AKC backs farm bill with dog-care, import, and training provisions

The American Kennel Club put its weight behind a farm bill that could reshape how dogs are imported, housed, bred, and trained, from kennel yards to federal checkpoints. In a letter sent April 17, the AKC urged support for H.R. 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, and said the measure would affect responsible dog owners, clubs, breeders, and performance-sport participants nationwide.

The club’s message was direct: “The American Kennel Club appreciates your strong support for including these important animal care provisions in the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026.” The letter, addressed to House Agriculture Committee Chairman G.T. Thompson, framed the bill as more than a Washington spending package. For the AKC, it went to the core of the right to own, breed, train, and compete with dogs.

Several provisions explain why. The bill would require the Agriculture Department to report to Congress on how well current Animal Welfare Act enforcement works, a signal that oversight of chronic violators could get sharper. That matters for the kennel operators, breeders, and sporting-dog handlers who already live under federal rules and want a cleaner line between legitimate dog work and bad-actor breeding operations.

The AKC also pointed to tighter live-dog import rules. The bill would expand electronic health documentation for dogs entering the United States and add safeguards such as microchipping, vaccination verification, parasite treatment documentation, and health certificates from accredited veterinarians. That would land in daily life at the port of entry, where commercial dog imports already need a health and rabies vaccination certificate, and where dogs from high-risk rabies countries must have a veterinarian-completed foreign rabies vaccination and microchip form that is valid for 30 days.

The timing is not abstract. USDA recently announced a coordinated crackdown with the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at chronic dog-welfare violators and illegal dog imports. The AKC-backed language would build on that enforcement push.

The bill also reached beyond kennel rows and import crates. It would reauthorize transitional shelter funding so survivors of domestic violence do not have to leave pets behind, keeping companion animals together with the people who rely on them. And it would authorize additional detector-dog training facilities, reinforcing a program that starts in Newnan, Georgia, where USDA’s National Detector Dog Training Center began in 1984 with one dog and one trainer and now operates on a 17-acre campus with 8 buildings and 100 kennels.

The House Agriculture Committee ordered H.R. 7567 reported favorably by a 34-17 vote after markup, and committee leaders said more than 230 stakeholder organizations backed the bill. The AKC, which says it represents more than 5,000 community-based dog clubs, is now pushing the same message through Washington: the rules that govern imports, care, and training are the ones that shape life with dogs long before a ribbon is handed out or a detector dog is deployed.