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Finnish Dog Show Judges are well known and highly respected all over the World, as are the Finnish Showdogs. The Finnish Kennel Club has very high level of basic education of the judges and it is not easy to become a Judge in Finland. There are about 200 Dog Show Judges in the country, 19 of them are qualified for all breeds. Many visiting Judges have also praised the level of organisation of the Dog Shows in Finland. As a matter of fact, we have the biggest dog shows in Europe - and the whole world (except UK). In Finland the interest in pure-bred dogs is very strong. In a country of only five million inhabitants we have dog population of approximately half a million - and majority of these are pedigree dogs.

There are about 40 general Championship Shows for all Breeds in Finland every year and half of them have International status with CACIBs - the Helsinki Winner Show is the biggest one with an entry over 8000 dogs. In addition to this, there are about 150 smaller shows for one or two Breed Groups and also every Breed Club can have one Specialty Show for it's own Breed(s). So there is very intense show activity. The Finnish Kennel Club registers over 50 000 pure-bred dogs every year and it has about 140 000 Members.
The most popular Breed is the Labrador Retriever.

Our Society was founded 30 years ago on the 10th of February 1977 in Helsinki. The main purpose of our Society is to increase the cynological knowledge of our Members, to develop their judging skills by continuous education in the form of Judges' Conferences and Meetings. We have given several scolarships for our Members for travels to study for example a Breed in it's native country or to visit some big important shows like the World Show, Cruft's etc. We keep contact with similar organisations in other Nordic countries. We try also to protect the Judges' interests and help the Breed Clubs in their breeding programmes.

The Society works independently but on the other hand in full co-operation with the Finnish Kennel Club through developing and fulfilling the education of Judges and publishing quarterly bulletin. All the Finnish Dog Show Judges are not yet our Society Members, but on these pages you will find some of them and in the future more and more. We are trying to help the Show Organisers in other Countries to contact Finnish judges and to give you some background information on our members.