Annual Report 2016/2017

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1 Annual Report 2016/2017

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3 A message from the Chairman and Chief Executive of the Kennel Club Picture: Steven Jones / The Kennel Club This report reflects on another busy year in the life of the Kennel Club and one which has been productive in many different ways. The Kennel Club is in a good shape financially and the Board now manages a significant asset base. We are now settled in our new London home and are eagerly anticipating the completion of our new Aylesbury offices with a view to moving our Operations Centre towards the end of the summer. Aylesbury is key to our success as it is from there that the majority of our revenue is generated; this revenue enables us to do all that we do for dogs. The illustrations on pages 36 and 37 show where our money comes from and where it goes in support of our strategic objectives. However, we will all surely agree that the most important work we undertake is in relation to the health and well-being of dogs. Consequently, we have highlighted this in a booklet entitled What the Kennel Club does for dog health; it makes impressive reading and is of great pride to us. We are absolutely committed to continuing and expanding this work in the future. We have much to look forward to not least a conference of international Kennel Club representatives who will join us at the end of June to discuss many of the subjects which affect dogs and owners. So many of the issues we deal with affect the world of dogs as a whole and we hope that we can all gain a broader understanding from each other. We hope that you enjoy reading this report as much as our team enjoyed producing it. With our best wishes. Simon Luxmoore Chairman Rosemary Smart Chief Executive

4 What does the Kennel Club do for...? All dog owners and dogs Everything that the Kennel Club does is, ultimately, done for the good of dogs. This in turn brings great benefit to the people whose lives are enriched by man s best friend. This report focuses on the many ways that our work helps humans and dogs, including: The Kennel Club website provides a wealth of information backed up by the Kennel Club team for all dog owners, from choosing the right breed, to caring for and training their dog Our external affairs team lobbies government on behalf of all dogs and dog owners the issues surrounding dogs apply no matter whether they are KC registered or not The KC Dog Owners Group operates with the specific intention of protecting the right of all dog owners to walk their dogs in public parks and the countryside 04 The Kennel Club

5 Our health work has benefits for all breeds and all dogs, whether purebred or crossbreed The KC Building at Stoneleigh is available for all to make use of alongside the many seminars and events held The Bark & Read programme supports those who take their dogs into schools to encourage children to read The Good Citizen Dog Training Scheme and Kennel Club Accredited Instructors enable all dog owners to access regulated trainers and training classes The Kennel Club provides a microchip database service enabling us to reunite thousands of dogs and other missing pets with their owners each year Potential dog owners can have confidence when buying a puppy from an Assured Breeder supported and regulated by the Kennel Club The KC Library, Art Gallery and the Art Collection are available for all to enjoy, including overseas visitors and those who simply have an interest in dogs Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs give everyone the opportunity to learn about all aspects of dog choice, care and training Safe & Sound provides encouragement to all children to behave in a way which will keep them safe around dogs The Kennel Club Charitable Trust provides support in many areas benefiting owners not least in the training of assistance dogs for the disabled, deaf and blind and dogs, through support for health research and welfare organisations Picture: Michael Rogers / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

