Link to The Kennel Club HomepageFor Overseas Visitors To Our Site
The BMDC of GB welcomes Bernese Mountain Dog lovers from any country to our site. If we can be of any assistance please contact us whether you are thinking of visiting Britain or just wish to know something about us.
In the meantime please find below the answers to some frequently asked questions about Britain and its dogs.
ADMINISTRATION - Although there were some Bernese Mountain Dogs imported into Britain in the 1930s these died out during the war. Our current Bernese have developed in Britain since 1970 and the GB club was founded in 1971. There are around 700-800 Bernese Mountain Dogs registered each year at The Kennel Club. The largest Bernese Breed club in Great Britain is the Bernese Mountain Dog of Great Britain and there are 4 other clubs registered at the Kennel Club and several more smaller societies who are not registered. There is an affiliation of K.C. registered clubs called the Bernese Breed Council. In Great Britain all the registrations of dogs are direct to the Kennel Club and lists of puppies and litters registered are published by the KC, not by the clubs. So, unlike many of their continental counterparts, the clubs have little power but try to improve things by education and influence. All of the clubs hold Open Shows and four of them hold annual an annual Championship Show as well- Championship shows are where CCs (similar principle to CACs or CACIBs) are awarded - Open shows are smaller, lower status shows..
HEALTH & BREEDING - Our hip and elbow scoring systems are our own and although our elbow scoring is very much like the ones found in Europe giving scores of 0,1,2, or 3 our hip scoring is a much more detailed scheme which gives a bigger breakdown of the condition of the hip. Basically a perfect hip would score 0:0 total 0 and the worst possible hips would score 53:53 total 106. The two figures are for left and right. Bernese average score is around 15 in total. In Britain there is no requirement to hip or elbow score before breeding but virtually every responsible breeder does and club members now have to.
There are no official restrictions or checks on breeding, there are no assessment panels or breeding committees. There are no temperament tests or minimum hip or elbow scores, no veterinary assessment for health or any checks at all if owners do not want to make them. Basically there is nothing to stop anyone breeding anything to anything else if they wanted to. A complete free for all could happen ……….. but it doesn’t. Whilst it is true there are, like in every country, a few unscrupulous breeders who just want the money, most people breeding Bernese try to do the right things. There are almost no Bernese litters born to parents who are not hip scored and very few to parents who are not elbow scored and people do consider these things when they choose mates for their bitches. We do not have a breeding or stud book in the way many countries do so the only way people can assess dogs is to do it themselves initially at shows, You may hear British dog fanciers talking about "the stud book" but this means a different thing to most countries as it refers to show related system and means Crufts qualification to most people, not breeding approval as it does it many countries.
It is a fact that some (Europeans in particular) do worry about Bernese in Britain because we do not have regulations and controls on our breeding but we do have some good dogs and some healthy happy and confident dogs. We have a spread of type and quality as everyone else seems to have and the people who care talk about mostly the same problems in all countries. In the past we have dealt with problems that have arisen by breeders being responsible and taking swift action to remove affected dogs from breeding programmes. Basically our system works on education not regulation and it would be very difficult to change people’s attitude to that present in many European countries.
SHOWING - To become a Champion in Britain you need to win 3 CCs (from different judges). CCs for Bernese dogs and bitches are on offer at approx 31 shows each year including 4 club shows and Crufts, which usually has our largest Bernese entry. Champions are still shown with everyone else and this makes it harder to become a Champion as you have to beat existing Champions. Our largest Club show (BMDC of GB club) is in late September. Our governing body is the Kennel Club—not FCI—so our classes are totally different to those found elsewhere and at first they can be quite confusing for someone used to the FCI system. Our judging is also different as the judge does not grade dogs but only selects the winners from each class, we have no excellents, no very goods, no goods etc just 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th in each class. This means a single judge is expected to be able to judge up to 250 dogs in a day. Only the top few places, usually 1st and 2nd see a critique from the judge published in the canine press a few weeks after the show. The core of our showing however, the actual assessment of the dog, is basically the same and British judges can regularly be found judging under FCI and other bodies with no problems and FCI based judges judge in Britain.
As there are so many shows in a year people get very familiar with the well known dogs as they will see them every week throughout the summer. This may be why very few of our breeders have web sites like in other countries where dog's details need to be available to a large variety of breeders from different countries to view. Most of the choosing of dogs is done by looking at and meeting the dogs themselves at shows and not from books or web sites.
CRUFTS - Crufts Dog Show is held over 4 days in early March at the National Exhibition Centre near the city of Birmingham and each year we have increasing numbers of overseas exhibitors with their Bernese. Crufts, which is the largest dog show in the world is our most famous show and people come from all over the world to visit and increasingly to show their dogs. In total there are over 25,000 dogs at Crufts and over 150,000 paying visitors from all over the world. How to qualify an overseas dog for Crufts varies each year, at the moment there are nominated shows in several countries where certain levels of success will allow you to enter Crufts. Details in many languages can be found from the Kennel Club's web site - from any page in the search box enter "competing in the UK" and you should get a complete list of all the languages available. Some owners travel to Britain at other times of the year and qualify for Crufts via our regular shows alongside the British dogs.
Link to The Kennel Club Homepage
Link to the KC "Competing in the UK page"
Only Crufts requires a qualification, all the other shows in the UK can be entered by any dog registered at the KC or any other country's affiliated (usually FCI) Kennel Club). If you wish to show in Britain you will need to contact our Kennel Club and arrange an Authority to Compete number (ATC number) for your dog. This is easy to do for any dog registered at the American, Australian, New Zealand or any FCI affiliated Kennel Clubs but you will need to complete this process BEFORE you can enter the show. Like most of the process you only need to do this once and it can be done on line nowadays..
TRAVELLING TO BRITAIN WITH YOUR DOG - Britain is a rabies free island and to visit us with your dog you need a standard EU Pets Passport but Britain, has the extra proviso of the blood test after the rabies vaccination. Basically one month after the vaccine you take a blood test and if this is OK then you still have to wait another 6 months from the date of the test before your dog can come into Britain. After this as long as you keep up the vaccination up to date you can come and go as you please. Each time your dog enters Britain you have to have a wormer and a tick spray the day before administered by a veterinary surgeon. All of this has to be documented properly in your PET Passport of course. At the current time you need a minimum of 7 months (and you cannot begin the process until a dog is at least 3 months old) so its best to leave yourself around 8-9 months to make sure. Lots of people do travel in and out of Britain with their dogs without any problem, you just need to get organised in plenty of time and you will have a trouble free journey. Details of all this can be found on our government department web site.
Link to the UK Ministry site giving details of Requirements to bring a dog into
the UK
2011
So, if you make the effort to get the paperwork in order with the British government and the Kennel Club you can bring your dog to Britain as often as you like and enter at shows. If you are thinking you might visit Britain with your Bernese or just to visit a show, many people come to Crufts each year from all over the world, but you might wish to be aware of 2011. In 2011 the BMDC of GB celebrates its 40th anniversary and we are holding a big Bernese Week-end including hosting the Berner IWG meeting and an International Health seminar as well as all the normal Bernese activities and event of our Championship show week-end (see reports elsewhere on this web site). the dates are 22nd to 25th of September 2011.
(If there is other information you feel would be useful and should be on this page please let us know)
2011 Page
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