Breed Clubs

The primary function of most breed clubs is to hold breed shows at open and championship level and to encourage and enable people to find out about their breed....

However, if you don't show (or even if you do) what would your absolute ideal breed club actually do?

Run fun days?
Organise grooming / health / training days?
Coordinate breed rescue?
Organise days where members can learn about the original function of the breed and have a go at the basics with their dogs (unless its now illegal )
Have a website?
Produce a newsletter?

All these things take a lot of time and organisation, so hwo can clubs with a more mature committee attract younger people into the club and encourage them to take a role in organising events or writing articles / sending in photos etc?

Are breed clubs as we know them defunct?!

I think the responsibility and influence a breed club has is vastly undersetimated by the public and the media (it's easy to constantly blame the Kennel Club) when it comes to appointing judges and managing shows. So what is their future?!

So much, in my opinion, depends on the characters involved and so many people who have reached a position of influence in the world of dogs are, to put it kindly, just a little nuts

I would like to see them as guardians of their breeds and be at the forefront of investigating ill-health, disease, and finding ways to combat that through recommending health tests - in fact making them compulsory for their members.

The Bernese breed club does most of those things.

We have great fun days. With the main breed club there are also off shoots of the club Southern, Northern etc.,

They have the championship shows but the funs shows have classes for all sorts and they also do the canine good citizen and temperament testing which they are now bringing into their breeding regulations. They have agility, obedience classes, the oldies parade and the resuce parade, carting and your dog can have a try at this they also do it on a serious level and all in all it is a great get together for people with the breed to let their dogs get together to meet and greet and play and for us humans to have a good old chin wag.

We can access results and photos from the websites too. We have a good rescue page and details of the rescue system and people to contact and there are also those availabe to speak too regarding the breed and give lots of valuable helpful advice.



I feel our breed club has it all.

That's fantastic!

I was on the Committee of a really lovely breed club until work, health and family took over and I began to devote more time to training a dog of a different breed. We used to do as much as we could: shows, fun days, grooming seminars, judging seminars....but we all had aspirations to do a lot more.

The problem was that the Committee were also all (except me) exhibitors or very sought-after judges and mostly somewhat past 60! We used to try so hard to encourage people with pet dogs to get involved, but although they were full of suggestions (newsletters, websites etc.,) which we agreed with - none of them was ever prepared to actually lend a hand

It seemed like a chicken and egg situation: we knew what we wanted to offer our members, but we didn't have the manpower.....but if we had all the things we wanted to offer - I'm sure the whole thing would begin to grow as more people thought the club was worth getting involved with!

How did you start things off with the Bernese? How do you attract new people to get involved? How do you keep everything going and everyone working together?

I didn't start it we became members after losing Ollie and they were very helpful in seeing us through the problems and giving us some very useful information. We then went along to some of the events and met people and breeders before getting Dillon who attended his first event the garden party in May.

The people who run the club and its off shoots work very hard to keep up with everything and organise the events and a lot of them are breeders and judges. They do a very good job.

The Bernese breed club was started in the 70's by a lady who introduced the breed into this country at that time and worked tirelessly to get the club as big as it is she has now died but the leagcy lives on.

The mexican hairless (xoloitzcuintle) club uk (proposed) does most of these things, Luckily there is no need for a country specific rescue here in the uk yet, but they run seminars, fun days, and dish out a fantastic newsletter! The website is informative and has loads of links to worldwide xolo breeders/lovers sites, and most importantly (in my opinion) everyone on the committee is friendly and happy to answer any question from people interested in the breed. They really are a lovely bunch in the Xolo club

The PRIMARY objective of any breed club is the custodianship of the breed.

I belong to several and sit on the committe of one.

We aim to educate owners on health (all breeds must have a Breed health Co-ordinator), training (in the field it was bred for and others) as well as holding judging seminars.

We run fun days, Limit, Open and Championship Shows, Field Trials, Spring Pointing Tests and GWT, have a dog law seminar scheduled for later on this year; and run various training days and weekends.

We advise potential owners on reputable sources for puppies and support breed specific rescue.

We run a magazine and website and have a [a social network] page.

Maybe we are nuts because most committee members of breed clubs are paid NO expenses for travelling (when I attend a meeting it is a 300 mile round trip), helping at shows etc etc etc.

I would like to remind people that it is the MEMBERS who decide what is and what is not decided upon so requiring clubs to make health tests compulsory is NOT within the remit of a club unless the majority support that proposal.

There are breed clubs who have been inquorate at AGMS and had to re organise them, at some expense.

And it is difficult to persuade ANYONE of ANY age to become a committee member due to financial, family and time constraints.

IME the people who moan the most and want different things are precisely those who never take up any positions of responsibility.

It is the same in all walks of life.

OOOOh yes - trying to get anyone to come onto the committee and actually DO something is like pulling teeth- but I guess that's true of most things - there will always be those who are happy to tell others how to do something 'better' but vanish as soon as they're asked to do the work involved themsleves !

too true... its sad that people wont get more involved for their breeds but are happy to 'backseat drive' without having any real input...

I met two of them at E of E and a Xolo! They were very happy to tell us all about them.

I have just gone on the committee and rounded up a few others as one of our Breed clubs was in danger of being finished off through lack of people willing to take on the role. The committee doesn't make all of the decisions as someone else has pointed out we have agms.