Brief History and Update on SDA & UKC Dog
Sport Program
Hello, I’m Jack Rayl, current
President of SDA and one of the founding members of SDA and
the UKC Dog Sport Program; I’m writing to provide you an
update on both SDA and the UKC Dog Sport Program and to
provide you’re a brief history of how this program was
developed. The idea of a new working dog program started in
2001 when I and two other friends got together and decided
that we would see if their was an interest in creating a new
working dog organization that would offer training titles
more directly addressing the needs, interest and lifestyles
of most dog owners that wanted obedience and protection
training and an organization that could meet the needs of
professionals concerning all types of service dogs. This
founding group came up with a working dog program that we
thought was needed; however we knew that one of the biggest
tasks would be to come up with a reliable way to handle the
paper work and record keeping requirements for a large
organization. What we thought was needed was a working dog
organization that could be affiliated with a good
established registry. We knew UKC was registry that was
gaining recognition in the working dog world and was huge in
promoting hunting dogs and as we know all hunting dog
programs have a certain stigma that a lot of people don’t
agree with due to the hunting of animals; knowing this, this
gave us the idea that maybe UKC would be receptive to dogs
that performed protection.
Ok, we contacted UKC in the spring of 2001 and they told us
that they had been considering starting a working dog
program for protection dogs; this phone call lead to a
meeting and we provided our ideas and a plan for creating a
new working dog program. The meeting ended with UKC liking
the proposal we made and was ready to get started.
Then, the huge task started
for turning our ideas for training titles into reality by
writing them out word for word concerning what was to be
performed by the dog and handler team and also writing the
titles in a UKC format concerning scoring. In short, a
tremendous amount work had to be completed such as: score
sheets, establishing qualified judges, helper requirements
and equipment; and obviously a ton of other things were to
be completed prior to thinking about having an official
trial. In the time between getting all this done, SDA
founders went to the 2002 & 2003 UKC Premiers and provided
live demonstrations of the titles to help seal the deal and
demonstrate exactly to UKC what type of working dog program
they were getting. Then after about two years of meetings,
demonstrations and negotiations, we finally signed a 10 year
contract with UKC that turned our concept of new working dog
program into a reality; this took place in May of 2004.
The first official big trial was held in October, 2004 in
Tennessee and it was a huge success with approximately 80
something entries over three days. Then other groups started
forming clubs and several trials were held with much success
and enthusiasm. The UKC Sport Dog Program was born with lots
of hope for providing America its first working dog
organization totally designed around the training needs of
American dog owners that had the recognition of US national
registry. The rest of the history of this program has been
nothing but positive; considering the amount of time this
program has taken from concept to an actual new working dog
organization.
Needless to say, the achievements of this program have been
tremendous when you think about its short history and what
has been accomplished. The following are just some of the
accomplishments: approximately more than thousand to fifteen
hundred dog handler teams have entered the program to
compete, every title in this program has been earned by
someone, a DVD was created that provides a demonstration of
all the titles, helper certification standards were
established and a new style of helper work was created,
numerous Dog Sport demonstrations have been provided at many
festivals, fairs and other dog related events such as the
2006 German Shepherd National Championships; this
demonstration was so successful that we were ask to perform
the same type of demonstration at the 2007 Schutzhund Master
Tournament. Besides all the above, this program has also
gained the recognition and approval of many of the worlds
best known dog trainers as a very credible working dog
program. In addition, this program has created new training
titles that are totally identified as SDA & UKC Dog Sport;
in a short period of time this new program has established
its own identity.
In the last two years, Dog
Sport Trials have been held California, Wisconsin,
Springfield, IL, New Jersey, Chattanooga & Athens, Tennessee
and for the last five years in a role a UKC Premier Dog
Sport trial has been held with entries being closed each
year due to reaching the numerical limit prior to the
closing date. In addition, there have been many new clubs
starting to form and new trails are being scheduled in South
New Jersey and Ocala, Florida in October of 2009.
