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What is a Confirmation Champion?

Dogs compete within their breed at AKC registered shows. The dogs/bitches are judged based on the breed standard and only the best non-Champion male (“Winner’s Dog”) and the best non-Champion female (“Winners Bitch”) receive points in any particular show.

Dogs must acquire 15 points, including 2 majors won under different judges and at least one point under a third judge.

Dogs can win from 1-5 points in a particular dog show. 3,4 and 5 points are considered majors.

Technically, a dog can become a champion in 3 shows if he/she wins a 5 point major in each show. Generally, it takes months or even years to finish a dog and make it a champion. First there must be enough entries to qualify as a major and then the dog/bitch must be judged as the best over all the other non-champion entries – no small feat.

Here is the AKC point schedule for Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina valid May 2009 to April 2010. It shows the number of dogs or bitches that need to be shown in order to win points.  As you can see a bitch must be the best of at least 23 females to win a 3 point major and the best of at least 71 females to win a 5 point major.

Here is the AKC point schedule for District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia valid May 2009 to April 2010.

The “Winners Dog” and “Winners Bitch” then compete in the Best of  Breed (BOB) against dogs which have already become Champions.

The BOB winner will then compete with all the other BOB of the sporting group to obtain a Group 1 win, and then compete for the Best in Show against the other 6 group 1 winners. When a Dog has won Best in Show, you can see BIS in front of his name. A BISS is a Labrador that won at least 1 specialty show. This means that this dog was the best Labrador in a show of only Labradors. Big specialties can hold more than 1000 Labs. That’s a BIG win!!!