Canadian Kennel Club instituted a pilot project with 7 breeds to ask the National Clubs and breeders to come up with expanded Rules of Eligibility (ROE)
Vote on Rules of Eligibility for Registration of a purebred dog with the Canadian Kenel Club This website explains much better than I can what some implications could be. Staggering actually!
A bit of Canadian background, the CKC is incorporated under the Animal Pedigree Act which in turn is administered by our Dept of Agriculture and the Minister responsible for this. As such the CKC must follow the rules as outlined by the APA. Since 1974 Rules of Eligibility are required for every animal breed covered under this Act. It was decided by CKC and a rep from APA/Dept of agriculture to *expand* the ROE that should be currently in place. A simple rule really,
puppies eligible for registration as a purebred must come from parents of purebred ancestry that are registered with the CKC.
Now these new ROEs' that the whole CKC membership are being asked to approve, include a whole lot of things to be eligible for registration - some exclude color or off color markings. For eg if an ROE describes the breed as say *black* with no white markings, what happens if you have a puppy borne (which is pretty common in many breeds) that has a small white patch somewhere? Many times this white patch grows out.
So in the same litter, is it possible that two puppies born with white patches could not be registered as purebred???? Ridiculous.
Color markings or ear set/size does not determine purebred!! They may and often will exclude this puppy as potential breeding stock, but in no way should this preclude their recognition of purebred status!
How this will affect American Breeders? In a number of ways, importation of stud dogs or bitches to Canada must now meet the ROE requirements here. Dogs borne of an American Dog not meeting the ROE, would that litter be disallowed for registration?
Anyhow I and some others are trying to get some answers to these questions.