The Kennel Club

The Kennel Club (KC ) is the governing body of the British dog breeder clubs. He is the world's oldest such umbrella organization and the largest breed club in Britain. His law office is located in London. In addition to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI ) and the American Kennel Club (AKC ), he is one of the three major confederations of pedigree dog breeding.

History

The association was founded on April 4, 1873 with the aim of creating a permanent body for dog shows. In December 1874, the first General Assembly was held. Shortly thereafter, the Kennel Club published a first stud book in which pedigrees of over 4000 dogs were. From the year 1880, only dogs were allowed on exhibitions, which were registered with the Kennel Club. However, at this time, a registration simply meant the inclusion of the dogs name to avoid duplicate names - the racial purity had only a minor role.

Work and tasks

Through the Kennel Club dog shows, which were initially very skeptical and rated as socially inferior, were popular and viewed. The Kennel Club manages the first official register of breeds. He was the first club to which aufstellte guidelines for racial purity. The club divides dog in the details below to breeding strains that have been widely adopted as groups. The annual competition " Crufts" is managed by the Kennel Club since 1948.

Due to the growing interest in purebred dogs, the number of registered dogs increased the Kennel Club rapidly. In recent years, 280,000 dogs were registered annually - the database of the association now has over 6 million dogs.

The breeding practices of the Kennel Club, in particular the lack of consideration of health and functionality with respect to the desired standard features were criticized in the 2008 film Pedigree Dogs Exposed. As a result, among others, the British Broadcasting Corporation ( BBC ) ended after 42 years of their collaboration with Crufts.

Racial groups

The Kennel Club divided the dog breeds into seven groups, with a literal translation of group names is hardly possible:

Gundog Group - dogs that flush out game and / or retrieve dead or wounded animals are. The group is divided into four subgroups: Retrievers, Spaniels, Setters and " all-rounder ". However, the transitions between these sub-groups are fluid, so many breeds of a subgroup can do the same work as members of another subgroup.

Hound Group (English " Hound": Dog, Hound) - Dogs, which were originally used for hunting and have to deal with a variety of tasks. These include both Scenthounds which with the nose hunt ( Beagle, Bloodhound ) and sight hounds, which hunt by sight ( Whippet, Greyhound ).

Pastoral Group (English " pastoral": rural, pastoral ) - herding dogs, which are used for working with sheep, cattle, reindeer or other ungulates. These dogs have a waterproof coat, which protects them when working outdoors in front of the weather. Typical representatives are the Collies, the Bobtail or the Samoyed.

Terrier Group - dogs that pests and vermin hunting. The name " Terrier " comes from "terra " (Latin for Earth ). These dogs are usually described as very brave and rough and were selected to hunt foxes, badgers, rats or otters.

Toy Group (English " toy " means a toy ) - Small dogs, including pet dogs. Many dogs in this group were bred as companion dogs pure without any work tasks, but some also fall only because of their small size in this group.

Utility Group (English " utility": usability ) - a group with very different breeds that were originally bred primarily not for hunting or other tasks.

Working Group ( engl. "work ": work) - Dogs, which were selected to serve as a guard, search and rescue dogs. They are specialists in their field and stand out there by their achievements. These include, for example, the boxer, the German Mastiff or St. Bernard.