I always talk at the meeting, as well as to individuals, about change. Whether or not we like it, it happens. Society changes every minute of every day. The change affects you and me directly and indirectly, it affects companies and organizations even more. Who would have thought that companies like Pan Am, Bethlehem Steel, Polaroid, and Woolworths would go out of business? How about the struggle a company like Sears is now experiencing? There were not many companies bigger than these were at one time. A major reason those companies failed or struggled was that society and the business climate changed and they did not, or are not, changing with it.
So what does change and these companies have to do with us, the canine world? Here are a few interesting statistics. The American Pet Products Association (APPA) claimed that in 1994, Pet Industry Expenditures were $17 billion; in 2014 they had increased to over $58 billion. Statista, an online statistics portal that aggregates data, reported that in 2000 there were 68 million dogs in American, they now report that increased to over 83 million in 2014. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) stated that in 2012 over 43 million homes in America had dogs, which was over 36 percent of the homes. There are a lot of different organizations with different reports and I am far from an expert on statistics, but one thing is clear to me, the pet industry is growing, not declining.
This should mean the American Kennel Club (AKC) and their affiliates are growing as well, right? But when looking at AKC annual report; registrations, financials, and show entries, they are all down, and most importantly, club memberships continue to drop. How many clubs have dissolved or have very few remaining active members? Why is that if the industry is growing? Part of the reason is that we as a group have not changed enough to keep up with society. Registrations peaked in the 1980s at about 1.5 million and have been declining ever since. I believe registration is now around 400 thousand. Fact is, AKC and clubs fell behind and did not change as they should have with the times. Though AKC has done some good things recently, it clearly is not enough and they are playing catch up. The puppy classes, Owner Handler Series, improved media relations, and Government Relations are examples of that good, but there are still more changes needed. We in the trenches need to do more at ground level. We are the ones that need changing; we also need to change our clubs, change the AKC, educate the public, and be proactive. It all starts with you and me. The good old days are past and the only way we can ensure good new days is by changing with the times and moving forward. Not looking back at what once was; those days are gone.
A common complaint I hear is we are not attracting the younger generation to the sport. Yes, that is correct, we are not. Why is that, we ask. I cannot tell you all the reasons but I can say we have not done everything we can. The younger generation is much different today, not the same as it was 20 years ago. Were you the same as your parents? Maybe some of you were, but in general, the answer is no. Every generation changes; let’s be clear, not all changes are for the better, but in fact, they happen. Younger people today do not want to spend years being mentored. Their learning curve is much quicker than ours was. What they can learn in today’s electronic world in minutes may have taken us weeks or months to learn before. I have seen great mentors give up educating because they claim kids know it all. Not true, but they can learn a lot before we even get to speak to them. I know for a fact that we have lost great AKC delegates because of computers. Why have we lost them? They were not interested in adapting to change. They claimed it’s too difficult to learn that “computer stuff”. Yet my wife’s 95-year-old aunt has a Twitter account and is active on it. I am embarrassed to say I do not have such an account, but whose fault is that? Mine, for not adapting to what society is doing. The further each of us falls behind, the harder it is to catch up.
An interesting debate going on now is the AKC website. People wanted the previous one changed. When AKC updated it, all of a sudden it was worse and people stated we should go back to what we had, even though they didn’t like it. When talking to younger people, those we claim we cannot attract, they love the website. Yes, there are inaccuracies that need to be corrected, but truth be told, that the younger generation loved the site while those people already entrenched in the sport generally did not. So what is our goal here? Do we want to maintain the status quo and continue to lose participants while the pet industry makes gains or do we want to attract those same younger people and make gains of our own? If we had kept up with things from the beginning, any changes would be minor and not have been such a big deal. Now we are so far behind that major changes are difficult for all. Change has kept the pet industry in the game. Companies have remained relevant and grown by changing with society. Whether those were food companies, pet toy companies, boarding facilities or even pet shelters and rescues. Worst of all, animal rights groups have grown larger and stronger during that time.
A perfect example of the change I often talk about is being involved in legislation on all levels of government; local, county, state or federal. When the New Jersey Federation of Dog Clubs (NJFDC) was first founded, I was told that it clearly stated in the Constitution and By-Laws that the organization would not be politically involved in any way or on any level. That has been since taken out, some time ago, thank goodness. If we did not get involved legislatively, we probably would not have existed for very long. But it’s not just the AKC and NJFDC that need to be involved with this, it’s every club and every individual. They need to change their approach and not all have. I actually had someone ask me the other day what the Federation was going to do about a pending NJ Senate bill. Anytime I hear that, I cringe inside. What I would love to hear is, what are we going to do about the pending bill? Why do I say that? It needs to be all of us, not just a specific group or a few people. I hear people complain about things, but they’re not willing to do anything about it. Complaining is not productive and does not help in anyway. We all need to change our way of thinking. It also supports something my grandfather always told me. If I am not part of the solution, I am part of the problem. Not changing our way of thinking is the problem.
Changing an individual’s thought process is very difficult, even more difficult is changing a club’s or organization’s mentality. I belonged to a specialty club that failed, actually dissolved. Why? Their thought process was that they only wanted people who were involved in, or wanted to be involved in, showing and/or breeding. Several years later we restarted that club with the core members being individuals who are pet people. We even welcome people who are just interested in the breed. Today the club is thriving and the biggest events we have are fun events. We have never lost money at any event we have held. The pet people get behind each and every event we do and make sure it’s top notch. We have a member who liked the breed, then got a dog and is now showing it. They even traveled to North Caroline last week and showed themselves. That person would have never gotten into the sport had she not first joined our club. The core mentality of the club changed and now it is a thriving, successful club. Any and every club can do this; it just takes the willingness to facilitate change.
There are people and clubs who say they do change, but it turns out that the change is strictly the change they want, not what is needed for the best of the club or the sport. We need to look ahead and do what is best for those groups, not for us as individuals. I am very proud of our NJFDC delegates because over the past couple of years, we have changed a great deal and it’s obviously working. We are growing and becoming better all the time. We still have changes to make and will continue to make them. If we don’t, we will fall behind and maybe go the way of Polaroid, or Pan Am.
