Most weekends you can find 15-year-old Sicily Coniglio from Roscoe, Illinois, at dog shows. Sicily comes from a family involved in the dog world and has been involved with dogs since she was a young child. “I was practically born in a grooming salon watching My mother groom and do seminars" Sicily explained. Her passion […]

The 2020 AKC National Championship Presented by Royal Canin on Dec. 12 and 13 hosted 3,680 dogs who all competed for the coveted title of Best in Show. The competition began with each dog competing for best in their breed. Best in Group Best of Breed winners then advanced to compete in the group competitions. Each […]

Seventeen-year-old Ariella Harris was the first person in her family to show dogs. Today she's the number one Junior Handler Doberman Pinscher handler in the country. Although she might be the first dog fancier in the family, Ariella's family members are no strangers to working with animals. As a third-generation horse-woman, Ariella is proud to […]

Some war stories are lucky enough to make it into the papers; a select set are memorialized in books—and fewer still in Hollywood blockbusters.Many other incredible stories, though, go unheard by the public, preserved only by a photo, or in this case, a letter.   Sixty-eight years ago, the American Kennel Club received the following note in the mail. The fact that it still today evokes […]

“Times Past,” AKC Gazette: Of the thousands of letters the Gazette has received over the decades, perhaps none has epitomized the human-canine bond more vividly than this one delivered to our offices 68 years ago. Dear Editor: War is a grim business in which sentiment plays little part. But one of the most touching things in […]

When I was looking for my first Doberman, I went to the local dog shows and saw which dogs appealed to me. At that time there were over 80 Dobermans entered at all the big shows in the Pacific Northwest. I talked to the people there and got the names of breeders. The people were […]

Whole books, not to mention thousands of web pages, are devoted to describing the minutiae that distinguish one breed from another. However, the official AKC breed standards are supposed to be the breeders’ blueprints, so I found myself wondering if we could recognize the distinct personality of the Belgian Malinois based solely on its description […]

On September 29, 2013, I awoke to a cool summer day. I leaned over the bedside and called to my long-coat Chihuahua, “Today is the day we have been training for these past three months. Izzy, are you ready?” She looked at me as if to say, “Are you kidding, mom? I’m ready for anything.” […]

This is an excerpt from Bo Bengtson’s 1994 AKC Gazette profile of photographer Joan Ludwig, who reigned for a half century as the acknowledged West Coast master of canine photography: If it’s true that a picture is worth more than a thousand words, then Joan Ludwig has spoken more to the dog fancy than almost […]

From the Dalmatian Club of America breed column in the March 2016 AKC Gazette “I only breed for myself” is a phrase I’ve heard frequently over the years. It does sound rather noble: I’m not in it for the money, I’m not filling shelters with surplus dogs, and most importantly, I’m not a backyard breeder/puppy […]