AKC-Accredited Kennel Clubs for Junior Handlers

The intention of this petition is to convince the American Kennel Club to grant Junior Handlers the right to found AKC-accredited Junior Handler Kennel Clubs, much similar to any other AKC-accredited club. We feel that if there can be clubs for Agility, Obedience, Tracking, Field Trials, etc that Junior Showmanship should be allowed designated clubs as well.

We feel that if there were clubs specifically for Junior Handlers, (for example, the Southeast Junior Handlers Club or Junior Handlers Club of Washington, etc), it would open up more opportunities for educating the "future of the dog world." We feel that such Junior Handlers Clubs should be able to sponsor Seminars and competitions that solely feature Junior Showmanship Classes. We feel that these clubs should also be able to offer low-cost training classes for Junior Handlers and the right to give an opinion on what's happening in the dog world.

Currently, in the United States, if a Junior Handler wants to become involved they must join a regular AKC-Accredited Dog Club. Once they find one, they must have a parent or guardian present if they want to attend meetings and no matter how experienced they are or how good their attendance, they are not allowed to hold any position within the club or vote on matters of the club. Most often the AKC-accredited dog clubs do not even have a junior handler in membership because dog clubs we're created for the "grown ups" of the dog world.

We feel that if Junior Handler Clubs were approved of by the American Kennel Club, that they could be appropriately supervised for legal purposes by volunteer parents of Junior Handlers, by past Junior Handlers that have since "aged-out." We feel we could gather together adequate volunteers of judges, professional handlers, and breeders to help run seminars and training classes and offer assistance where needed. We feel that competitions that feature Junior-Showmanship only would be able to operate with the support of other Kennel Clubs and could operate under the supervision of AKC-accredited Junior Showmanship Judges and in conjunction with dog shows sponsored by fellow AKC-accredited dog clubs.

We feel that if we could get the AKC to accredit Junior Handlers Clubs, we could educate many future generations of Handlers.

If you agree with what has been stated above, please sign by using your full real name and City and State. We hope to maintain the integrity of the petition so that we can be taken seriously by the American Kennel Club. So we ask that you do not sign under false names or sign multiple times. We hope that by you signing your city and state, the American Kennel Club can be given an idea on how popular this idea is and how much of a membership these clubs will have.

We hope that even if this petition does not persuade the AKC to accredit Junior Handler Clubs, it will persuade them to put more effort into educating the younger generation of dog fanciers.