Our History

In years past, new club members were given a red handbook that included various documents, including the club history. We present below the original club history in its original language, as issued in the 1990 handbook.

Quincy Kennel Club History

THE FIRST DECADE

In the summer of 1960, a group of interested dog exhibitors and breeders met at a picnic to organize a kennel club in the Quincy area. This enthusiastic group was already actively exhibiting in dog shows and felt there was a need to organize a local club whereby they could learn, share and work together for the common goals they each had.

The first official meeting of the Quincy Kennel Club was held ln the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph “Biz” Mast, with Biz acting as chairman. There were 19 people present. At this meeting, a committee was appointed to write a constitution and officers were elected.

One of the first activities of this newly formed club was a Dog Exhibition in the Shopping Center in January 1961. Dogs came from as far away as St. Louis and Kansas City. A few of the lesser-known breeds which were on display were: Old English Sheepdog, Puli, Afghan, Bouvier des Flandres, Bedlington Terrier and Chihuahua. Two Borzois (a mother and daughter) were among the special attractions. The mother had performed in movies and TV commercials. She had also appeared in magazine ads and fashion photographs in nationally known publications. The Quincy Herald Whig coverage estimated the combined value of the dogs on exhibition as over $35,000. More than 10,000 people braved the winter weather to view this fine array of dogs. This was a big success and thus the club was off and moving toward the many, many more demonstrations and exhibits it was later to have.

The first fun match was held June 4, 1961, in the Coca Cola Garage building. Pulling together the many details for a show was a new experience for even those who had previously- exhibited many times. Finding judges, providing trophies, and the many other countless details were now being worked out by this new club. This too proved to be a real success and already the club began to plan and work toward their ultimate goal of a licensed point show.

National Dog Week of 1961 was not going to slip by the attention of this new club. An outdoor demonstration was held downtown. This proved to be so popular that a repeat performance was given in the shopping center. Each year the club observed National Dog Week with special activities. The selection of a dog hero in our area, providing demonstrations, contributing to the Quincy Humane Society, providing the Quincy Free Public Library with the latest books available on dogs, their care and training, are but a few of the ways the club has recognized this special week. Each year a chairman is appointed and is responsible for planning the activities during this week.

Mr. and Mrs. Haworth Hoch, licensed AKC Judges, were very instrumental in helping the club meet the requirements for obtaining approval of the AKC to hold sanctioned matches. Their trip from their home in Villa Ridge, Mo. was made to coincide with the March 1962 meeting. Following the guidelines set down by Mr. and Mrs. Hoch, the Quincy Kennel Club was granted permission to hold a sanctioned match just six months after their visit. Because of their interest in our club, the Hochs were invited to judge at the first AKC Sanctioned Match held on September 23, 1962.

Through the years the Quincy Kennel club has contributed to various service and civic projects. For several years the club was chiefly concerned with the Quincy District Association of the Blind.

QKC club members have assisted with the formation of other kennel clubs; held obedience training classes; judged at matches; conducted classes for 4-H; judged the 4-H Dog Care Project at the County Fair level; and served as officers and reporters for breed specialty clubs.

The club bulletin The Tattle TaiI had its beginning in 1968. This bundle of news goes to every member each month. Show wins, club activities, new arrivals, great expectations, coming events, and information on the latest developments in medical, nutritional and other areas of interest to club members are put together with the aid of a few dedicated club members.

Obedience classes through the years have been very popular and well attended by our members and those outside the club as well. In the first decade, the club sponsored 17 classes. In all, it is estimated that nearly 400 dogs have been enrolled. In addition to the regularly held Novice classes, the club has also sponsored several Open classes. At the end of this portion of the Tenth Anniversary Booklet we found this Paragraph:

“We could quote a currently popular commercial in describing our club achievements and say ‘YOU’VE

COME A L0NG WAY BABY’ but let us not be content to rest on our laurels past, but continue to strive for improvement”. It is only through the endeavors of each individual that our club can continue to grow.

THE SECOND DECADE

The first decade ended with 39 memberships made of 67 individuals and one Junior. As the second decade came to a close, the club boasted 47 memberships consisting of 73 individuals and 4 juniors.

The club found themselves without a show site prior to the first show of the second decade. The QHS gym floor had been flooded and was closed for repairs which would not be completed in time for the show. The PDQ parking deck was selected from the meager number of sites available for a November show. It was cold that first year, possibly prompting a change to a spring show date to keep that from happening again.

