In the United States the major governing body that oversees many of the purebred dog breeds is the American Kennel Club. Most of the other countries in the world don’t belong to the American Kennel Club. Most countries register their purebred dog breeds with the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. The Fédération Cynologique Internationale is the main organization involved with European dog shows.
What Is The Fédération Cynologique Internationale
The Fédération Cynologique Internationale manages and oversees the registration of many purebred dog breeds throughout the world. There are currently 80 countries, including Costa Rica, Greece, and Finland, who are members of the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and it recognizes different purebred dog breeds. The Fédération Cynologique Internationale was created in 1911 and the founding countries are Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, and the Netherlands.
The interesting thing about the Fédération Cynologique Internationale is that the dog breeds owner country is responsible for recording and recognizing the characteristics of the breed, for example Germany is responsible for keeping track of the breed characteristics and standards of the Doberman Pinscher. The Fédération Cynologique Internationale divides the dog breeds into ten categories; Terriers, Retrievers (sometimes called water dogs), Sheep and cattle dogs, Sighthounds, Pinschers and Schnauzers, Primitive types, Dachshunds, Toy dogs (also called Companion dogs), Pointing dogs, and Scenthounds.
The Fédération Cynologique Internationale And The European Dog Show
Like the American Kennel Club the Fédération Cynologique Internationale uses dog shows to help promote the quality of the purebred dog breeds it promotes, many of these shows are European dog shows. The Fédération Cynologique Internationale has one member assigned to each country.
Each individual country is responsible for training their own dog show judges and issuing pedigrees to the purebred dogs registered in the country. Each country is expected to host dog shows and working trials were dogs from the same breed have an opportunity to compete against one another. Like the American Kennel Club dogs are awarded points when they achieve a best in show. When a dog earns enough points the dog is given the title of International Beauty and/or working dog champion.
Crufts Dog Show
The Crufts dog show isn’t just another European dog show. Crufts has the distinction of being the largest dog show in the world, a record recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. Dog lovers who attend the European dog show can expect to see approximately 23,000 dogs, of these 23,000 dogs over 1,000 of them will be from over seas.