Olive Branch Letter

(sent to members of the ISSDC by other members of that club and re-printed here with their permission)

As an ISSDC member, you will have or should be receiving a letter from the ISSR offering you the opportunity to return to the founding registry  Although we do not personally agree with all of the actions the SSDCA/ISSR have implemented, we are writing this in the hope that you will consider this application based on the facts we offer here, and not emotion.

The registry is the foundation of any breed. It provides legitimacy and recognition in the dog world. How a registry is established and maintained is critical for the future of the breed. It is the blueprint that contains all original data on the dogs (i.e. Pedigrees, LMI, faults & virtues, x-ray results....) all the critical information needed to establish the future generations of the breed.

A club, on the other hand, is mostly a social organization. Its function is to promote the breed and to provide educational information. It should provide support to all owners of the breed, whether they are pet owners or breeders. It should help to make sure that breeders are responsible in following up with their puppy buyers to have paperwork (i.e. x-rays, temperament testing, etc.) done on all puppies. Under one registry there can be different clubs who offer different forums and philosophies; but it is the solid foundation of the registry that carries the breed forward.

Goals/Visions/Methodology

The founding registry, the ISSR, has established goals for the future of the breed. These goals encompass long-range plans, such as FCI recognition. Fédération Cynologique Internationale   with its head office in Belgium, governs all dog clubs internationally in the interest of worldwide uniformity of breed standards. Most national clubs of many countries in the world, including all of continental Europe, part of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and most of South America are members of the FCI. The only notable exceptions are England, Canada and America. For more information, their web site is: http://www.fci.be/english/

Having FCI recognition will legitimize the Shiloh Shepherd as a true and separate breed. At the present time, no Shiloh Shepherd is viewed by any organization as an established breed. ARBA’s recognition is for showing purposes only. The Shiloh Shepherd is still a breed under development. For official recognition, we need 200 plush and 200 smooth coats that all meet the breed standard and are easily recognizable in type. By choosing the ISSR as your Shiloh's one and only registry, you may help to establish the number of dogs required for recognition.

The criteria to achieve FCI recognition is very difficult to obtain and requires years of planning and forethought. Presently, the ISSR has as its long-range goal to someday be recognized by the FCI. It is imperative to remember that FCI recognizes only original documentation from an individual registry. In other words, any new or “splinter” registry cannot use data from another registry to apply for FCI recognition. If and when recognition has been achieved by the ISSR, FCI will choose one parent “club”. If you are a member of another “club/registry”, what will your dog’s papers mean?

Plight of other breeds with split registries:

Think of other breeds that have had splits, such as the Anatolians, the Shiba-Inu and the Pons, to name a few. What eventually happened? They all went AKC. This was not what they wanted; it is what they were forced into because of the splits. When a registry is broken and fragmented, it only causes holes in the blueprint. Vital information is missing. This slows the whole process of recognition (not to mention it hurts the breed).

In conclusion, please re-read this several times. If anything in this letter is unclear, please feel free to ask for clarification.

We all love our Shilohs...please help us to ensure that they will still be here for future generations to enjoy as much as we have! When you receive your invitation from the ISSR, please act promptly...this is a one-time window of opportunity, and it will be open for a very short time.

Yours truly,
Mynde Bunker
Barb Cullen
Andrea Spinner