History of The Working Canine Association of Canada

The Working Canine Association of Canada was born in the mid-1990s out of frustration with the inflexibility and intractability of the then existing canine registries. J. Jeffrey Bragg and Isa Boucher, who had struggled in the 1970s to preserve the Leonhard Seppala strain of Siberian sleddogs from extinction, returned to Canada from an extended residence in Europe with two dozen Seppala strain dogs and a male sleddog from the Siberian kennel of Sergei A. Solovyev, the Russian polar explorer. The Seppala strain had been preserved for six decades as a closed bloodline within the Siberian Husky studbooks of C.K.C. and A.K.C. It suffered repeated brushes with extinction, forced inbreeding, and constant loss of genetic material to both Alaskan husky (racing mongrel) breeders and to the mainstream showdog Siberian Husky lines. Ten-generation Wright's Coefficients of Inbreeding had reached levels of twenty-five to thirty percent. To these two breeders of the "Seppala Siberians" that had known fame as superior sleddogs since the 1920s, a landrace stud dog direct from Siberia, unrelated to the existing CKC/AKC lineage, was a precious resource.

Bragg and Boucher applied to have their imported male registered with The Canadian Kennel Club. The C.K.C. Registrar responded that they did not know what to do with the application. Two years later the Club finally refused outright to register the dog, or even to consider registering its third-generation descendants, and rebuked Bragg and Boucher for having bred a single litter from the import to conserve the genetic resource while the Club tried to make up its mind. After being told that the presence of the import in their kennel raised questions about their other registrations, they withdrew voluntarily from C.K.C. Jeffrey's final contribution to C.K.C. was a carefully-considered brief, "Purebred Dog Breeds into the Twenty-First Century -- Achieving Genetic Health for Our Dogs" that was mailed out to the C.K.C. executive officers, Board members, Genetics Committee, and around sixty key breeders across Canada. The brief aroused no comment and no response from the Club (although since that time it has been mirrored worldwide by concerned breed clubs and individuals worldwide. It seemed obvious that C.K.C. did not share our founders' concern for genetic diversity and health.

After long thought, in 1996 Bragg and Boucher took their problem to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who were more sympathetic. They were given information about A.A.F.C.'s "evolving breed" scheme and encouraged to submit further information. In due time a full presentation was sent to A.A.F.C.; their Animal Registration Officer's main concern was to determine whether the Seppala dog could be adequately distinguished from the existing Siberian Husky breed registered by C.K.C. A report on "The Issue of Distinguishability" was draughted and submitted, describing eight distinct ways in which the proposed Seppala Siberian Sleddog breed would be distinguished from the Siberian Husky.

A.A.F.C. considered the submissions for several months, asked for certain clarifications, and finally on 31 July 1997 recognised the Seppala Siberian Sleddog as an evolving breed under the Animal Pedigree Act, and authorised the incorporation of the Working Canine Association of Canada as an animal pedigree association in respect to the new evolving breed.

(To be continued.)