The QKC dog shows continued to do well, even during the bad inflation period at the end of the second decade. In 1971, the stuffed Dog Project began. Each year the club provides and distributes stuffed dogs to each child hospitalized at either St. Mary’s or Blessing Hospitals during the Christmas holidays. This has proven to be a marvelous public relations program, as well as being a great way to make these unhappy children a bit more content with their hospital stay.

In 1972, the club began its Education Grant, program for a student of veterinary medicine at the University of Illinois. This was given annually, except for 1973, when no names were provided by the university.

The club bought and planted Sweet Gum trees around the Quincy Parking Deck in 1972. With the diligent care of the deck attendants these trees have grown and added to the beauty of the uptown area.

In 1972, club members organized a “VOTE COAT PARADE”. Gaines provided the red, white, and blue vinyl coats which read: “VOTE AS YOU DOGGONE PLEASE, BUT PLEASE VOTE!” Our pictures made the newspaper for this event!

1972 was a BANNER YEAR for QKC. Ch. Thunderdane’s Classic Major (a QKC member’s dog) was BIS at our own home show, and Rodsden’s Tara v Ludwig C.D. (another QKC member’s dog) was named NUMBER 5 Dog Hero in the Annual Ken-L Ration American Dog Hero Contest.

The Quincy Kennel Club sponsored Hildi, a German Shepherd Dog owned by Mike Shankland, as a recruit for the Leader Dogs, Inc. of Rochester, MN in 1972. The club made all the arrangements and paid for shipping the dog to the school. She did well until the end of her training where she proved nervous in traffic. She was returned to her owners.

The newsletter grew by leaps and bounds during the second decade. It added a Junior page for news of the AKC junior members. News of QKC juniors was published in both DOG WORLD and the AKC GAZETTE via our club newsletter being sent to the author of these columns.

The obedience classes continued to be popular. Twenty-three novice (or sub-novice) classes were held during the second decade. More than 500 dogs enrolled, with more than 104 officially graduating. Some of the class records were incomplete and some classes had no graduation. Open classes continued to be held as the interest demanded. Conformation classes began to be sponsored each spring as more and more club members became active in showing. These classes always finished in time for the graduates to debut at the Quincy Kennel CIub show! Members and dogs marched in the Quincy Dogwood, Veterans Day and Memorial Day Parades. In 1979, the club laid a wreath at the Eternal Flame at the Veterans Home of Quincy during their annual Memorial Day service. This wreath was in memory of all CANINE VETERANS. The master of ceremony read a fitting tribute to those fallen canines leaving no dry eyes in the audience.

The Club continued to donate books to the Quincy Free Public Library as well as money to such civic funds as the Veterans Home Ambulance Fund and the Schneideman Industrial Park.

Due to inflation taking its toll in the late 70’s, the QKC tried sponsoring a craft sale as a moneymaking project. The Holiday Extravaganza was a resounding success in 1979 with 104 tables being rented out. It was felt that this would be the first of many successful annual sales.

The second decade saw more and more QKC members showing, attaining titles and judging at the match level. The club continued to be involved with the Adams County 4-H Dog Care Project. More members became involved with their specialty clubs, serving as officers and directors on both the national and local levels.

Members diversified in their interests. Titles of bench Champions, both Canadian and U.S., Field Champions, as well as obedience titles were earned by dogs belonging to QKC members. Lacking from the ranks are tracking titles and the coveted OTCH, but not lacking is the determination to attain such. As the second decade ended, new members were coming with great enthusiasm. Their eagerness to work and learn from the older members made for an ideal and unique blend with which to enter the third decade of the Quincy Kennel Club.

THE THIRD DECADE

The early part of this decade saw a tendency toward breed specific anti-dog legislation. This trend accelerated and is in full swing as of this writing. AKC, UKC, ADOA, and individual breed clubs are all fighting to prevent breed specific legislation from being made into law across the country. ADOA’s Canine Defense fund challenges many of those that do become law. The Quincy Kennel Club has been actively engaging in this fight. At this writing (7-1-90) a bill is awaiting the governor’s signature that would prevent any city, county or municipality in Illinois from passing breed specific legislation. In 1990, we joined a fledgling organization, RDOAI, which has been formed to encourage responsible dog ownership and to work towards fair legislation regarding dogs and animals in Illinois.

As more and more people breed dogs and puppy mills flourish, more purebred dogs are being turned into animal shelters and pounds. This is happening in our area as well as across the nation. CIub member, Carolyn Knapp, who is the executive director of the Quincy Humane Society, cites national averages of 30% or higher of purebred animals in shelters. Quincy is not much different according to Knapp. Many of our members have shown their concern by rescuing purebreds of their breed but not necessarily or limited to those of their breeding. The club has taken the stand that any responsible breeder should be willing to do this for their breed. Our rescue scrapbook tells the stories of the lucky ones who had someone who cared enough to give them a second, or third or fourth chance.

