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This is what it means for a dog to have an AKC champion ship.

 

To get a championship a dog need to earn 15 championship points, including two majors. There are 3, 4 and 5 point majors.

 

Championship points are earned by winning “winners dog” or “winners bitch”. But, in an AKC show championship points are counted according to breed, sex and region. This is a little complicated and requires a little bit of counting.

 

 

                                      Take a look at the following table:

 

Points                                 D 1 B         D 2 B       D 3 B        D 4  B           D 5 B

Dachshund longhaired        2    2        5     6        8   9        10   11          13     14     

 

In this table D means male and B means female.

For this breed and this region it takes 8 dogs to get a 3 point major. This means that 8 dogs have to be entered and compete in order for winners male to get a 3 point major. However, it takes 9 females to make a 3 point major. This means that 9 females have to be entered and compete in order for winners female to get a 3 point major.

 

Let’s say in this show there are 20 longhaired dachshunds competing.

 

There are 8 class dogs

There are 6 class females

There are also 6 specials (A special already has its championship. Specials compete for Best of breed/variety but not “winners”)

There are 4 male specials

There ate 2 female specials

 

Since there were 8 class dogs competing winners males wins a 3 point major!

However since there were only six class females, winners female only wins 2 points.

 

Now comes the tricky part

 

Now that we have picked winners male and winners female they go on to compete for Best of Breed. If winners male beats the male specials for best of breed or best of opposite sex, then the male specials are counted towards the points winners male has earned. If winners male wins Best of Breed or Best of Opposite sex then the number of males that be beat at the breed level will change from a 3 point major to a 4 point major!

 

 If winners female beats the female specials for best of breed or best of opposite sex, then the female specials are counted towards the points winners female has earned.

 

Points are according to the highest win, so if winner’s female goes best of winner’s the points will “cross over” and she will get 3 points instead of two. This is because winner’s male got three points. So in this case winner’s male gets a major and so does winner’s female.

But if winner’s male takes Best of Winners, winners female will not get a major.

 

So in this case if winners female takes Best of Breed and Winners Male takes Best of Opposite Sex, both winners male and winners female will get a 4 point major.

 

Dog compete for Winners at the Class Level. Winners Male and Winners Female go on to compete for Best of Breed at the Breed Level.

There are three wins at the “Breed “Level”

Best of Breed                        Best of Opposite Sex                  Best of Winners

 

Best of Breed: The best of all the dog competing in that breed/variety

Best of Opposite Sex: Is the best of opposite sex to best of breed

Best of Winners: Is the best of winner’s male and winners female.

 

A few more things to keep in mind:

Best of Breed automatically means Best of Winners if “Winners Male” or Winners Female wins Best of Breed

 

Majors are hard to get

 

5 point Majors are really hard to get

 

Specials usually but not always win Best of Breed

 

It takes a very long time to learn this very complicated point system. If you are entered in a show and you dog wins “Winners” and you are not sure how many points you got ASK THE SHOW SECRETARY!!

 

 

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© Nicole Guidry 2007