Tuesday T-Shirt Tales: FCI Agility World Championships

T-shirt tales? Because every t-shirt tells a story, don't it.
And I have so very many of them. Shirts. And stories. ---- Whaaaaat??

All T-Shirt Tales

SUMMARY: A surprise from a traveling friend

Agility--as you, Dear Reader, likely already know--covers the globe. 

As you might not know, FCI is Fédération Cynologique Internationale (essentially, World Canine Organization), a federation of national kennel clubs (kennel club: like AKC is an organization of breed clubs). Wikipedia notes, "The FCI has members, associates and partners in 98 countries, but some major kennel clubs like the American Kennel Club in the US, The Kennel Club in the UK, and the Canadian Kennel Club in Canada are not members."

FCI puts on its own world championship of dog agility annually, and each club can send a team. "Team" in this case is a little misleading: A country sends a set of three small dogs, a set of three medium dogs, and a set of three large dogs to compete in the team events, plus possibly separate individual small, medium, and large dogs for the individual events. Plus an alternate or two somewhere along the way. And, of course, the coaches.  My first (and on-and-off since) agility instructor has both won as a competitor and served as coach for several years.

Although the AKC isn't a member, they are allowed to compete by invitation. Several friends have competed there and have done well, individually or as part of a 3-dog team, making it to the podium, so of course I often watch the competitions while they're in progress.  The competing AKC teams hold fundraisers to pay for transport and lodging and entry fees for all those people and dogs. This inevitably includes selling team t-shirts, because: T-Shirts! And of course FCI sells shirts, too, as do all the other clubs entered.

Intriguingly, exchanging t-shirts between team members from other countries is A Thing. So maybe you have your own shirt but buy an extra to trade to a team whose shirts you like or whose team member you enjoyed meeting. This extends to supporters, too: all the people who make the trip there to watch their friends and relatives compete.

I've never been and never will go as a competitor. Maybe, someday, if COVID is licked, I might go as a cheerleading friend--maybe.

In 2011, friend Susan traveled to Europe to support the team and to learn from the experience. Before she left, she asked us whether we wanted her to bring something back. I said don't worry about it, go and have fun.

Me (in red) and Susan (also making a vee-sign) and friends on one of several hikes we've done together.
2011. All the dogs are agility dogs. 
(Also friend Lisa, left, a frequent hiking companion. Now, Lisa lives in Oregon and Susan lives in Washington. Leaving me here. How rude!)
Photo courtesy of Ellen C.

Much to my surprise, the next time I saw Susan, she handed me this FCI World Championship t-shirt, which she had brought back for me. So very cool. Nice embroidered logo and everything.  And... that's the true tale for this t-shirt. 

Taking my FCI shirt for a walk in the fresh air in June in this Time of COVID. 
(Mask down for photo only.)

Sporting my FCI shirt for a portrait in my yard with my besties.
August 2017.
Photo courtesy of Sarah H.

Ash and Luka: Gold!

SUMMARY: World Championships!

For those who've missed it, Ashley Deacon and Luka the Pyrenean Shepherd are Individual Medium Dogs FCI World Champions! Gold medalists!

That's on a combined score from both the Jumpers and the Standard runs.

SO exciting that a fellow Bay Teamer, sometime classmate, and friend, is there! Congratulations to someone who works as hard as anyone else I know at his success, and at keeping his dogs happy and enthusiastic at all times. Ash has a great attitude on top of everything else. Plus, long legs.

Also interesting is that, even though the scores combined two runs, my understanding is that mere hundredths of a second separated the three top finishers.

And even more interesting than that is that the top three are all Pyrenean Shepherds! No Shelties, no smallish Border Collies.

Woooohoooo I am happy tonight!

AKC Statement on FCI and Docking

SUMMARY: US News and World Report (or something--)

Another blogger (Team Fernandezlopez) has posted a statement from AKC: Read it here.

The Word on FCI World Cup Tail Docking

Ah--apparently it's the FCI's choice of a host country for this year. Seems to me that this wasn't well thought out; if the FCI is gradually phasing out docking and cropping, it should hold events in locations that respect its rules. This means that docking and cropping are most likely out for 2007 but, who knows, might be back in later years until phased out completely.

My impression from (again) word of mouth is that it's not final on whether (a) AKC dogs with cropping and docking will be given an exemption somehow, or (b) FCI will somehow come up with an exemption for its event at this late date. I still haven't found a statement from the AKC on the issue.

