At its meeting on 13 April 2023, The Kennel Club Board agreed to allocate championship status to three breeds from 2024 – the Jack Russell Terrier, Kooikerhondje and Lagotto Romagnolo.
The following shows have been allocated Challenge Certificates (CCs) from 2024:
Jack Russell Terrier
Crufts, National Terrier Club and Jack Russell Terrier Club.
Kooikerhondje
Crufts, British Utility Breeds Association and Kooikerhondje Club of Great Britain.
Lagotto Romagnolo
Crufts, National Gundog Association and Lagotto Romagnolo Association.
The breed clubs will be asked to hold their championship show at least one month apart from Crufts and the relevant group show if possible, to ensure as wide a spread of CCs throughout the year as possible. The breed club championship show must not be held before Crufts in 2024.
In 2021, The Kennel Club introduced a phased and transparent system for the elevating of some non-CC breeds with separate classification to championship status. This begins with an annual allocation of three sets of CCs and will progress, if entry figures warrant, to seven sets and eventually, under stage 1 of the new CC allocation model, 13 sets.
The criteria used to assess if a breed should be considered for an initial three sets of CCs include:
- To have a minimum of 12 approved judges (JEP Level 4)
- An average entry of ten dogs over a rolling three-year period at all-breed championship shows and relevant group championship shows.
Mark Beazley, Kennel Club Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Jack Russell Terrier, Kooikerhondje and Lagotto Romagnolo into The Kennel Club family of breeds with championship status and look forward to seeing the first CCs awarded at Crufts 2024, where these breeds are bound to generate a lot of interest.
“This news should be a timely reminder to judges currently on breed club A3 lists that it is possible under the new system to apply to award CCs in breeds which don’t currently have CC status, using the grandfathering route in place during the transitional phase of the JEP which ends on 31 December 2025. To date, a number of judges of non-CC breeds have made 176 successful grandfathering applications in total. Breed clubs are also encouraged to continue with their judges education programmes and place suitably qualified judges on their A3 list.”