commercial registry in Walker, Louisiana. It is just one of many such business ventures (National Canine Assn., American Canine Registry, American Pet Registry Inc., Federation of International Canines, American Rare Breeds Assn., National Kennel Club, North American Purebred Dog Registry, World Kennel Club, World Wide Kennel Club, Universal Kennel Club, Dog Registry of America, United All Breed Registry, International Progressive Dog Breed Alliance, etc., are some of the others) but probably one of the largest. It registers "all breeds" far more inclusively (with 444 on its list) than AKC, including such classic breeds as the Black Mouth Cur, the Benchlegged Feist, and the Teddy Roosevelt Terrier. It was founded in 1991. Widely stigmatised for providing papers for Cockapoos and Labradoodles, it suffers from an "image problem" as a collaborator with puppy mills that may be largely undeserved. At any rate, its executives are making great efforts to have Continental be seen as a serious registry. Nevertheless, it will basically register anything -- under one category or another. That includes breed crosses, be they Cockapoos, Labradoodles, SH/Alaskan Husky, SH/Seppala, AH/Seppala, or whatever.
Continental had never heard of Seppalas until they were approached by the ISSSC founders. They took them at their word and even used photographs that had been stolen from this website to manufacture teeshirts and coffee mugs to be sold by ISSSC. Their "Seppala Siberian Sleddog" registry was set in place using guidelines written by Doug Willett, by which he was to be the person who would "determine the Seppala content of the dog." A percentage system was set in place whereby any animal that descended at least 93% from a list of ten 1920s-30s "founders" provided by Willett would be regarded as purebred -- despite the fact that only two years previously Dr. Willett had written:
"I would never favor lowering the cut off from 95%, because the cut off number becomes the limiting number for the population over a long period of time. In other words, after a long time, say 100 years, no animals with Seppala content over 95.1% will likely exist in a population with a 95% cut off criteria. For the truly conservative Seppala advocate and faint-of-heart, perhaps 97% . . . would be a more appropriate cut off." (--Article in Seppala News "What is a Good Definition for a Seppala?")
Over 200 dogs were immediately registered under the Willett guidelines, including 20 different "MISC - AH/Seppala" Alaskan Husky crossbreds. However, the current ISSSC guidelines specifically exclude stock "derived from recent Siberia imports." Thus the WCAC and ISSSC guidelines are mutually incompatible except in the case of pure Markovo-Seppalas, of which there are fewer with each passing year, since ISSSC's over-optimistic percentages claim "100% Seppala" status even for obvious mixed-lineage percentage stock.
The Continental Kennel Club Website
ISSSC
Officially a "licensed activity club" under ConKC auspices. Founded by Doug Willett, Bob and Tamara Davis, and Lanette Kimball in 2002, and unveiled -- along with the deal with ConKC that created their SSSD registry -- at the August 2002 Seppala Symposium that was called by its organisers for the purpose of "discussing the possibility of a separate Seppala registry." In the actual event there was nothing to discuss as arrangements had already been concluded and nearly 200 dogs accepted into the registry by the time the Symposium took place. ISSSC calls the shots for the ConKC Seppala registry, in effect "is" that registry in everything but name. Its definitions of what is "Seppala," its eligibility rules and its breed standard are totally its own. Created without reference to the SSSD breed as it had already existed for five years in Canada, ISSSC norms are mutually incompatible with those of WCAC.
ISA
Founded in February 2005 and incorporated in the Yukon under the Yukon Societies Act, the International Seppala Association keeps a Seppala ancestry database and pedigree record-keeping facilities for Seppala Siberian Sleddogs anywhere outside of Canada. ISA is not just an organisation for Seppalas; potentially it would keep pedigree records for any minority sleddog breed. Mackenzie River Huskies and Yakut Laikas are among future possibilities. It already has a Chinook sleddog registry which has recognised a body of foundation stock and issued registration numbers. (The various breed records would of course be held in separate registry databases.) ISA guidelines are basically in harmony with those of WCAC, but ISA will accept submissions from anywhere in the world except Canada, where only WCAC can identify Seppalas.
