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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,
20 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.
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