International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance

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The International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance or IPDBA is a dog breed registry based in Kentucky in the United States. The IPDBA website states that its founders "believe that the breeding of all animals is an art form, and as such, breeders should have the freedom to express themselves and their vision for their breed(s) in their breeding programs."[1]

1 Context
2 History
3 Registrations
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Context

Unlike the American Rare Breed Association, which registers only uncommon or novel dogs, the IPDBA recognizes uncommon or novel breeds in addition to granting automatic recognition to all breeds already registered by major kennel clubs such as the AKC (American Kennel Club) or UKC (United Kennel Club). This permits the IPDBA to assert that because it recognizes "more than 550 new and old breeds of dogs" it is therefore "the largest all-breed registry in the world."[2]

This claim is based on the number of breeds the IPDBA recognizes. Most major kennel clubs granting recognition to a breed are, in fact, granting recognition to a breed club. The IPDBA's recognition of over 550 breeds does not reflect the number of breed clubs actually using the IPDBA as a registry, nor does it reflect the number of dogs registered. In early 2006, only three chartered breed clubs were linked to the IPDBA website. All three are chartered by the IPDBA itself.

The official website does not indicate whether the IPDBA has sanctioned any shows, awarded any championship points, or has activities beyond collecting fees to charter breed clubs and register dogs produced by those clubs. The official website provides no physical location for the group other than a post office box. It is not clear where the records are physically maintained, or whether they are regularly examined by objective outside auditors. The website also does not make clear whether the IPDBA is incorporated, and if so, whether it is a for-profit business or a not-for-profit charity. These issues raise concerns among breed registry watchdogs. [3]

[edit] History

The International Progressive Breeders' Alliance, IPBA, was founded in 1996. IPBA is composed of three subsidiary animal registries, the IPDBA for dogs, the IPCBA for cats, and the IPEBA, intended for non-domestic exotics, which may include wolves, lynxes, lions, and other wild species.

The IPDBA, like the other two IPBA subsidiaries, is made up of chartered breed or species associations which have full control over their breed or species standard. As of early 2006, three of the dog breeds the IPDBA recognizes are affiliated with IPDBA-chartered breed associations.

The stated purposes of the IPBA, applicable to all three of its subsidiaries including the IPBDA, are:

to provide "creative freedom" to breeders to develop new breeds and preserve old breed lines "as they wish without interference from registries." The IPBDA acknowledges any registrations accepted by its member breed clubs, without further oversight. The IPBDA does not administer and revise breed standards. This is left to the member breed clubs.
to provide a means of international networking among members of each subsidiary animal registry (dogs, cats, exotic non-domestic species including canids and felids).
to unite breeders to work together to protect all breeds of animals and their hobby from restrictive legislation.

The reference to restrictive legislation likely includes breed-specific legislation and bans on hybridizing domesticated animals with wild canids and felids, or bans on owning such hybrids, or bans owning non-domestic species whether purebred or crossed with other wild species, such as ligers.

[edit] Registrations

The IPDBA's breed recognition rules[4] are much more open to accepting breeds which are now in development than the major kennel clubs and nearly all breed clubs. After three generations of registered reproduction within the breed or breed group, the IPDBA states it will offer championship points to dogs from these newly-developed or re-created breeds.

Granting fourth-generation breed championships is a considerably more rapid process than found in traditional breed clubs and kennel clubs, which generally require a significant amount of time accumulating and registering the foundation stock, and a closed stud book. For example, the AKC does not permit breeds to enter its Foundation Stock Service, which tracks pedigrees prior to the closing of the stud book, unless the breed club can show documentation of the "distinct breed over a period of many decades."[5] Even with that much history, the AKC will not grant championship points until a breed graduates from the FSS or even the AKC Miscellaneous class into full breed recognition, a process which takes many generations.[6]

In all breed registries, conformation championship points are awarded only at formal dog shows. In early 2006, the IPDBA official website does not indicate that any IPDBA-sponsored shows have been held since the group was founded in 1996, or are scheduled for the future. There are no posted show rules, show schedules, or show results.

Furthermore, the IPDBA Registration Rules permit the registration of non-purebred dogs so long as the dogs are going to be used as foundation stock for a new breed.[7] Thus, if an entrepreneur wished to attempt to create a non-shedding arctic dog by crossing Poodles and Malamutes, the IPDBA would accept these first-generation "Poolamutes" as foundation stock for a recognized "breed," and would grant Poolamute championships in the fourth generation. In contrast, most traditional breed registries consider "-poo" and "peke-" and similar constructions to be commercially-inspired mongrelizations of the Poodle, Pekingese, and other purebreds targeted for cross-breeding so that the resulting mixed-breed puppies can be marketed as so-called designer dogs.