To the extent that there are still Seppalas of pure McFaul/Shearer descent in the United States (so-called Markovo-Seppalas), the owners of such animals are encouraged to apply for ISA registration for them, so that the bloodline will not be lost entirely in the USA. As things now stand, Markovo-Seppalas are being bred to red showdog-lineage Siberian Huskies, mixed-lineage racing stock, and Alaskan Huskies more or less indiscriminately; now comprising only about 8.5% of the nominal "Seppala" population in the ConKC registry, given the present situation, they may soon disappear altogether from the USA.
Compatibility?
The problem with the entire state of affairs as summarised above is
compatibility. AKC and CKC accept only animals from each
other or from a carefully-controlled list of "approved" registries
elsewhere in the world. For example, CKC would not recognise an
excellent Siberian import male brought to Canada in 1993, despite
the fact that he had an FCI Export Pedigree from the Czech Republic
along with his original Russian pedigree; because that dog did not
have
ISSSC consciously and deliberately decided to make its Seppala guidelines incompatible with those of WCAC; oddly enough, Siberia import stock was also an issue here. An ISSSC bulletin states that WCAC dogs not derived from recent Siberian imports are eligible for ConKC's Seppala registry. Since the WCAC Seppala guidelines from the outset included Siberia import stock as part of the breed genome, and since the integration of such stock with Markovo-Seppala stock is proceeding along the lines originally planned, there is basic incompatiblility.
WCAC/ConKC "Agreement"?
The "recent Siberia imports" issue, among others, prevented finalisation of an attempted agreement for mutual recognition between WCAC and ConKC. J. Jeffrey Bragg spent over a year in negotiations with ConKC (ISSSC itself would not negotiate at all), during which time relations between myself and the ConKC executives were generally good, but in the end when it was time to arrive at a compromise that would allow for a unified gene pool and full participation on both sides of the Canada/US border, ISSSC Board members threatened Michael Roy (ConKC CEO) that "sixteen breeders will leave your registry" if any changes were made in the original deal. Even so minor a concession as the proposal to have a "Markovo bloodline" designation for pure-strain Seppala stock caused an uproar from ISSSC. The attempted WCAC/Continental treaty foundered and was never submitted to Agriculture Canada for approval. ISSSC Director John Coyne's statement that "negotiations were between the ISSSC , the WCAC, and the Continental Kennel Club" is highly misleading, since ISSSC would not negotiate at all with WCAC and presented a totally intransigent, no-compromise position to Continental.
Data for WCAC dogs was submitted to Continental in an exchange of databases. ConKC received exhaustive ancestral information for Seppalas stretching back to the SH breed founders in the 1930s, as well as the entire WCAC population's data, and we in return had access to the Continental database. Continental assigned a separate number series to living WCAC stock, setting it apart totally from the ISSSC registrations. A draft agreement was drawn up and initialled. But that draft agreement only became a dead letter, because it was predicated on assumptions that did not materialise. ConKC was to have authorised an alternate Seppala club for those who were not allowed to join ISSSC or who disagreed with its elitist principles. Siberia import stock was to have full SSSD status. ConKC did not deliver on either of those points. Consequently the draft agreement, which would have had to be submitted to Agriculture Canada before WCAC could proceed to a treaty for mutual studbook recognition with ConKC, was taken no further, was not submitted to AAFC, and never took effect.
There is no WCAC "agreement" with Continental Kennel Club and little possibility that WCAC stock will ever enter Continental's Seppala registry. ISSSC displays WCAC founders on the "pedigrees" section of its website, but there is small likelihood that those founders' descendants could become part of the ISSSC gene pool, not least because more and more of those descendants now carry Siberia import lines somewhere in their pedigree.
