Meet Maya Belle who has earned AKC’s top Therapy Dog title of THDD for making more than 400 visits to help others. She and her owner, Raymond Rauen of Livonia, MI, spend hours every week to cheer patients at St. Mary Mercy Hospital Since Maya Belle and Ray began volunteering at St. Mary Mercy Hospital […]

Thomas Stancliff of Manvel, TX, shared this story about his Labrador mix, Doll, and his and his wife Jeanne's adventures with her since she showed up at their house three years ago. Doll’s formal AKC name is La Muneca Del Diablo RAE, and she recently earned the highest honor in AKC Rally. Doll competes in […]

Caroline Miller of McKeesport, PA, tells how she found her mixed-breed dog, Molly, in the shelter and how she knew she had the right stuff to be a therapy dog. Miller’s Molly THDD has now earned the AKC Therapy Dog Distinguished title for making at least 400 visits to help others. Her specialty is helping […]

Buster’s owners did not want him because he kept running away. Rather than provide secure fencing or a kennel, they dumped him at the shelter. Today, the 3-year-old Labrador mix still specializes in escaping without jumping over a single gait or slipping through any open doors. Buster helps a war veteran escape from his bad […]

A service dog named Tatiana, a Labrador-Golden retriever mix, has been honored with hero’s awards for saving the life of her owner, Cristina Marie Saint-Blancard of Plantation, FL. Service dogs are specially trained dogs who are taught skills to assist people with special needs. This includes people with limited mobility or hearing loss. Service dogs […]

Photo by Kathleen Schaffer/Pup Art PACH Cross Fire Copper Cricket, owned by Lydia Sharp of Gilbert, AZ, recently earned one of the highest honors in AKC Agility – the Preferred Agility Championship (PACH). But as a puppy, Cricket lived wild in the Arizona desert, just getting close enough to the Sharps’ business to grab an […]

If your dog loves the water and loves to retrieve, then the fun sport of dock diving should be a natural. The AKC began recognizing titles of the new North America Diving Dogs (NADD) organization in June 2014 so now you can also add a dock jumping title to your dog’s AKC records. The sport […]

-- Celebrating the Work and Dedication of America's Search and Rescue Dogs -- With the recent earthquakes in Haiti, much attention has been brought to the search and rescue dogs working to free trapped citizens from the rubble. With certain capabilities far surpassing those of a human, these dogs have saved innumerable lives - and […]

-- New AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy Program -- The AKC Canine Good Citizen® program debuted in 1989, with 1,392 dogs taking the CGC test. Today, nearly 40,000 purebred and mixed breed dogs per year participate in all 50 states. To date, we have enrolled more than 9,000 official CGC evaluators in communities across the country to […]

In the 1950s, the Poodle skirt as a fashion trend embodied the popularity of the number one AKC® registered breed. And if the recent media attention surrounding the release of AKC's 2006 Registration Statistics is any indication, not only does the Labrador Retriever reign supreme, but the purebred dog remains one of the most popular […]