American Dog Breeders Association

 
The American Dog Breeders Association (ADBA) is a kennel club founded in 1909 in the United States. It is one of two official registries in the US for the American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT); the other is the United Kennel Club (UKC). ADBA was co-founded as an all-breed registry in 1909 by Guy McCord and Con Feeley as to promote John Colby's strain of pit bulls and establish an American Pit Bull Terrier registry. ADBA is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and sponsors conformation dog shows, weight pulling competitions, and "Top Dog Athletic Events" consisting of three canine competitions: treadmill race, wall climb and lure coursing. The modern registry focuses primarily on the American Pit Bull Terrier with a few exceptions.
It is the accepted breed standard for American Pit Bull Terriers in the United Kingdom. ADBA's breed standards are relied upon as the identification protocol of Pit Bull types in "collaboration with Staffordshire University and contributors in the UK, USA, Ireland and Australia."
ADBA issues pedigree and DNA certifications and promotes events such as conformation shows and sport events like Weight pulling and Top Dog. In 1976, ADBA began publishing a quarterly magazine titled "The American Pit Bull Terrier Gazette".
History.
The ADBA founded in 1909 by Guy McCord and Con Feeley, both of whom were breeders of American Pit Bull Terriers. They were also friends with John Pritchard Colby of Newberry, MA. who was a breeder of fighting pit bulls which became known as the Colby strain. In the early 1900s, Colby advertised as having "bred and sold more fighting dogs than any one man in America." In the beginning, ADBA considered the Colby strain as "the mainstay of the ADBA which prompted the boast of being the 'home' registration office of the Colby dogs." With the recognition of the American Pit Bull Terrier as a standard breed, the ADBA distanced itself from any association to dog fighting. Breeders with APBTs that were registered with the ADBA became persistent in their efforts to dispel the public's impression that the breed was used only for fighting purposes.
In 1951, the ADBA was managed by Frank Ferris and his wife Florence Colby, widow of John Colby. Activities of the ADBA were limited, but with an exclusive focus on the registration of American Pit Bull Terriers. In 1973, Ferris had his sights on retirement and sold the ADBA to Ralph Greenwood. A few years later, owners of registered dogs petitioned the ADBA to develop a breed standard for conformation dog shows, but they wanted one that was unique to the ADBA rather than copying the breed standards of the American Kennel Club (AKC) or UKC. In 1976, the ADBA formulated the APBT Heritage Conformation Standard on which ADBA sponsored conformation shows are judged; the goal being to maintain the "traits of intelligence, character, loyalty, and the athletic conformation that the breed was originally bred for hundreds of years ago." That same year, ADBA also began publishing a quarterly magazine "The American Pit Bull Terrier Gazette" which features a variety of topics ranging from dog nutrition, human interest stories, and show results.
ADBA registration.
Beginning in early 2015, ADBA investigated and identified issues in the APBT Stud Book which resulted in the following corrections:
The ADBA's breed standard for the American Pit Bull Terrier is the standard used in the UK for determining if a dog is of the prohibited "pit bull terrier type" under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. In response, the ADBA's breed standard for the APBT includes a disclaimer forbidding its use in determining if a dog meets the definition of a prohibited or restricted dog for breed-specific legislation.
In 2009 the ADBA, along with the Endangered Dog Breeders Association, filed an amicus brief in the case of United States v. Stevens alleging 18 U.S.C. § 48 was too broad and violated the First Amendment.
Breeds.
The ADBA is a club focused on preserving the American Pit Bull Terrier breed, and its conformation and sports events are mostly for this breed. Despite this, the club accepts to register all breeds recognized by the UKC and AKC, in addition to registering the new breed Working Pit Bulldog.