Tiggy competed in both American Kennel Club (AKC) and Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) events for over nine years. She is a CKC Champion, took first place in the 2006 BMDCA Sweepstakes 9-11 Veteran Bitch Class and has earned two legs toward an AKC Companion Dog title.  Currently, she is not welcome on AKC and CKC show grounds -- unwelcome because she got sick and her treatment left her ineligible for conformation or anything else.  She is technically lame, but don’t try to tell her that. She is not in pain, and she gets around just fine.

In the fall of 2006, Tiggy developed osteosarcoma in her left rear leg.  The leg was amputated and she underwent a course of chemotherapy.  Now, more than a year later, she’s as active and vital as ever.  And she wants to compete. I know this because of the way she butts in line to get a bath if I look like I might bathe one of the other dogs in preparation for a dog show.  And she is ever anxious to train – she’ll free-stack herself and wait for the bait; she’ll heel, sit straight, come and finish; she gets to the car first and she really, really hates being left at home.  She should be getting out there and doing it now because she’s nearing her eleventh birthday.  I must find her a competition venue soon.

Both the AKC and the CKC allow disabled handlers.  But competing dogs cannot be lame, blind, or deaf.  The AKC defines lame as “any irregularity or impairment of the function of locomotion;” deaf is “without useful hearing;” and blind is “without useful sight.”  To the CKC, lame is “any condition that affects a dog’s locomotion . . . a dog with a withered or amputated limb is considered to be moving with unnatural locomotion.” 

When asked about their position on disabled dogs in competition, Denise Valva from the United Kennel Club (UKC) e-mailed that UKC obedience and agility trials are open to blind, deaf, and lame dogs if they are able to perform all the required exercises.  And -- good news for Tiggy -- the UKC rules provide that a dog with an amputated limb may compete.  Understandably, the judge must excuse the dog if it is stiff or sore in one or more remaining limbs.

The Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) sponsors agility and Rally obedience competitions.  APDT rules provide that dogs with disabilities are encouraged to compete provided that they do not show any evidence of pain or discomfort.  Further, the APDT rules allow for some variations in the exercises.  If a dog’s disability prevents it from performing an exercise in the usual manner, then before the competition, the handler can provide the judge with a written proposal that describes how the handler and dog will perform any of the course exercises that must be modified to accommodate the dog’s particular disability. 

APDT rally and obedience competitions are concentrated in the middle and eastern sections of the country.  Unfortunately, no APDT competitions are currently scheduled in Montana or neighboring states.  But there’s a UKC weight-pull competition near here in February of 2008; maybe the UKC club will consider adding an obedience match.  St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center and Dog Sports Club allows blind, deaf, and lame competitors.  It sponsors all sorts of competitions and any club, organization, or individual can host a sanctioned obedience trial.  With a little help from friends, we could host a St. Hubert’s trial next spring. 

And, because AKC and CKC events are the norm in this area, we may join with others to petition AKC and CKC to allow lame, blind, and deaf dogs to compete.  Dogs that do not require special accommodation should be allowed to compete in regular class for standard titles.  If such dogs require special accommodations, then the rules could specify that the dogs would not be eligible for the high score awards.  Instead such dogs could be scored on the basis of qualifying or not qualifying.  And perhaps there could be a special title for a lame, blind, or deaf competitor who required accommodation but competed well enough to earn a CD or CDX, once the accommodation was in place.  The titles could begin with a “D” to let people know that the dog was disabled and competed on a slightly different playing field. 

While I have focused on restrictive rules of the AKC and the CKC as they relate to participation in obedience and rally competition by mobility-impaired dogs, even our own national breed club practices a form of discrimination against disabled Bernese Mountain Dogs.  While the absence of a leg may (or may not) preclude participation in competition for a BMDCA draft title, surely blindness and deafness do not. Blind dogs can be directed via verbal signals and deaf dogs via hand signals.  As a matter of practice, most “normal” dogs are taught both forms of commands in obedience venues. 

Ignorance often breeds intolerance, and so it is interesting to revisit how the draft rules were changed to allow deaf dogs to participate.  People saw a deaf dog work with the same proficiency as a dog with hearing.  Indeed, a deaf dog in a drafting workshop in Michigan so impressed organizers and observers by his ability and performance that he paved the way for other deaf dogs to earn draft titles.

Reasons for not allowing blind dogs to participate in BMDCA drafting tests are curious – one reason offered is because “we (the BMDCA) use AKC rules” and the AKC does not allow disabled dogs to participate in events (it didn’t allow deaf ones to either).  Another argument put forth is that the AKC doesn’t want people to think the disabled dogs are being abused and they do not want to give performance events a bad image in the public eye by allowing disabled dogs to participate in such events.  A rational person wonders why that would be the case?  In contrast, most people watching a disabled dog excel in a performance event are filled with positive images of the breed, the sport and the people promoting the breed (See article by J Greff in which she reports her blind dog receiving a standing ovation).  While it is surely wonderful to allow deaf BMDs the right to compete for BMDC draft titles, deafness is not a prevalent health issue in our breed.  On the other hand, PRA/blindness do occur. Why is it that these blind, but equally capable, dogs are denied an opportunity to earn breed-related titles?  If we look at this from a logical point of view, draft is an event that allows for, indeed encourages, verbal communication and fosters teamwork between the dog and the handler. Sight is not necessary, just teamwork and obedience.  One wonders when we will realize that lack of mobility, lack of sight or lack of hearing has nothing to do with a desire to please, an ability to learn and achieve or a strong orientation to work and perform?

Enabled lame, blind, or deaf dogs are assets to any canine community.  They could and should enhance AKC, CKC and BMDCA competitions where once Tiggy and others were welcome and eligible – before she got sick with cancer or others were found to be “without useful sight” or “without useful hearing.”