Kitty
The UKC is much more active in hunting breeds. The AKC recognizes a few Coon hounds, the UKC recognizes many more. These are people who want functional working hounds. Some are also shown in conformation under judges that know and love their hounds as functional dogs. From people I've talked to about UKC, you rarely see professionel handlers in the show ring. Professionel handlers are very common in AKC. The Curs you mentioned are old breeds used fo an assortment of hunting such as boar, coon,squirrel, etc. There are numerous different "breeds" of curs. Dogs can be cross registered in both AKC and UKC. The UKC recognizes many breeds not recognized by the AKC. A lot of these "unusual" breeds just aren't interested in AKC recognizition.

Kitty
You refered to the long legged JRT as it might as well be a Fox Terrier. Before the turn of the century, they were one and the same dog. The Fox Terrier became a show dog, bred for long head, short back, stilted front movement, etc. The JRT was kept an honest working dog. The AKC didn't do this, the breeders who wanted a "better looking" dog did it. This is why you see such a major difference with looks and temperment in American show shepards and true Working GSDs.

Here are a few points.

1) While the AKC isn't responsible for writing the standard, they are responsible for providing the judges. To become a judge, a person must pass certain requirements and be tested for their knowledge on the breed they are applying for. To add new breeds within the same group, is easy. The AKC considers that if you know one breed from a group, any other of that group will have only minor differences. They don't even have to have read the breed standard of the breed they are judging. So many unknowledgable judges base their decisions on what breeders are breeding, and many breeders on what judges are placing. Ergo!

2)The UKC is not older than the AKC, but almost the same age. It was founded only a few years after the AKC.

3)The UKC's lack of agreement with the FCI is not due to their not wanting one. The FCI will only deal with one kennel club per nation. For years, while the AKC dithered about becomming a member, and tried to dictate terms about which breed standards would be followed (they thought the world should use theirs over all others, including over the country of origin of a breed); the UKC was trying to join but being turned down as an "unauthorized" kennel club.

4)While both orgs have a similar registration process, both do not have the same philosophy. AKC's primary focus after registering dogs, is the dog show, i.e. comformation ring. UKC's emphasis is working venues. Hunting dog trials (including hounds, terriers and gun dogs) have traditionally, and still do, taken precedance over comformation. Working titles have continued to be expanded to other fields beyond hunting, long before the AKC thought to add any.