Showing Your Dog in England by Shelda Hornby

The UK chihuahua world is rather a large one in comparison to many european countries,
we have 27 championship shows a year  that we can CCs at and many many "open shows, These are shows where challenge certificates cannot be won, and are normally judged  in the breed by up and coming judges.
We also have several Breed Clubs whom too run Championship Shows and Open Shows.

The British Chi CLub
The Midland Chi Club
The Northern Counties Chi Club
The Scottish Chi Club
The South Wales Chi Club
The West Country Chi Club
The Longcoat Club
The Smoothcoat Club

At a general championship show we usually have around 100 longcoats and 65 smooths entered.
But at the Breed Club Shows this number can double especially for the longcoats as they have far greater entries than the smooths .
Our class classification is also different and a little confusing to the new comer.

We have NO Champion Class

Champions will go into the open class or an age relevant class.
All championship Shows have different classes for longs and smooths, and dogs and bitches.
Most championship Shows will schedule will schedule these classes but some even more and breed clubs ,even more again.

An example of the average classification.

Minor puppy    6-9 months
Puppy     6-12 months
Junior  6-18 months
Novice ...for dogs that have not won aCC or 3 or more first prizes at a champ show , excluding all the puppy classes.  

Graduate...for dogs which have not won a CC or four or more first prizes in grad' post grad' limit or open classes

Post Graduate....AS above but now five first prizes....

Limit ....For dogs that have not won 3 or CCs or 7 or more first prizes in limit and open classes at a champ show.

Open....For all dogs any age.

For your chihuahua to become a UK Champion it has to win 3 CCs , now that may sound "easy ", let me tell you it is not .

Only a very few champions are made up each year and over the past 3 years only a couple of new Longcoat bitches and a couple of new smoothcoat dogs ,this is due to 2 chihuahuas that have dominated the breed. The smoothcoat bred and owned by Mrs Davies CH Dachidas Master Angel and Shelda and Kevin Hornbys home bred CH Bramerita Naughty But Nice.

Every now and again in all breeds you get outstanding dogs that if fully campaigned make it hard if not impossible for new champions to be made up.