Your dog's pedigree: Understanding titles  (Go back to Goldens topic list)

When you begin to discuss getting a puppy from a breeder, he or she will often provide you with a pedigree. Your breeder should explain the relationships among the specific dogs you see, but one thing you will notice right away is that the pedigree is peppered with initials before and after the dogs' registered names. What does this alphabet soup all mean?

Countries | Conformation | Obedience & tracking | Field |Versatility | Other

Countries
It is common to find titles from more than one country in a given pedigree. Abbreviations of country names before a title indicate the country in which the title was achieved. Often the same title is gained in more than one country. For example, "Can." means Canadian title, "Am." means American, "Eng." means English, "Ber." or "Bda." means Bermuda ... you get the idea. Breeders often do not state the country in which a title was earned when they make up pedigrees unless it is different from the breeder's home country unless otherwise indicated.

Each country has one main regulatory body for purebred dogs. Dog activity in the U.S. is governed by the American Kennel Club (A.K.C.). In Canada, it's the Canadian Kennel Club (C.K.C.). These abbreviations may appear before registration numbers to indicate which body has issued that number. Dogs titled in more than one country will have registration numbers for each country in which they have competed. The U.S. has alternative organizations which issue titles, but it will usually be specified if the title or registration number is from an organization other than AKC.  (Back to top)

Conformation
There is only one title which a dog may achieve in conformation competition: that of champion (Ch.). This is a competitive title, and like championships in obedience and field, the abbreviation is placed in front of the dog's registered name. Abbreviations are often added to give more information about a dog's show career:

Note that these are NOT titles, merely a form of shorthand to pass on additional information about the dog in question.  (Back to top)

Obedience & tracking
In obedience, a dog may gain three different non-competitive titles with increasing levels of difficulty: the C.D. (Companion Dog), the C.D.X. (Companion Dog Excellent), and the U.D. (Utility Dog). Dogs must qualify three times at each level to be awarded the title. In the U.S., a U.D. does not equal an OTCh.; specific competitive criteria must be met to gain the OTCh. title. U.D.X. (Utility Dog Excellent) title is earned by qualifying in both Open and Utility at the same trial.

There are currently two non-competitive tracking titles in both the U.S. and Canada: T.D. (Tracking Dog) and T.D.X. (Tracking Dog Excellent). Tracking titles are often combined with a U.D. title when the dog has both. Thus we get U.D.T. (U.D. + T.D.) and U.D.T.X. (U.D. + T.D.X.). The Americans are in the process of adding a third tracking title to be earned in urban areas (as opposed to out in fields); at this point, I don't know what they are planning to call this title.  (Back to top)

Field
Both competitive and non-competitive titles exist in the field area. Field trials are competitive events, so the two field championships are competitive titles, placed in front of the dog's registered name: F.T.Ch. (Field Trial Champion) and A.F.T.Ch. (Amateur Field Trial Champion). In the U.S., these titles are abbreviated as F.C. and A.F.C.. If an "N." is placed before either of these titles, the dog has won the National Open or National Amateur Championship, both of which are held annually and are, as their names imply, national competitions. The designation "Dual Ch." indicates a dog which has gained both its field trial championship and its conformation championship. Dual champions are very, very rare.

A star system is used to indicate some degree of success at field trials, although these do not indicate actual titles:

*     Trial placement or Working Certificate (see below)

**    Placement or Judge's Award of Merit (JAM) in the Qualifying or Derby Stakes

***  Placement or JAM in the Open or Amateur stakes (A three-star dog is also referred to as "Qualified All-Age"

The non-competitive side of field events is seen in the working certificate tests. There are three titles in this program corresponding with three levels of increasing difficulty (similar to obedience trials): W.C. (Working Certificate), W.C.I. (Working Certificate Intermediate) and W.C.X. (Working Certificate Excellent). The dog needs to pass only one test at a given level to be awarded the title. In the U.S., only W.C. and W.C.X. levels exist, and these titles are awarded not by the AKC but by the Golden Retriever Club of America (GRCA); therefore, these titles will not appear on an AKC-certified pedigree. The AKC has its own system of non-competitive field titles where dogs must earn a number of legs at a given level to acquire the title, similar to the way obedience titles work, with the exception that as the difficulty level increases, so does the number of qualifying legs require to earn the title. The three AKC hunting titles are J.H. (Junior Hunter), S.H. (Senior Hunter) and M.H. (Master Hunter).

There are a number of other field titles awarded by such organizations as NAHRA (North American Hunting Retriever Association).  (Back to top)

Versatility
The GRCA offers a Versatility program, with two titles: V.C. (Versatility Certificate) and V.C.X. (Versatility Certificate Excellent). These titles are awarded to dogs who have achieved in the show ring, in obedience, and in the field.

Temperament Testing Associates issues Temperament Test (T.T.) certificates to those dogs who pass a series of several tests designed to measure the stability and soundness of canine temperaments. There used to be little interest in temperament tests among Golden people because everyone knew that all Goldens had wonderful temperament. Nowadays, this is unfortunately no longer true, and more people are having their Goldens temperament tested as proof that their dogs do indeed have sound temperament.  (Back to top)

Other
The national Golden Retriever clubs in the U.S. and Canada have halls of fame in the areas of conformation, obedience and field into which dogs are inducted after meeting specified criteria beyond simply gaining their title(s). Notations may appear on a pedigree indicating that a dog belongs to the Show Dog Hall of Fame (SDHF), Obedience Dog Hall of Fame (ODHF) or Field Dog Hall of Fame (FDHF).