6 What we do for... Puppy Buyers Kennel Club Registration The Kennel Club recorded the birth of more than 227,500 puppies in Helping prospective owners find the right one for them is a key part of our work. Our website has a Find a Puppy service which test results. Breeders joining the scheme The Assured Breeder supports puppy buyers looking for a Kennel Club commit to meeting and maintaining registered dog and provides top listing to those dogs high standards to better the health bred by members of the Assured Breeder Scheme. This and welfare of their puppies and service was used nearly 8 million times during 2016, an breeding stock. Assured Breeders increase of 12.5% on the previous year, with more than are required to provide buyers a million searches for Labrador Retriever puppies alone. with a Puppy Information Pack Despite huge interest in our Find A Puppy service, the containing guidance to assist number of Kennel Club registered puppies does not them with the ongoing care and come anywhere near the demand. socialisation of their puppy. They undertake to provide post-sales help and advice and, in the unfortunate event that a puppy buyer can no longer care for their puppy, will assume responsibility for rehoming. Agria Pet Insurance has collated data over the past decade and analysis shows that buying from an Assured Breeder increases a puppy buyer s chance of acquiring a healthier dog. On average, people who buy from an Assured Breeder spend nearly 20% less in vet bills throughout the lifetime of a dog compared to those who don t buy from one. Our website also features a dedicated Breed Information Centre, which acts as a one stop shop for prospective puppy buyers to find out about all 217 recognised pedigree breeds. This includes information on exercise and grooming needs, recommended health tests, breed club contacts, Kennel Club Assured Breeders, breed standards and breed rescues. Assured Breeder Scheme Assured Breeders must allow buyers to view puppies with their mother, in the environment that they were reared, so that they are able to make an assessment of the puppy s upbringing and likely temperament. The Find an Assured Breeder service allows access to a list of Assured Breeders across all breeds, regardless of whether they currently have puppies for sale, encouraging buyers to wait for puppies from Assured Breeders to become available. This service saw 1.9 million searches carried out in The ABS currently has about 6,000 members who produced almost 3,000 litters (more than 17,500 puppies) in Buyers can also make use of the Kennel Club s online health resources (see page 9) to look up the health information that is available for every dog registered on our breed register, such as their health Scheme promotes good breeding practice and provides puppy buyers with an easily identifiable route to obtaining a puppy from a responsible breeder. Picture: Sharron Burns / The Kennel Club 06 The Kennel Club

7 Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs The Kennel Club s two biggest annual events, Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs, act as the ideal showcase to educate potential puppy buyers on how to choose the right dog for their circumstances and lifestyle, and how to go about buying a dog the right way. Eukanuba Discover Dogs is centred around some 200 individual breed booths which give visitors the opportunity to meet a wide variety of different pedigree dogs and find out about each from experienced owners. This is also one of the most popular features of Crufts with visitors, and research shows that many people looking to buy a dog visit these two shows specifically to find the right dog for them. #3 French Bulldog 21,470 #6 Bulldog 7,785 #1 Labrador Retriever 33,856 #7 German Shepherd 7,751 Top Ten Breeds 2016 #4 Pug 10,408 #8 Golden Retriever 7,232 #2 Cocker Spaniel 21,856 #9 Miniature Schnauzer 5,437 #5 English Springer Spaniel 9,827 #10 Border Terrier 5,150 Picture: Claudio Piccoli / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

8 What we do for... Breeders Picture: Claudio Piccoli / The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme Our ABS recognises and rewards good breeding practice and aims to work with breeders and puppy buyers to force irresponsible breeders out of business. Assured Breeders are required to allow the Kennel Club s trained Regional Breeder Assessors to visit their premises to conduct an inspection and a review of their husbandry practices and breeding records. For those scheme members who are new to breeding, this offers an opportunity to seek guidance and advice to develop their breeding programme, and for established members it is an opportunity to discuss any issues or ideas face to face. Our team conducted more than 900 assessment visits during 2016, which included initial assessments to new joiners and return visits to existing members, as all Assured Breeders must be visited at least every three years. Assured Breeders benefit from a range of discounts, including reduced-price puppy registration and free advertisements on the Kennel Club Find a Puppy online service. The Kennel Club has introduced new membership levels, including sole membership, additional membership and supporter membership. The latter is ideal for those people who are considering breeding as they can obtain the various discounts and benefits of membership, but more importantly, they can be guided and supported in order to adopt good practice from the very start. A non breeding discount has also been introduced for those Assured Breeders who have not registered a litter in the previous 12-month period, and they will receive a 15 discount on their annual renewal fee. The Kennel Club believes that responsible dog breeding is the cornerstone on which the health and welfare of dogs is built, and has many schemes and resources dedicated to help dog breeders give every puppy the start in life that it needs. Online Tools We have a service called MyKC which allows breeders and owners to create a personalised homepage that is linked, via their dogs, to our extensive pedigree database. This allows the account holder to view their dog s heritage, including any siblings or offspring and offers easy access to our online health tools. There are now more than 200,000 MyKC accounts registered, with over 36,000 activated in In 2016, the Kennel Club registered more than 227,500 puppies, an increase of 3.5% from Of these, 70% were transferred into new ownership when sold to puppy buyers. The ability of breeders and new owners to carry out both registrations and transfers online through MyKC continues to grow in popularity, with 81% and 85% respectively of transactions completed using this method. 08 The Kennel Club

