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Recognition of Perro de Presa Canario by United Kennel Club UKC – November 2002

Recognition! In November, 2002, the UNITED KENNEL CLUB (UKC) has officially recognized the rare breed “Presa Canario” by its historic name of “El Perro de Presa Canario”.

Thanks to the efforts of several NPPCC/UPPCC officers and the proffering of the NPPCC stud books and its Presa Canario registry, and their club membership to the UKC officials. The UKC announced they would make a one time special offering to all Presa owners registered with the NPPCC to join the UKC and register their dogs with them at a special discount.

Normally, UKC dog registration costs $16, but as a special introduction they will accept a new registration fee of $10 for each Presa. A letter of invitation will be forthcoming from the UKC within the next two months. Starting in January, 2003, Presa Canarios will be able to compete in all sanctioned UKC
performance events ( Obedience, Agility, weight-pulling & PP ). Check your Dog magazines for events scheduled in your areas or check the UKC web site for additional information.

Editorial: “Thoughts on UKC recognition.” I am very pleased and excited about the Perro de Presa Canario being recognized by the UNITED KENNEL CLUB. I would like to thank them for their vision. Recognition will benefit hundreds of owners all around the country.

They will be able to join the UPPCC and the UKC and participate in fun activities with their presas.

From day one, when I was contacted by UPPCC secretary – Joe Brown, I knew that achieving breed recognition was a task that needed to be done. It has been said that if you could just get six people to agree on everything you could rule the world. Well we got three people to agree on some things and changed the dog world. Richard Kelly is owed a debt of gratitude. He has been unselfish in providing us with all his records and his guidance, gained through years of experience. Joe Brown has worked tirelessly on this project and was the instrument in developing a Presa Canario pedigree database.

The Presa Canario is a magnificent breed and deserved better representation then what was being given in the United States, especially in protecting its historic name. We have taken a small step towards erasing any negativity and perception of the general public regarding the Presa Canario.

What better way to display this breed than have obedient, social, and competing dogs. We still have much to do in the future. We need to educate our membership about responsible ownership.

It will be the clubs responsibility to provide materials and seminars on Obedience, Agility, Conformation, Protection, and weight-pulling activities. We all need to get involved with our local UKC clubs to learn about participation and procedures. We have to develop a breed rescue so that we can be absolutely certain the rescued will go to deserving, qualified homes, thereby giving the dogs a second chance.

For those dogs identified as flawed and/or dangerous to be removed from any further human contact.

We need to develop a cooperative program amongst breeders to swap and exchange stock to improve our genetic breeding base. We need to educate our members to the pitfalls of irresponsible breeding. We need to do a comprehensive breed survey, collecting breed information and posted onto our database, so that we can identify potential health problems.

We need to encourage all owners/breeders to get their dogs hips certified, neutering all those showing defective health problems. We have a lot to do in the future in order to preserve the quality of the “Presa Canario.” I am confident that this can be accomplished and I’m looking forward to working with all our members. We must avoid becoming mired in silly arguments, infighting and negativity. I look forward to our first planned National Specialty Show of the UPPCC to be held in Gray Summit, Missouri around late September, early October, 2003, and meeting every board member as well as many of our club members in attendance.

Mark Clemens, our East Coast Conformation Director has taken the responsibility of organizing this special event. It’s an awesome job to coordinate the show dates along with contracting qualified judges both for the Conformation and the Temperament Testing. There are planned seminars to be held on “Weight-pulling, Protection & Obedience” with how-to- brochures given to those in attendance. There is a planned banquet to be held one night giving everyone an opportunity for spirited fellowship. We are trying very hard to have in attendance, a guest speaker, who is an important figure in the history and development of the Presa Canario. He would speak at our banquet and offer a written critique on each presa entered for conformation.

We our striving to increase our club membership, tell your fellow presa owners to join ranks with a very exclusive group. The National Perro de Presa Canario Club (NPPCC) will soon convert to the new United Perro de Presa Canario Club (UPPCC), just use the NPPCC application and join. All NPPCC members will be grandfathered into the new UPPCC.

In summary, recognition of the Perro de Presa Canario by the United Kennel Club was a positive first step for bringing our breed into the mainstream dog world.

David “Espo” Espinoza, Vice-President
United Perro de Presa Canario Club
azespo42@hotmail.com or 623/516-0662
Visit us at the “El Presa Community” – www.ezboard.com

UKC Fact: The United Kennel Club is the second oldest and second largest all-breed dog registry in the United States. Founded in 1898 by Chauncey Z. Bennett, it has 250,000 registrations annually. The performance programs of the UKC include Conformation Shows, Obedience Trials, Agility Trials, Coonhound Field Trials, Water Races, Nite Hunts and Bench Shows, Hunting tests for the retrieving breeds, Beagle events including Hunts and Bench Shows, also for Cur and Feist Squirrel and Coon Events.

For more info: https://www.uppcc.net

Ewa Ziemska

Breeder and researcher of Presa Canario. Lived in Poland, London UK and presently stays in Kentucky, USA and traveled through whole Europe and 22 States discovering the breed. Speaks Polish, English and Spanish. Master of Science of Management and Computer Modeling and Engineer of Production Engineering of Kielce University of Technology. Avid traveler, photographer and dog book collector. Instagram @reygladiador