WCAC, for its part, does not recognise the majority of ISSSC/ConKC stock since its original guidelines are based on the traditional "Seppala Siberian" definition as maintained in practice by Harry Wheeler, William L. Shearer III, J. D. McFaul and others through the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, and by the Markovo Rescue project in the 1970s. (The guidelines were drawn up, submitted to Agriculture and appended to WCAC's Articles of Incorporation, long before there was any interest in a Seppala breed from south of the border.) ISSSC defines its Seppalas, as I understand it, by a "percentage" rather than a bloodline basis, such that Anadyr, for example, would rate 70 to 80 "percent Seppala" by virtue of the original breed foundation, even though the actual percentage of McFaul/Shearer bloodlines in that lineage would be much lower. ISSSC percentages run anywhere from an average 3 percentage points (for their highest-percentage stock) to an average 15 percentage points (for lower-percentage animals) HIGHER than the actual McFaul/Shearer bloodline content.
The Bottom Line
AKC/CKC register only their own dogs and those of approved foreign registries. ISSSC/ConKC register the progeny of whatever was registered in the initial acceptance period, plus AKC/CKC Siberian Huskies that meet the esoteric percentage requirements (which are not generally understood outside the ISSSC Board). ISSSC blocks ConKC acceptance of stock having anything to do with recent Siberia import stock. WCAC/ISA accept Markovo-Seppala (McFaul/Shearer background) plus Siberia import stock; they will approve the widely-available "percentage Seppalas" only on an exceptional, individual-case basis. (That being necessary to avoid the original SSSD stock becoming utterly swamped by the larger numbers of part-Seppala stock, just as the Seppalas were in danger of assimilation by the show/pet majority in the AKC/CKC Siberian Husky registries.)
It's a fragmented situation, largely because when the critical moment arrived and ISSSC was born and made its deal with Continental Kennel Club, nobody saw any need for consultation with WCAC and the SSSD Project, although the Seppala Siberian Sleddog breed had been a reality in Canada for five years at the time. Neither was it adequately taken into consideration that scepticism about their initiative might be sufficiently widespread that many people would want to maintain a dual-registration posture until they were satisfied that the separate breed idea would be successful and permanent.
When you get down to the nitty-gritty, neither the ConKC/ISSSC nor the traditional national registries AKC/CKC seem capable of preserving Seppalas indefinitely. In the Siberian Husky registries Seppalas are bred to anything and everything else without hindrance, since there they are regarded as just another Siberian Husky bloodline. ISSSC, which should be trying to preserve Seppala uniqueness, in practice is continuing along quite similar lines. ISSSC's oddball percentage scheme will quickly result in the dilution of the basic McFaul/Shearer line past the point of no return, as it provides fake Seppala credentials for any and all Racing Siberian Husky bloodlines. (A quick random run-through of the "Pedigrees" section of their website reveals a large number of progeny of 5/8 Markovo-Seppala males represented as 93-95% Seppala!)
There IS a third alternative! The WCAC/ISA approach is more likely to result in Seppala preservation over the long term than either the benign-neglect approach of AKC or the bogus-Seppala-percentage approach of ISSSC. WCAC and ISA acknowledge the need to preserve the core McFaul/Shearer bloodline insofar as possible, within the limitations imposed by genetic health; concerns about high coefficient of inbreeding and genetic health are addressed by the inclusion of Siberia import stock to refresh the gene pool. It all comes down to what you want! If what you want is always to be able to sell AKC registered Siberian Husky puppies, then you stay with AKC. If what you want is to be competitive in racing, then you choose ISSSC (which allows you to do what you MUST to remain competitive, that being to breed whatever dogs prove most successful regardless of bloodline). But if what you want is the traditional Seppala dog, of the type that can be seen in this website's History subdomain in the teams of Harry Wheeler, Bill Shearer, and Donnie McFaul, then the only place you are likely to find it is within the WCAC/ISA fold. There only can you do something that will truly make a difference to the long-term preservation of the traditional, versatile Seppala sleddog.
The best overview on the web of the diversity of canine registries is this page: About Breed Registries - Canada's Guide to Dogs.