9 Health Resources The Kennel Club, in conjunction with the British Veterinary Association (BVA), runs screening schemes for a range of inherited diseases, including hip and elbow dysplasia, eye disease, chiari malformation and syringomyelia. These four BVA/ KC Canine Health Schemes enable breeders to make informed breeding decisions, with the aim of reducing the incidence of health issues in future generations. We have an online health resource, Mate Select, which has a range of free services to help dog breeders make informed breeding decisions. Mate Select provides breeders, puppy buyers and owners with an opportunity to look up the health information that is available for every dog registered on our breed register. Mate Select includes a facility to check a dog s available health test/screening results (Health Test Results Finder), a resource to help breeders avoid inbreeding (Inbreeding Co-efficient Calculator), and a service to assess the degree to which a dog may have inherited, or pass on, the genes associated with hip and elbow dysplasia (Estimated Breeding Values). The Mate Select website was visited more than 1,800,000 times in 2016, with the Inbreeding Co-efficient Calculator used nearly 200,000 times over the same period. In 2016, we launched two new areas on our website to help dog breeders further their understanding of canine genetics and to support them in their use of health resources and health test and screening scheme results. These new areas comprise a breeding advice section and an understanding canine genetics area. The Kennel Club currently has 61 official DNA testing schemes for 67 pedigree dog breeds and each involves collaborative work between the Kennel Club, the breed clubs and DNA testing facilities. Under all of these schemes, the breeder/owner agrees for the result of their DNA-tested dog to be sent independently to the Kennel Club by the testing laboratory. There are now nine laboratories that we recognise. The DNA tests used in official testing schemes can accurately identify clear, carrier and affected dogs, and can be used by breeders to effectively eliminate undesirable disease genes in their stock. Test results were recorded and freely published for 7,271 tested dogs in Picture: David McKellar / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

10 Breed Health and Conservation Plans In 2016, we launched the initial research phase of a dynamic new resource aimed at breed clubs and individual breeders the Breed Health and Conservation Plans (BHCP) Project. The purpose of this new project is to ensure that the health concerns of each recognised pedigree breed is identified through evidence-based criteria. From this plan, breeders will be provided with useful information and resources to support them in making balanced breeding decisions that make health a priority. Each breed s BHCP report will be the foundation by which canine health can be improved. Initially, 17 key priority breeds will be provided with a report, with the remaining breeds subsequently having a report. Picture: Dave Boys / The Kennel Club Kennel Club Academy Picture: Rachel Bradshaw / The Kennel Club The Kennel Club Academy is an online resource which offers a series of free films that cover topics on breeding considerations, such as understanding inheritance, health testing and how to maximise the chances of producing healthy offspring, whelping, pregnancy and rearing puppies. All of the films on the Academy have been developed by experts in their field and offer users an insight into their knowledge and experience. National Canine Health Testing Week We have an annual National Canine Health Testing Week to raise awareness of the importance of breeding and buying puppies from appropriately health-tested and health-screened parents. The campaign focusses on promoting health testing to breeders and highlighting the tools available to them in making health-related breeding decisions, and providing information for puppy buyers to ask the right questions before buying a dog. During the awareness week in 2016, the Kennel Club celebrated the 50th anniversary of the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme by launching a social media campaign asking owners to show their support of eye testing by taking and sharing images of how their dogs see the world. 10,455 dogs were screened for known inherited eye conditions 4,176 dogs were screened for elbow dysplasia 7,541 dogs were screened for hip dysplasia 10 The Kennel Club

