Mission Statement
The objectives of this Association are to register, maintain and verify the pedigrees of Border Collies; and to promote and foster the breeding, training, and distribution of reliable working Border Collies in North American. Other objectives of the Association are to organize and promote stockdog trials or exhibitions, whether the Association does so on its own or in association with other societies, bodies or persons.
Purpose
The ABCA was founded in 1983 by Border Collie breeders who wanted a democratic nonprofit organization to keep accurate records of working Border Collie bloodlines. Since then, it has registered over four hundred thousand dogs making it the largest registry of Border Collies in North America.
While the ABCA is primarily a breed registry, the Association also works to promote the use of Border Collies as stockdogs and to improve the health of the breed by funding health studies and genetic research.
Activities of the ABCA
- Maintaining an accurate registry for the membership
- Cooperating with affiliated organizations (ISDS, CBCA) for mutual benefit
- Promoting the Border Collie as a stockdog by supporting individual members as well as regional and national organizations with funding for their trials and educational events.
- Improving Border Collie health by providing significant support to the ABCA Health & Education Foundation (HEF). The HEF funds studies and basic research on health issues. It also organizes and funds heath screening tests to aid individual dogs as well as to gather data for use in health studies and to gage the health of the breed.
- Maintaining a code of ethics and best practices to guide both breeders and owners in the care and breeding of dogs. The goal is to protect, preserve, and improve the breed and its future, as well as to protect individual dogs.
- Recognizing members for exceptional efforts in support of the ABCA and its goals.
- Recognizing ABCA registered dogs that have demonstrated consistently high levels of performance and / or produced offspring of consistently above average ability.