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Information on the AKC’s Working Dog Sport Program
(from the AKC website)
For over a century, the AKC has distinguished itself as the leader of sponsored competitive events that enable breeders and owners to develop and demonstrate those specific breed characteristics for which their breeds have been formed and their dogs bred. Most notably, this has been evidenced in the hunting, herding, coursing, obedience, tracking and agility events.
Each of the breeds involved in such activities have shared a long and valued history that attests to the need for breeders to use these selection methods as the best possible means for breeding animals that maintain those specific breed characteristics. In this regard, the AKC has fostered this tradition and has instituted and supported specialized competitive activities to further breed functions and the clubs that sponsor them.
There are many examples that demonstrate that these trials are used to ensure that the desirable instincts and physical characteristics of a breed are maintained through its breeding program. For many of these breeds, the desirable qualities include the physical and mental abilities needed to perform scent and protection work while maintaining a high level of control and a strong degree of obedience.
It is exactly this combination of qualities that have been used for the past 100 years to maintain the most desired characteristics of mental and physical soundness, courage, reliability and service in the dogs that participate in the sport.
WDS Rulebook
Application for WDS Scorebook
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