Furthermore, many new capable people have come on board that
want to take a leadership role to help make this program
become very successful. Everything about SDA and the UKC Dog
Sport program is showing true signs of really taking off and
really growing when we at SDA get some very bad new from
UKC.
The bad news I’m referring
too is the letter we received from UKC after this year’s
Premier stated at the end of 2009 UKC will not licensing
anymore Dog Sport Trials, due to the growth of the program
and some other minor things. This news came to us as a huge
shock and with much disappointment due to the enormous
amount of work the founders and its main participants have
given to this program. I was told that this decision is
final and that they are not willing to give this program any
more time. It’s hard for me to believe that UKC doesn’t see
this program as huge success when you consider all of the
things that have been done from the concept to where we are
now. I listed just some of the main things above that we
have accomplished and completed so that people can see the
huge accomplishments of this program. I’m also writing to
let everyone know that SDA has a back up plan if UKC doesn’t
have change of heart. We signed a ten year contract with UKC
and we are now into our 5th
year; we figured it would take at least 6 to 7 years get
this program truly established, however this year, we have
had tremendous interest and many new influential people
wanting to come on board.
We wish UKC would reconsider
and abide by our contract; however we don’t want to
affiliate with UKC if they don’t want this program or if
they don’t believe in it. It has to be something they truly
want or we are ok in leaving and continuing ourselves. We
have a great plan for going forward and we are now in the
process of developing this plan as a back up if UKC and SDA
separate at the end of 2009.
Last, we want everyone to
know that we do not hold any ill will toward UKC only the
opposite; if not for them this program would have been very
hard to have ever got started in the first place; due to UKC
involvement we have been able to create a super working dog
program and make it known to a lot people around the world.
We at SDA are very disappointed in UKC decision and feel it
is very big mistake on their part because this program could
be huge and a tremendous asset for them. We at SDA only
thank UKC for the opportunity they gave us to take our
concept of new working dog organization and turn into a
program that is absolutely super and that can succeed on its
on merits. I, Jack Rayl, personally want to thank all the
people at UKC that helped us with this program and that are
responsible for making the program such a success. Again
just think, an idea or concept for a new working dog program
turned into a reality that could conduct trials with over a
hundred entries, has a working dog program with its own
identity and has unlimited ability to continue growing
because of the merits and demands for its training titles
and accomplished all of this in seven years. I call that
success!
In summary, I wanted to
provide everyone a brief history of how this program got
started and a short summary of how far we have come. The
titles offered in the UKC Dog Sport Program were written by
me with input and ideas from others. We tried to make each
title be the best for its intended purpose ever created for
true working dogs concerning obedience and protection. We
also plan to continue to make this program better all the
time if we can; we have many new ideas and programs we want
to implement that will fix most of our complaints. We have
talked to a lot of our people and all the people we have
talked to want to go forward with SDA on our own. We also
have some super ideas for going forward that we will reveal
soon if this is the end between SDA & UKC. I hope everyone
stays with us and wants to see this program be a continuing
success.
Last and closing, I felt it
necessary to write this brief history and update on
SDA and the UKC Dog Sport program so you could see where we
came from and hopefully where we are going. We feel the hard
part is over and the sun is just coming up with new
opportunities. In addition, I know the things that need to
be addressed and we are putting people in place to make them
happen. We have several new and old members that are ready
to take leadership roles to see this program succeed. I
personally will be playing a different role; I will be
involved in making sure things are being addressed in a
timely manner and that our short comings are going to be
fixed. In closing, I thank everyone for their involvement
and support and look forward to this program emerging even
stronger; our new plan is super and we think people will be
extremely excited when they see what we have to offer.
Please call me direct if you have any questions; I will also
be providing information on our website and direct emails;
also we will provide a list of contacts that you can call to
give you an idea of our plan for continuing.
Regards, Jack Rayl
