The annual meeting of the FCI Show- and Judges Commission took place in Luxembourg, as usual, on the first weekend of February.

Mrs Gitty Schwab-Kersch, President of the Fédération Cynologique Luxembourgeoise (FCL) and her board members were the most perfect hosts and all delegates from 30 countries felt very welcome.

After very open and interesting discussions the following proposals were sent to the FCI General Committee. Most were approved:

Proposal 1: Regulations for FCI Dog Shows art. 3

The old text in the regulation art. 3: “If a show has to be cancelled because of force majeure, the organiser must partly refund the entry fees that have been paid”
should be changed into
“If a show has to be cancelled because of force majeure, the organisers are recommended to partly refund the entry fees that have been paid, based on their own existing rules.”
Approval of the General Committee.

Proposal 2: Regulations for FCI Dog Shows art. 5

The old text in the regulation art. 5: “Once the entries for a show have closed it is not allowed to transfer a dog from one class to another after the catalogue is printed except if an administrative mistake was made by the Show Committee”
should be changed into
“Once the entries for a show have closed, it is not allowed to transfer a dog from one class to another after the catalogue is printed, except if an administrative mistake was made by the Show Committee.”
Approval of the General Committee.

Proposal 3: Regulations for FCI Dog Shows: Observer at World and Section Shows

Art. D, the old text in the regulations: “The FCI observer at World and Section shows is to receive from the organiser the same daily allowance as the judges, as well as his travelling, accommodation and meal expenses”
should be changed into:
“The FCI observer’s expenses, incl. daily allowance, to be covered by the FCI.”
The FCI General Committee does not agree.
However, they agree to add a clause stating that in case a visit, prior to the event, is asked by the General Committee, all the expenses will be borne by the FCI.

Proposal 4: the FCI should also provide a check list and time schedule for the observer visiting and preparing the show.

Approval of the General Committee. TJ will take care of it.

Proposal 5: The Kennel Club (England) does not recognise champion titles from the Continent, which makes it very unattractive for English exhibitors to show on the Continent: the FCI General Committee is asked to get in contact with the KC to solve this problem.

The General Committee takes note of the request.

Proposal 6: Ban of showing, Art. 14: Every member and contract partner of the FCI is obliged, in accordance with its national legislation, to publish a list of all dogs, exhibitors and/or handlers who are banned from shows. All organisers are bound by this ban.

Not all countries (member and contract partners) follow the rules.
The FCI General Committee is asked to investigate and send legal advice how to implement this article more effectively.

Yves De Clercq informs that the forfeit-list indeed is not respected by most countries. In addition, in case an exhibitor settles his account (entry fee), is the FCI going to confirm all the CACIB that were denied when he was not in order with payments? How about the RCACIB? The situation is very complicated and pretty much time-consuming for very poor effective results.

The General Committee decides to cancel article 14. The article 13 of the FCI Standing Orders which reads as follows is considered to be sufficient:
Article 13 - Penalties and sanctions
The FCI recognises all legally valid final sanctions (against any person, such as judges, breeders, exhibitors, handlers, etc.) notified to it by its members and contract partners and informs the other members and contract partners so that the sanctions can be applied in all the countries under FCI jurisdiction.
It is up to each NCO to send the names of all punished people to the FCI Office. That system is efficient.

Over the last few years, our commission has worked very hard on many articles of the show regulations. Most of the time, the General Committee followed our proposals and the actual Regulations for FCI Dog Shows can be downloaded from the FCI website. Our goal was to create modern show regulations, not only for Scandinavia or the rest of Europe, but also for the farther FCI countries, which are sometimes - because of their cynological background - a bit closer to the English or American way of organising dog shows. We do hope that now all FCI countries can follow these regulations easily, without any problems when organising international dog shows.

Dog Shows are one important window for the cynological activities and it might be of interest that in 2014, 8,204 international Champion titles were issued by the FCI and in 2015 a total of 990 CACIB shows were organised in 86 countries of the FCI world.

Dog people travel around the globe and it is nowadays easy to find exhibitors from Switzerland or any other European country at dog shows in Korea or the Philippines and vice versa.
But this causes sometimes big problems for exhibitors and organisers.

What is forbidden in Switzerland by animal welfare law is maybe of no interest in another country and again vice versa. How can we inform and teach our exhibitors around the world?
It is not only done with nice paragraphs and regulations in the catalogue. We all have to start in our home countries teaching future exhibitors, but also professional handlers, to respect high ethical rules and act as dog lovers. What has happened to the BIS dog at Cruft’s and a group winner at the European Dog Show in Lillestrom should never happen again.

The FCI Statutes say it clearly under
Article 2 Objectives
The aims of the FCI are:

1. To encourage and promote the breeding and use of purebred dogs, whose functional health and physical features meet the standard set for each respective breed and which are able to work and to carry out different functions in accordance with the specific characteristics of their breed;
2. To protect the use, the keeping and the breeding of purebred dogs in the countries, where the FCI has a member or a contract partner; to support the non-profit exchange of dogs and of cynological information between the members and to initiate the organisation of shows, tests, trials and other activities like sport events, the use of dogs in rescue operations, etc.
3. To promote and support dogdom and dog welfare worldwide.

Let’s work on it with great passion for our most beloved friends, the dogs.

Once again I would like to thank the Fédération Cynologique Luxembourgeoise for hosting our meeting. The warm atmosphere, the lovely dinner at the Château de Bourglinster and the very interesting bus trip to Schengen will always stay in our memories.

And last but not least my thanks go to Dr Tamás Jakkel for his support in the FCI General Committee, Yves De Clerq and his staff for the excellent cooperation and my colleagues Nick Schwab and Bojan Matakovic for their help and support.

Barbara Müller
President of the FCI Show Commission