The Hub City Kennel Club story goes back at least to the mid-thirties, as confirmed by a 1935 mention of the club in the Canadian Kennel Club’s official publication at the time, Kennel and Bench.

 

From the start its members were the owners and breeders of excellent dogs from a surprisingly wide range of breeds. Then, as now, Hub City was performance event oriented, holding not just dog shows but field trials, but it did not become the Hub City Kennel and Obedience Club until 1964. Obedience became an official CKC sport in 1944 and Hub City’s first trials were held in 1961. Over the years HCKOC’s many events have included agility, scent hurdling, barn hunt, scenting, sprinter, obedience and rally, and at the moment we sponsor obedience, rally, sprinter and scenting trials—as well as our annual dog shows, of course.

A few years after adding obedience trials to its show roster, the club began to offer obedience training classes led by talented, well-qualified volunteer instructors, lessons not primarily aimed at producing obedience titled dogs—though many class graduates have gone on to become just that—but happy, well-adjusted, well-mannered pets. HCKOC was the first group in the city to offer training classes for young puppies. Today the club offers instruction in not just obedience, but scent work, rally and other sports, and with the same emphasis on manners, behaviour and livability behind it all. We also sponsor dog-related seminars—featuring training, health, genetics and behaviour to name a few—bringing in experts from across Canada and elsewhere to conduct them.

During the fifties and sixties our dog shows were part of what was known as the circuit, a series of shows and obedience trials held in three different Saskatchewan cities over the space of 10 days in May, ending Victoria Day weekend. The order of the shows rotated among the clubs, but every year one club by necessity ended up with the unfavourable midweek dates.

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By 1970, HCKOC members decided the time had come to withdraw from the circuit and move their newly independent event to the first weekend in May, where it remains today. It quickly became the largest and most successful set of dog shows in the province. Our weekend currently includes three days of shows (including breed and group specialties), rally and obedience trials, along with clinics at which dog breeders can have their breeding stock checked
for various health problems.