Breed Showing - An Explanation Part 3

How a dog becomes a Champion????

Written by Linda Shove

This article was taken from 'French Letters' Issue No. 5 December 1999

At every “Championship” dog show (see later for explanation) the judge is able to award a Challenge Certificate (C.C.) to the best male and best female of each breed if he thinks they are of sufficiently high standard. He signs a certificate which carries a declaration stating;

“I hereby certify that having judged the above named dog at the place and date detailed, I am of the opinion that it is worthy of the title of champion”.

In N.Z. for a dog (or bitch) to gain the title of Champion it must be awarded eight C.C.s under at least five different judges and at least one of the C.C.s must be awarded after the dog reaches 12 months old. (This is to safeguard against the possibility of a really promising puppy gaining its title while young, but not fulfilling its early promise once it’s full grown) C.C.s cannot be awarded to a puppy under 6 months old however good the judge may think it is.

When a dog has won the required number of C.C.s, its owner applies to the NZKC which will then award the dog its fancy Championship Certificate along with the privilege of using the “Ch.” prefix to the name of the dog and a mention in the New Zealand Kennel Gazette !

Other countries have different systems for making a dog up to be a Champion e.g. in U.K. a dog needs only 3 C.C.s to be a Champion but C.C.s can only be awarded to breeds which have big numbers. In Australia and U.S.A. the best dog / bitch gets points for each dog / bitch it has beaten at that show and must accumulate a certain number of points to become a Champion.

In N.Z. there are 4 different levels of dog shows. The top level is the Championship Show at which C.C.s can be awarded towards the title of Champion. Judges for these shows have had long years of experience in dogs and dog showing and have been through training schemes and NZKC examinations (both theory and practical). Entries for the show have to be sent in to the secretary of the host club about a month in advance and the dogs must be registered with the New Zealand Kennel Club (NZKC) and the handler must be an member of NZKC.

The next level down is the Open Show at which there are no C.C.s awarded and the judges are just learning but have been going to training classes on a regular basis. Entry numbers are usually lower than for Championship Shows as people won’t travel as far to Open Shows. Dogs need to be on the NZKC register and handlers must be NZKC members.

Next level down are Ribbon Parades which are little local shows with judges who are just starting out they are registered with NZKC but have only just started their judge’s training. No Champion dogs are allowed to be shown at Ribbon Parades and they are quite informal, with entries being taken on the day. Dogs must be pure-bred or Pedigree (i.e. no “bitzers” or cross-breds) but do not have to be registered with NZKC and handlers don’t have to be NZKC members. Ribbon Parades are intended to be a “try-out” for novice judges, for handlers and for new or young dogs to see if they enjoy it and also for practice for bigger shows later on.

On the bottom rung are Match Shows which are even less formal. Even the judges are not registered with NZKC for these though they are usually people who have been showing / breeding dogs for a few years. The judging sequence for these shows is quite different from the other three. A Match Show is basically a knock-out competition in which pairs of dogs (of any breed) are picked at random and the winner goes through to the next round. Eventually ending up with a winner who is “Best of Match”

Dog shows can also be further broken down into “All Breeds” - “Group” or “Specialist Breed” shows according to which breeds are catered for.

“All Breeds” shows (as our intelligent readers will have guessed!) are for all the pedigree breeds of dogs recognised by the NZKC (presently 168 breeds)

“Group” shows are for all the breeds in a particular group (refer to the first article in this series in Issue 3) For Briards this is the Working Dog Group (Group 5) representing the breeds that work farm stock.

“Specialist Breed” shows are usually for just one breed. As there still aren’t enough Briards in N.Z. we don’t qualify to run a Briard specialist show yet ……perhaps one day ????

Typically, entry numbers for All Breed Championship Shows in New Zealand would range from 400 to 1000 dogs. The National Dog Show, however, has an entry of around 2000.