11 What we do for... Scientific Research The Kennel Club supports a wide range of scientific work to improve purebred dog health, with funding also supplied by the Kennel Club Charitable Trust (KCCT). In 2016, the Kennel Club Charitable Trust donated more than 520,000 to aid with scientific research. The biggest beneficiary of this KCCT funding is the Kennel Club Genetics Centre (KCGC) at the Animal Health Trust (AHT), which develops simple mouth-swab screening tests to determine affected, carrier and clear dogs. Together with breeding advice and our online resources, these improve the health and welfare of generations of dogs. In 2016, the AHT tested more than 8,000 dogs for a wide range of disease mutations, and towards the end of the year its DNA-testing service took over the Kennel Club s DNA profiling service. Last year, the KCGC launched its Give a Dog a Genome project and by the end of 2017 the whole genome of at least 75 breeds will have been sequenced, to create the largest canine genome bank in the UK. Diseases to be investigated using these genome sequences include progressive retinal atrophy, glaucoma and epilepsy. The KCGC also launched its first DNA test that was developed using whole genome sequencing in This was a DNA test for cerebellar ataxia in the Hungarian Vizsla; the Centre sequenced the genome of a single affected dog and compared it to the genomes of just 13 dogs of other breeds to pinpoint the genetic mutation responsible for the disease. Also based at the AHT and funded by the KCCT, the Kennel Club Cancer Centre helps pets to receive the latest treatment and invests in ways to better understand cancer, as well as helping educate veterinary surgeons treating canine cancer patients. Knowledge learned within the cancer centre feeds into research, helping to improve tests used to detect tumours at an early stage, or predict how a cancer may behave and respond to treatment. The Kennel Club manages the Bio-Acquisition Research Collaboration (BARC) which is an online research exchange, bringing together researchers, dog owners and veterinary clinicians. Researchers are able to post requests on to the BARC webpage for biological samples, such as blood or DNA from a cheek swab to aid their research. BARC then alerts veterinarians and dog owners of the research and how they can get involved. In the last three years, the Kennel Club has promoted 45 separate research projects via BARC. We utilise our registration database to contact registered owners of particular breeds, asking for them to participate in scientific research. This may involve completing a survey, requesting a cheek swab, or asking owners of dogs suffering from particular conditions to get in contact. In addition to assisting with scientific research, the Kennel Club also s owners to help to promote breed club health survey participation. In 2016, the Kennel Club ed more than 610,000 dog owners and breeders to promote 21 different independent health surveys, research projects and health clinics. We also have a journal dedicated to the health of all canine species called Canine Genetics and Epidemiology. This is an openaccess resource for the whole dog health community, and makes newly emerging genetic research more accessible to professionals and lay-persons, both in the UK and internationally. In 2016, the journal published nine articles, which were accessed more than 25,000 times. Picture: Kevin Parker / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

12 What we do for... Vets The Kennel Club has forged links with the veterinary profession over many years, to further improve the health and welfare of dogs. We manage four canine health schemes in conjunction with the BVA, which assess the quality of dogs hips, elbows and eyes, as well as measuring chiari-like malformation/syringomyelia in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and other breeds. The Kennel Club recorded more than 22,000 health results in 2016, including almost 10,500 hip test scores and over 7,500 elbow grading results, both significantly increased in comparison to Each year, we exhibit at BSAVA Congress to promote canine health schemes, in-house research, health resources and services provided. More than 1,000 bags containing updated information guides, breed posters and other Kennel Club materials are given away over the four days. To further communications with the veterinary community, each year the Kennel Club invites all veterinary students from around the UK to attend Crufts for free. Those who attended are given the opportunity to listen to talks on relevant topics. In 2017, nearly 800 veterinary students from all eight veterinary schools in the UK attended Crufts, with 350 of them given the opportunity to attend dedicated lectures on brachycephalic health. A Brachycephalic Breeds Working Group was set up in 2016, led by the Kennel Club and working alongside the BVA, BSAVA, RVC and the Cambridge University Department of Veterinary Medicine, as well as Dogs Trust and RSPCA. The aim of the group is to raise awareness of brachycephalic health issues and to encourage companies not to use such dogs in their advertising campaigns. As part of Kennel Club registration, the owners of all registered dogs give their consent to the reporting of any caesarean operation carried out on their bitch. The consent of the owner releases the veterinary surgeon from the professional obligation to maintain confidentiality. By recording this data, the Kennel Club can help to deter breeders from breeding from animals where whelping routinely relies on caesareans and to assist in determining prevalence and monitor changes and trends to support health and welfare. We have a free quarterly e-newsletter called The Kennel Scope and this keeps veterinarians up to date with the latest health information and resources available. This interactive newsletter provides links that direct readers to useful websites, information and articles. In 2017, nearly 800 veterinary students from all eight veterinary schools in the UK attended Crufts. 12 The Kennel Club