Here's a statement from The Kennel Club (England):

The FCI World Agility Championships 2007 is to be held in Norway and since 1997 the showing of docked tailed dogs has been prohibited in this country.

As a consequence the Kennel Club has been informed that dogs with docked tails may not compete at this year’s Agility World Championships. To include such a dog in the Kennel Club’s team could lead to the dog’s owner breaking Norwegian law. Therefore, regrettably, dogs with docked tails should not be entered in the FCI Team qualifying trials to be held later this year. (Link)

And if you want to read what the UK is going through with the recent banning of docking and cropping, go here.

More on FCI and Docked Tails

SUMMARY: Still trying to find specifics about the ruling. Meanwhile, here's a tidbit of background info.

From 4Rottweilers.com:

Why do Rottweilers now have natural tails?
In 1999 the country of Germany passed a law that made it illegal to dock a dog's tail or crop a dog's ears. The basis for this law was the fact that the practice of docking and cropping was deemed to be inhumane treatment of animals.

In order to comply with the new law, the ADRK revised the Breed Standard for the Rottweiler and this new breed standard required a natural tail. The FCI translated and adopted the new breed standard and gave all FCI member countries several years to comply with the new breed standard.

A docked Rottweiler does not conform to the current FCI breed standard. As each FCI member country finalizes their adoption of the new breed standard Rottweiler breeders in those countries will no longer be allowed to dock and docked Rottweilers will be disqualified at shows and prohibited from breeding.

The AKC (American Kennel Club) is not a member of the FCI. AKC does not follow any of the rules and regulations set by the FCI for the rest of the world and they do not always follow the breed standards set by the countries of origin. The AKC Breed Standard for the Rottweiler has always deviated from the FCI standard and they are currently struggling to deal with the breed standard regarding the tail.

There are a number of Rottweiler breeders in the United States that follow the FCI Code of Ethics for breeding and strictly follow the FCI/ADRK Breed Standard for the Rottweiler and those breeders will all leave natural tails on their dogs.

(Read the rest of the article, including more position statements on tail docking in general and in Rotties in particular.)

FCI Bans Docked Dogs from World Cup

SUMMARY: A new (?) ruling that I know next to nothing about.

The docking and cropping of dogs' ears and tails has been controversial for many years. Many people feel that it is cruel--no matter how or when it is done, it must cause pain and is unnecessary for today's dogs who don't work in the environments for which the hacking was originally done. Others say that it's painless if performed on very young puppies; that it prevents a variety of injuries, infections, or illnesses in dogs even today; or that some breeds have been bred with the assumption of cropping so that the uncropped tails or ears are ugly (e.g., half size) or unwieldy or whatever.

None-the-less, the practice has been more and more outlawed around the world. The U.S. has so far not dared to step into the fray legally; the AKC leaves it up to the individual breed clubs; and the breed clubs all have their reasons why cropping and docking makes sense for their breeds.

You can read more about the history of, arguments for and against, and where it is outlawed, on Wikipedia.

Luka, who won the 16" AKC National Champion, like most Pyrenean Shepherds (at least here in the states) has a docked tail. The AKC chooses who represents the U.S. at the FCI's World Cup competition, currently the largest and most prestigious of international agility championships. (This is why (AKC) you'll never see mixed breeds at the world cup. Unless AKC starts allowing mixed breeds to compete.) This year the World Cup will be in Norway in September. Normally a dog who wins as consistently as Luka would be a shoo-in for the AKC's world cup team. But apparently effective this year, the FCI has banned all dogs with docking or cropping.

Ashley, like most dog owners, didn't have a choice in the docking or cropping. More experienced dog people who have paid attention to the issue over the years know that they can opt for a dog or breeder who doesn't crop--but in the states, this tremendously limits your choices of breeders. Since most chopping is done shortly after birth, by the time a buyer chooses a member of the litter, the work has already been done. And since AKC breed clubs still require docking and cropping of many breeds for the show ring, there is tremendous motivation for breeders with show-quality dogs to perform the operation.

Part of the controversy with the FCI appears to be that they didn't provide, say, a cutoff birth date for dogs who are ineligible to compete, which would seem to make more sense. And apparently they didn't announce a phase-in period or multiple years notice or whatever.

Mind you--I'm not in favor of docking or cropping. But I'm also not in favor of abrupt or arbitrary rule changes, which this seems to be. I don't know the details; this is hearsay. And I'm not finding the info on the web with searching. If anyone can provide me with links to more info on this subject, I'd be glad to post them.