FCI launches new educational tool: the FCI Academy!

Dear (future) owner, Dear (future) breeder, Dear (future) judge or candidate-judge, Dear FCI media follower, The FCI General Secretariat is thrilled to announce the launch of a brand-new FCI educational tool: the FCI Academy. Today, we are excited to start a series of highly valuable publications: breed-specific education about FCI breeds recognised on a definitive or provisional basis.  The presentations have been prepared by the national canine organisation (member of the FCI) of the country of origin of the breed.  They are based on a model (in English only) drafted by the FCI Show Judges Commission and have been approved by the FCI General Committee. The aim is twofold: - to familiarise and educate the (future) judges and breeders, and - to promote the breeds among the general public. The material is composed of PowerPoint presentations, sometimes accompanied by videos, when available. The very first presentation will be about the Dutch Shepherd Dog. It will be published in the FCI Academy section of this blog on January 23rd. Don't miss it! We wish you a pleasant time at the FCI Academy!

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.