News and updates

Our previous advice concerning the contracting of Judges from FCI National Canine Organisations (NCO’s) to judge at FCI International Shows has raised queries from a number of Member Bodies as to how the new regulation will affect overseas FCI judges being contracted to non FCI Championship Shows in Australia. 

Approvals for overseas judges are granted in accordance with Dogs Australia Regulations 9 Non Resident Judges Section 2, which sets out a number of scenarios where judges may be approved to judge breeds in Australia which they are not approved for in their country of residence, which are used for judges from the UK, America and Canada, however FCI judges are bound by FCI Judges Regulation 6 e A judge may under no circumstances agree to judge a breed at any show for which he is not approved by his own national organization. The same applies for judging at Best in Group and Best in Show level. This means that with FCI judges we can only approve them for breeds that their own NCO approves them for. 

This presents a challenge for the Dogs Australia Office as many applications for FCI judges are supported by letters from their NCO approving them for Best in Show, Best in Group or breeds which are not listed in their entry in the FCI Judges Directory. Although the new FCI regulation pertains only to FCI International Shows we believe that the same criteria should be applied for Australian Championship Shows. We have written advice from the FCI that if there are discrepancies between the FCI Directory and the NCO’s statement, Dogs Australia should advise the NCO that their information is different from what is reflected in the Judges Directory and that, according to FCI, we must follow the Judges Directory.