13 What we do for... Breed Health Co-ordinators Picture: Milan Krajkovic / The Kennel Club To promote breed specific health, the Kennel Club encourages registered breed clubs and councils to work together to nominate a dedicated Breed Health Co-ordinator to work with us as advocates for the health and welfare of their chosen breed. Each co-ordinator acts as a spokesperson on matters of health and collaborates with us on any health concerns the breed may have. We assist them within this role by offering them the tools and resources to help promote and improve the health of their breed where necessary. We run a free annual seminar for Breed Health Co-ordinators to help them overcome problems they may encounter in their role, and the 2016 symposium was attended by around 90 representatives. The Kennel Club has created several online toolkits to help co-ordinators develop and promote the health of their breeds. These include a health strategy guide, breed health survey toolkit, website content and the website enhancement toolkit a guide to common problems encountered by co-ordinators and how to resolve them. The latest addition in 2016 was a guide to managing the arrival of a new DNA test within a breed. In 2016, we launched an award to show recognition and highlight the work carried out by co-ordinators. Breed clubs and councils were invited to nominate their breed s representative for the award and a shortlist of five candidates was chosen by an expert panel. The winner was Liz Branscombe, Breed Health Co-ordinator for the Flat-Coated Retriever, and she and the other finalists were invited to a special lunch at the Kennel Club where the winner was presented with her award by Kennel Club Chairman, Simon Luxmoore. Last year we also launched a process for collecting breed health information by asking co-ordinators to complete a brief annual breed health report via an online survey. We received reports for 170 breeds, of which just over 100 listed up to three current health or welfare concerns. The most commonly listed breed concerns were epilepsy/seizure (24 breeds), unspecified cancers (17) and Progressive Retinal Atrophy (15). Breed clubs are tackling these concerns in many different ways, such as engaging in research, conducting their own surveys and producing educational materials. There were 29 breeds which held dedicated health seminars in 2016, 107 produced newsletters promoting health awareness, 42 produced leaflets and 79 breeds stated that they used other forms of communication to raise awareness of health and welfare concerns within the last year. Annual Report 2016/

14 Picture: Sally Masson / The Kennel Club What we do for... International Dog Health The Kennel Club plays a key part in leading collaborative efforts which support the health and welfare of dogs on an international stage. We are a founding partner and provide the secretariat to the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD), an international organisation which aims to encourage co-operation, collaboration and sharing of information and resources within the global dog community through its website, In January 2017, the IPFD announced an initiative called the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs, to support the appropriate selection and use of DNA testing in dog health and breeding decisions. This aims to meet the growing need for a neutral organisation that can provide guidance surrounding test reliability, laboratory quality assurance processes and procedures, test applicability by breed, and provide counselling regarding interpretation and best use of genetic test results. This project is being managed by a former member of Kennel Club staff. The Kennel Club was well represented at the 3rd International Dog Health Workshop, which was organised by the IPFD and held in Paris in April The event brought together key decision leaders and diverse stakeholders from across the world, in order to share information about the important work done since the last workshop in We run the annual International Canine Health Awards through the Kennel Club Charitable Trust, underwritten by a major gift from Vernon and Shirley Hill, founders of Metro Bank. The awards highlight the importance of collaborative research to dog health, with awards for both achievements and new projects provided to academics at all levels. The awards welcome nominations from across the globe and also encourage the work of British students and scientists at the early stages of their careers. The Kennel Club will play host to a major world congress of kennel clubs from all across the globe in June 2017, with more than 50 delegates confirmed to attend. The two-day event will feature several talks from leading UK experts and international figures on a range of topics across the world of dogs. 14 The Kennel Club

