Fri, 02/20/2026 - 12:08pm
Editorial: February 20, 2026
Here We Go Again
It’s that time of the year when the delegates who are running for the board of directors of the American Kennel Club and the acolytes really turn on the heat looking for votes.
This year it is a pretty crowded group of nominees, nine in fact, vying for the three available board seats. The three seats are being vacated by the three delegates that made up the Class of 2026, Christopher Sweetwood, delegate from the Trap Falls Kennel Club, Harold “Red” Tatro III, delegate from the Fort Worth Kennel Club and Ann Wallin, delegate from the Atlanta Kennel Club. The field of delegates running for the Class of 2030 is made up of former board members, former employees of the American Kennel Club, some perpetual runners and familiar faces new to the race. Unfortunately, reading their speeches that the nominees read to the delegate body, there was no in-depth suggested solutions to the major issues of the fall of registrations and the number of dogs in competition and the over-use of four and five day cluster dog shows and their locations, the amount of dog shows, the push to approve more group level judges and, on a broader scale, the negative public perception of pure bred dogs perpetrated by the animal rights organizations and the role of the American Kennel Club. Granted, these are hard and unpopular questions, but if our sport is to survive, it needs to be addressed. The eight candidates running for the board are the three delegates who were nominated by the nomination committee. The members of the nominating committee are selected by the current board of directors. Their three selections are Dominic Carota, delegate from the Pharaoh Hound Club of America, Jason Hoke, delegate from the Chain ‘O Lakes Kennel Club and Thomas Powers, delegate for the Kennel Club of Beverly Hills. Six delegates are running from petitions from the floor, they are Carl Ashby, delegate from the United States Kerry Club Terrier Club, Karen Burgess, delegate from the Greater Clark County Kennel Club, Patricia Cruz, delegate from the Heart of the Plains Kennel Club, Sue Goldberg, delegate from the Lewiston-Auburn Kennel Club, Laurie Maulucci, delegate from the South Windsor Kennel Club and Lisa Peterson, delegate from the Norwegian Elkhound Association of America. Next month, at the March annual meeting is where the elections for the board of directors wil take place. Get involved, you can’t vote directly but in a perfect world you can ask your club how the your delegate has been directed to vote, if at all. But ready or not, here we go again.
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Fri, 02/20/2026 - 12:08pm