The May 1990 QKC newsletter, “The Tattle Tail”, featured a lengthy section on the horrors of puppy mills. This was also receiving national TV attention at this time on shows such as Geraldo and 2O/2O. Within a very short time, a puppy mill in Hannibal, Mo., was raided and the owners charged with several counts of cruelty, unfortunately there are supposed to be over 400 dogs still belonging to the same people located nearby. Hopefully, in the 1990s, we can make a difference in the way our four-footed friends are treated.

The Quincy Kennel Club’s shortest meeting on record was held on August 11, 1980. It was 14 minutes in length. A quorum was present and business was conducted.

The Responsible Pet Committee started in 1983 with packets of information being given to all dogs adopted from the Quincy Animal Shelter. In January 1985 we began to advertise in the Merchant/Ad-Visor. Our ad read, “Before you buy a purebred dog, call xxx-xxxx.” In 1989, we moved our ad to the Quincy Herald-Whig. This ad received lots of response. In 1985, 48 packets were sent out. In 1986, 64 packets were requested from the ad and 34 in response to an article in Front & Finish. In 1987, 91 packets were sent from the ad and 136 from an article about the Quincy Kennel Club’s efforts to educate the public using these packets which appeared in an issue of the national dog magazine, Dog Fancy. Occasional requests still come from this article to total 140 packets sent to 41 states and Portugal as a result of one magazine article. Hopefully, some of the clubs who have requested packets have adopted a similar program in their areas. Education is the only hope for the future.

An outgrowth of the Responsible Pet Committee has been the Breeder-Referral program. Persons looking for a specific breed of dog are sent a responsible pet packet and names of local and area breeders as well as contact persons for the breeders parent club and any area clubs in existence.

In 1984, a cookbook was published as a fundraiser. The book contained 617 recipes compiled from members and, of course, featured a section on Canine Cuisine.

In 1985, the Quincy Kennel Club held a fall B-OB match. It was well attended and became an annual event before AKC passed the requirement that every show giving club had to hold a match as well.

In the latter half of this decade, the AKC broadened their requirements for club activities in order to be able to hold a point show. They required annual matches, classes, educational programs for members and the general public, and breeder referrals for persons looking for purebred animals. The Quincy Kennel Club was pleasantly surprised to find the club was already doing all of the requirements. Once again, QKC was ahead of the game!

Seminars were a popular event during this decade. Many members traveled great, distances to attend ones given by other clubs as did others come to the three given by the Quincy Kennel Club. The first class on dog behavior by Carol Benjamin; the second on breeding by Chris Walkowicz and Bonnie Wilcox DVM; the most recent featured a flyball and agility team from the Kansas City area and was a two-day working seminar where not only the people but their dogs participated, learned and had lots of fun!

QKC has continued to give monetary grants to civic and dog related groups and organizations. Some of the recipients include the University of Illinois, Fredrick Ball daycare center, Quincy Humane Society, Morris Animal Foundation, Quincy Fire Department, Dog Museum of America, Cornell University, James A. Baker Institute, Canine Training for the Handicapped, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Adams County 4-H, Camp Callahan, and the ADOA Canine Defense Fund.

In 1987, our annual show moved from the PDQ parking deck to the Adams County Fairgrounds near Mendon, Il. Heavy frequent rains made the site less than desirable the first year. The suggestion was made to move our show site to the Burlington location. Heated discussions were held both for and against this idea. When the subject came up for vote from the QKC members, a record of 48 attended. The motion to move the show to Burlington was defeated.

1988 was the 25th Quincy Kennel Club show. The special Show was blessed with pleasant weather. As was the following years’ show due to a severe two-year drought in the midwest.  Water had to be trucked into the fairgrounds for the 1989 show.

The national trend of declining entries at shows did not hit the QKC show, despite gloomy predictions of the future of the show at the Adams County Fairgrounds. Entries continued to increase yearly. In 1990 we had 957 dogs and rain on the day of the show.

Obedience training classes continued to be popular with the Feb. 90 class drawing a record enrollment of 71 dogs. Super Puppy classes were added in Oct. 88. This is a fun class for owners, puppies and instructors and is designed to bring out the very best in each puppy. Because It’s fun, owners often get “hooked” on training and working their dogs and continue on to the novice and advanced obedience classes. Many owners are joining the club as well.