FCI announces its 2nd World Congress for Show Judges

The congress will take place on 24-25 June 2019 in the framework of the FCI Americas and the Caribbean Section shows (20-23 June) at "Mundo Imperial Acapulco" exhibition centre. All Judges around the world are invited to participate! All participants will receive a very special recognition with curricular value, signed by FCI President, Mr Rafael de Santiago. The judges are reminded that, according to FCI rules, it is necessary for all international judges officiating all over the world as representatives of the FCI to attend this type of congress to keep up to date. Well-known judges will be the speakers during 2 days, about topics of great interest to the international judges willing to update their knowledge: behaviour, health, genetic predispositoon to hereditary diseases, nomenclature of colours and coats, evaluation in statics and dynamics, hypertypes and evaluation of the dogs, among other. Full programme and information leaflet available here!  

More than 100 years of FCI archives: aren’t we lucky?

One of the most impressive things about the FCI is that, being a hundred-year-old federation, it can be considered as one of the probably restricted number of existing international organisations being able to legitimately claim to be an authentic witness of the last 100 years of contemporary history! How lucky we are to have access to the full FCI archives! They constitute a treasure of documents, pictures and historic testimonies, not only of FCI’s history, but also of the FCI members’. Today, we would like to introduce you to a very nice piece of art which has its place in our modest museum: the FCI bronze plate. In 1928, the FCI decided to have bronze plates produced: two of them were offered to the organisers of every CACIB show and CACIT trial. The organisers then chose among all the winning dogs of a CACIB or a CACIT to offer them a bronze plate. The FCI also kept a stock of plates which were available for sale. 154 were sold in 1937 and 333 in 1938. The FCI stopped the production of the plate in 1947… The nice thing about it is that a few years ago, in 2009, the FCI Office was contacted by a Dutch person, dog lover, who informed us that he had found such a plate on a flea market in The Netherlands! The current FCI staff was not aware of the existence of this plate and research had to be made in the very old minutes of the Assemblies; that is how we found information about its creation in 1927! The plate had been made by a famous Belgian caster called Léon Batardy. Our thrilling research allowed us to find out that the plate is a reproduction of a painting: one of Saint Hubert’s Miracles, conserved in the Belgian chapel Saint Hubert à la Converserie, in Champlon. The Dutch dog lover kindly accepted to send us the plate he had bought on the flea market and the FCI Office had it reproduced in its original format, shape and look. Such a plate was offered to one of the winners of the FCI Centenary World Champion of Champions held in Brussels in November 2011, on the occasion of the FCI centenary.

Hypertypes and breed standards in dogs: a matter of balance by Claude GUINTARD (1) and Anne-Marie CLASS (2)

Full text of the article in its original language (French). ABSTRACT Hypertype in the canine species has been subject to a lot of thoughts and many publications but the novelty of this work is that it associates two complementary points of view, namely the breeder’s and judge’s and on the other hand the anatomist’s and vet’s. If at shows, the worship of beauty, driven to exaggeration, has taken the step on fitness, one can wonder which tools would be able to avoid these phenomena that are detrimental to the well-being, indeed the soundness of the dogs produced. The standard lever is often put forward; however, one can wonder whether it is not the interpretation of it (or sometimes the lack of meticulous reading) more than the standards themselves which is the cause of these phenomena. The writing of the current standards, according to the FCI template, should not be able to lead to hypertypes, it is all about valuation and balance from the various players of the dog world. Tools other than standards are clearly available to fight against hypertypes, the authors will only enounce them without developing. Key words: Dogs, hypertype, standards, selection, cynology.   (1) Doctor of veterinary medicine, in charge of Unité d’Anatomie Comparée, École Nationale Vétérinaire de Nantes - Oniris, Member of the Standards Commission of Société Centrale Canine, Member of the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale) Standards Commission. (2) Secretary General of the Société Centrale Canine, President of Club Français du Bullmastiff et du Mastiff, chemist.