15 Dog Show Promotion Working Party What we do for... Dog Showing We have a Dog Show Promotion Working Party which is looking at ways in which shows can be improved upon in order to retain existing exhibitors and attract new ones. The working party met five times in 2016, with the main subjects of discussion being to allow those judges not on the B list to judge up to four classes of a breed at open shows, with the proviso that one of those classes is a puppy class. These changes were announced in November 2016, and the working party believes that they will encourage open shows to schedule puppy classes and give exhibitors with new puppies the option to start at local open shows. This will also provide open shows with an opportunity to tailor their classifications to target both new puppies and new exhibitors, while at the same time increasing entries and offering exhibitors more opportunities to show their puppies. Extended consultation on the open show scene has taken place over the past year. Representatives from the Scottish Kennel Club and Welsh Kennel Club, as well as representatives from Dog World and Our Dogs were all invited to meet the working party to put forward their views, thoughts and improvements that could be made. The Kennel Club also announced that the suspension of the beaten dog regulation would be extended for another year, and the working party will be using this time to formalise the suspension. All general and group championship show societies were invited to a meeting in February 2016, the aim of which was to run through the impact of the allocation of Challenge Certificates from and the introduction of all-breed status, and discussion also included a number of other topics. A meeting with the six new all-breed championship show societies was then held, and items discussed included how monitoring the shows would work, engaging the local community, and how to enhance the exhibitors experience, retain existing exhibitors and encourage new exhibitors. We introduced a new Find a Dog Show online service in late 2016, so that exhibitors no longer need to call or to find shows in their area. Dog shows are integral to the Kennel Club s work and the past year has seen significant work to enhance the experience of show societies and exhibitors, and support judges in their important role. Picture: Chris Hughes / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

16 What we do for... Judges The Kennel Club has several initiatives in place to help ensure that dog show judges have all the support and training they need to only reward healthy dogs in the show ring. The online Kennel Club Academy was launched in 2016, and contains several learning resources for judges such as practice exercises, educational learning materials, and a growing library of breed-specific films, with experts in the breed giving their view of the breed. The information provided in the Judges Education area on the Academy aims to encourage aspiring and established judges to attend seminars and assessments delivered by Kennel Club Accredited Trainers. These seminars explain the importance of the role of the dog show judge and provide information on Kennel Club regulations and judging procedures, making it easier for new and current judges to keep up to date. The online learning resources provide valuable pre-course learning. The breed-specific films featured on the Academy are a learning resource for judges and others with an interest in the featured breeds. The Kennel Club Training Board is keen to develop this area into an online library of films with multiple films for a breed. The Kennel Club s Educational Trust has agreed to contribute funds to help breed clubs and councils that wish to develop their own breed-specific film. Almost 2,000 judges have activated accounts on the Academy, with more than 200 of these subscribing to the Kennel Club s Judges Education Programme. There is an Aspiring Judges Training Programme currently in development, which will be supported by the Academy. The Kennel Club has introduced several measures to support judges of German Shepherd dogs in particular over the past year, including amendments to the characteristics clause of the breed standard and developing a course on ring procedures at shows which is now available on the Academy. A multiple-choice exam is also available and a pass is required for all those awarding Challenge Certificates from 2018 onwards. Following a vote by Kennel Club members in May 2016 to end the agreement held between the FCI and the Kennel Club regarding the mutual recognition of judges, the agreement was terminated. In order to protect the interests of UK judges, a new agreement was drawn up and was signed at Crufts Picture: Sue Milligan / The Kennel Club 16 The Kennel Club

