Early Beginnings

The Long Island Kennel Club

Thanks to the efforts of its first president, Dwight Moore, breeder of Boston Terriers, vice president F.B. Thompson and Joseph M. Dale as secretary and treasurer the Long Island Kennel Club was formed in 1903.  The founders were determined to establish a kennel club for the purpose of holding an annual dog show.  That same year the club incorporated and became a member of the American Kennel Club having submitted its Constitution, By Laws and Code of Ethics.  Monthly meetings were held in Brooklyn.

In February of 1903 over 100 members attended a meeting to finalize the club’s first dinner arrangements with invited guests being members, friends, exhibitors attending Westminster and judges.  Gustov Muss Arnolt, an early director of the American Kennel Club and well known to those in the sport as an artist having contributed to covers of the AKC Gazette, was the key speaker.   November 11, 12, 13, 1903 saw an entry of over 700 canines at the club’s first show; the venue was the Clermont Avenue Rink in Brooklyn.  The printed catalog sold for 25 cents and included a who’s who of the elite such as Vanderbilt, Whitney, Auchincloss and Rutherford.  Each proudly paraded their home bred exhibits before the judges and the competition was fierce. Then as now we were and still are a Breeder’s club.

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