For over 10 years now the National Kennel Club has treated the Old Time Farm Shepherd like a red-headed step child and it’s high time we get the NKC/OTFS registration issue sorted out.
What am I talking about? Back in 2000 the National Kennel Club (NKC to their friends) was sold, around that time people began having trouble registering OTFS dogs with the NKC. The message posted to the Farm Collie List in 2002 by Cait Johnson was
The NKC was sold over 3 years ago and there had been problems with the McDuffies trying to keep the OTFS part of the registry alive since the new owners had problems with it; something to do with the new registry wanted to call the dogs ES, rather than OTFS
Then Cait posted the following
the new owners of NKC are still registering the OTFS not as ES but distinctively as OTFS, as it’s own breed; and, they will correct the mistake of the accidental omission of the OTFS registry/breed from their webpage very soon! Good news that will clear this issue up once and for all. So, keep referring back to their page to see the new update
Since then I have also heard from different sources that they were in fact registering OTFS dogs. I even had my dog registered as OTFS just last month, yet in all this time the Old Time Farm Shepherd has been missing from their list of recognized breeds. Why? It seems some breed politics is at play here, the NKC continues to quietly register OTFS dogs while failing to publicly recognize them. It seems to me they want the money for these registrations but not the fight recognizing OTFS might elicit from certain groups.
Last year my wife called and asked the NKC for information about the OTFS which they said they would mail to us, however it never arrived. More recently I have emailed them twice but still no response, it seems they want to maintain the status quo. I feel that they should be held to account, if they are going to continue to register OTFS dogs then they should go ahead and recognize them, on the other hand if they are going to refuse to recognize the Old Time Farm Shepherd then they should quit registering them. As the prophet Elijah said “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?”
Today I drafted a letter to Del Morgan, the president of the National Kennel Club that I plan on sending registered mail to make sure he gets it, asking him to clarify his position on the Old Time Farm Shepherd. A copy of the letter is attached below. I will be updating this post when I hear anything back. Stay tuned…
Open Letter to Del Morgan of the NKC
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After reading the article “dunrovin’s ole shep and otfs legacy” I proceeded to check it out on the NKC website but did not find the breed listed. I emailed the registry for an explanation this morning. I then found this posting. Was there ever a response from the NKC to this letter?
No, I have the receipt from the registered letter I sent them too, but no response at all. It is obvious they want to maintain the status quo, getting paid by OTFS owners and breeders to register their dogs while not making trouble with certain ES breeders.
As an interesting side note, Chandler Strunk signed paperwork for me to be an OTFS breed inspector which I submitted to the NKC and that too was ignored. So as far as I’m concerned that was the answer to my letter, they refuse to recognize the OTFS and they want nothing to do with me.