17 What we do for... Dog Activities Picture: Hugo Stephens / The Kennel Club The Kennel Club supports a number of competitive activities in addition to dog showing. The newest one, canicross, became a recognised discipline in July Canicross is a fun and energetic activity that brings together dogs and their owners to complete cross-country races. The dog takes the front spot from start to finish with the handler calling directions from behind, and the pair are connected via a two-metre bungee line attached to a waist belt on the handler. Similarly fast-paced but far more established is agility. We held our annual International Agility Festival at Rockingham Castle, Leicestershire in August 2016, sponsored by CSJ Specialist Canine Feeds. Almost 3,000 dogs took part, representing 17 different countries. We once again organised the Agility Stakes Finals at Olympia, The London International Horse Show in December 2016, supported by Skinner s pet foods. The prestigious Olympia event provides an excellent opportunity for the Kennel Club to promote fit and healthy dogs to a large audience. We also oversee the management of Agility Team GB which competed at the European Open Agility Championships in France in July 2016 and the FCI World Agility Championships in Spain in October. The Kennel Club introduced new regulations in agility in July 2016 to make it more inclusive for all dogs. A new lower height option allows the jump heights for each competition size to be 10cm lower than the full height, which allows smaller dogs within a specific height category to jump slightly lower jumps so they can continue competing at Kennel Club shows. For gundog enthusiasts, we licensed more than 700 field trials in the last 12 months, including events organised by the Kennel Club itself, as well as five breed championships. We organised the 87th Cocker Spaniel Championships and the Hunt, Point & Retrieve Championship. The Kennel Club Gundog Working Test, sponsored by Eukanuba, was held once again at Chatsworth, with the two-day International Team Test for Retrievers also being held as part of the event. We held several gundog training days throughout the year at various venues across the country. These popular events are an excellent opportunity for handlers to gain valuable experience with some of the best gundog trainers in the country, which shows in the increase in entries seen year on year. The Kennel Club addressed health and welfare concerns within obedience with a regulation change to emphasise that dogs should work in a natural and happy manner. The change is to ensure that a dog s head position while working obedience is not compromising its topline or impairing the natural movement of the dog. Since its inception as a Kennel Club activity in 2012, the sport of rally has grown in popularity. The first rally competition at Crufts took place in March 2017, with the inaugural Inter-Regional Rally Competition. Dogs from seven areas of the UK competed against each other in this team event, with the Wales team taking first place. The Kennel Club Working Trials Championships were organised on behalf of the Kennel Club by Iceni Dog Training Club in October 2016 in Colchester, Essex. Towards the end of 2016, we launched a new Find a Dog Show ( service aimed at anyone looking to attend Kennel Club licensed events throughout the UK. This is also a useful tool for society secretaries who wish to look up show, trial and competition dates. Our Venues In addition to its premises in London and Aylesbury, we manage a purpose-built show and events venue at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire and a large outdoor estate at Emblehope, Northumberland. During 2016 works were undertaken at the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh to improve the heating and thermal efficiency of the halls with the installation of solar panels. A new car park has been created to allow show officials/committee and disabled visitors to park closer to the building. The building welcomed around 77,500 visitors for activities it hosted in 2016, which included more than 100 dog shows and thriceweekly training sessions for the Leamington Dog Training Club. A range of external organisations made use of the facility, including the likes of Dogs for Good, and we supported the local community church by hosting the caninefriendly Christmas carol service! Emblehope Estate was purchased by the Kennel Club as an investment into working dog activities and all those who enjoy them. The estate extends to around 7,550 acres, comprising about 136 acres of in-bye land, about 7,012 acres of upland grazing and about 395 acres of woodlands. The estate held its first event, the Bloodhound Club Championship Trials at the end of February 2017 over a four-day period. The land proved to be just what was required for the hounds and the event was a great success. Our team has been working hard over the last year to get the estate ready for its official opening in September of this year. Annual Report 2016/

18 What we do to... Promote Dogs Crufts We organise and manage Crufts, the world s greatest dog show, which welcomed a record attendance of 162,065 over four days in March The show took place at the NEC, Birmingham, with Eukanuba as its principal sponsor. Around 26,500 dogs took part in many activities at the event, which was broadcast across four nights on Channel 4 with the remaining coverage on More4. A record 11½ hours of coverage was broadcast from the show, with a total of 10.3 million people watching the broadcasts; more than 2.7 million watched live on Sunday evening. Almost 21,700 dogs were entered in the breed classes, including almost 3,500 dogs from 55 overseas countries a record international entry. Two new breeds the Jack Russell Terrier and the Great Swiss Mountain Dog competed in their own breed classes for the first time. This year s Best in Show award was chosen by Jeff Horswell, and went to an American Cocker Spaniel called Miami (Sh Ch Afterglow Miami Ink), handled by Jason Lynn from Lancashire and owned jointly with Rui da Silva. The Reserve award went to a Miniature Poodle, Frankie (Ch Minarets Best Kept Secret), owned by Melanie Harwood. Crufts hosted the Eukanuba World Challenge for the first time. Now in its tenth year, this was the first time the competition had been held in the UK. The competition featured more than 30 top dogs from across five continents and was won by a Maltese, Ch Cinecitta Ian Somerhalder, representing Italy. The Kennel Club Vulnerable British and Irish Breeds competition at the show was judged by Stuart Plane and won by a Smooth Collie called Petra (Ch Clingstone s Hot Shot at Foxearth), owned by Trevor and Birgit Hayward. The Eukanuba Friends for Life competition, which recognises and rewards the remarkable relationships between dogs and their owners, is decided by a public vote. It was won by Bowser, a Bull Terrier who saved the life of his owner Sally Deegan, who has multiple sclerosis and suffered a relapse and had passed out at home. Bowser attracted the attention of Sally s husband who found Sally unconscious and alerted medical help in time to save her. The Scruffts Family Crossbreed of the Year competition, sponsored by James Wellbeloved and run by the Kennel Club, caters exclusively for crossbreed dogs, was won by Biscuit, a German Shepherd Dog/Border Collie cross owned by 14 year-old YKC member, Joshua King from Prestatyn, Denbighshire. All of the activities in the main Arena throughout the show were streamed live and free on the Crufts YouTube Channel, with videos of this and past years shows available to view at Our two major annual shows, Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs, offer dog lovers the opportunity to share in celebrations of the special relationship between humans and dogs and the many varied roles which dogs perform across society.

