The Kennel Club has issued a response to comments made in the dog press regarding judges’ critiques, with particular reference to judges failing to provide written critiques to the press.

Following comments in our contemporary regarding compliance with the ‘judge’s critique’ regulation, the implication being that, despite complaints from exhibitors, the Kennel Club is not enforcing its regulations. The Kennel Club pointed out that it has received only a handful of reports from exhibitors on the non-publication of critiques.

When reports are not received, the KC follows a strict procedure, including contacting the judge and reminding them of the regulation and asking them to provide a copy of his/her critique. The critique is then forwarded to the exhibitor. A record is kept of those judges’ names. Should there be a second incident, the matter would then be referred to the Committee to consider whether a breach of regulation has occurred, to decide what penalty, if any, is to be imposed and whether or not the judge should be approved for future appointments to award Kennel Club Challenge Certificates.

Equally if a breed club or show society were to report a judge for the same reason, the identical process would be undertaken as described above. Currently the Kennel Club has not received any reports from clubs or societies.

The critique regulation came into being in July 2004 and whilst a small number of reports have been received, there have not yet been any repeat ‘offenders’ with the result that, to the outsider, it may appear as if the regulation is not being enforced. However the Kennel Club Office does follow up on all reports received and , there has yet to be any second offence which would require the matter to be passed to the Committee for consideration. Any sanction imposed on a judge for a breach of this regulation would be published in the Kennel Gazette.

It has been suggested that many exhibitors feel strongly about the non-publication of critiques, however this is not reflected in the number of reports received by the KC to date.

There is a wide range of penalties available to the Committee and these range from a warning to the imposition of a fine or, in certain circumstances, to an eventual withdrawal of approval to award Kennel Club Challenge Certificates.