19 Eukanuba Discover Dogs Eukanuba Discover Dogs is our second largest event, and takes place annually in London to promote choice, care and training when buying and looking after a dog. The 2016 event, which is title-sponsored by Eukanuba, was the 21st in the show s history and the second to be held at ExCeL London. The event proved extremely popular and attracted more than 26,000 visitors, including the Kennel Club s President, HRH Prince Michael of Kent who attended the show for the second year running. The focus of the show was to help potential dog owners choose the right dog for their lifestyle and offer advice on how to go about buying a dog the right way; and for those already with dogs in the family, provide tips on how best to enjoy a long, happy life together through training, competing and fun. At the heart of the show were nearly 200 individual breed booths which give visitors the opportunity to meet a wide variety of different pedigree dogs and find out about each from experienced owners. The Main Ring hosted an array of competitions, including agility, heelwork to music and flyball, as well as the final of the prestigious UK Junior Handler of the Year competition and the semi-finals of the Junior Warrant Winner of the Year competition. Among the other competitions held at the show were the semi-finals of the Scruffts Family Crossbreed Dog of the Year competition, sponsored by James Wellbeloved and the Companion Dog Club competition finals, which demonstrate the Kennel Club s commitment to all dogs, whether pedigree or crossbreed. Annual Report 2016/

20 What we do for... Dog Training Good Citizen Dog Scheme We encourage dog owners to train their dogs through our Good Citizen Dog Scheme (GCDS), which is the country s largest dog training programme. The GCDS celebrated its 25th anniversary at Crufts 2017, having been founded at the show back in Good Citizen Dog Training Scheme cumulative passes to end of ,245 The scheme promotes responsible dog ownership through the training of dogs and education of their owners, and offers four levels of achievement Puppy Foundation, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Since its inception, nearly 600,000 pass certificates have been awarded and there are almost 1,800 organisations running the scheme across the UK and in several countries overseas. We offer special show classes at Crufts for dogs which have been awarded at least their Bronze award, and these continue to be popular, attracting more than 1,300 entries in Also popular was the final of the GCDS Pre-Beginners Obedience Stakes which included a specific competition for Young Kennel Club members. GCDS classes were held at nine other major Championship shows during 2016 and GCDS testing was made available at 14 Championship shows over the year, with more than 150 dogs passing their Bronze award and helping raise funds for the Kennel Club Charitable Trust in the process. Following the success of the inaugural event the previous year, a GCDS Supermatch competition was held in December 2016 at the Kennel Club Building at Stoneleigh. Bryn, a Welsh Springer Spaniel owned by Simon and Deborah Jenkins from Pontyclun, Mid Glamorgan competed against more than 70 other dogs which had won GCDS breed classes throughout the previous year, in a series of knockout rounds, and was declared Best in Match. Run alongside the GCDS, the Kennel Club s Safe and Sound scheme aims to promote safe interaction between children and dogs for the protection of both. This scheme continues to attract great interest from schools. Puppy Foundation Assessment 82,707 Silver Passes 223,523 Bronze Passes 38,140 Gold Passes 20 The Kennel Club

21 Dog training is at the heart of a successful relationship between dogs and their owners. The Kennel Club supports this through running the UK s largest dog training scheme and by offering a nationally recognised qualification to those who teach dog training. Kennel Club Accredited Instructors The Kennel Club recognises that there are a large number of people offering dog training in the UK and promotes a quality standard to help dog owners identify whether a person has the appropriate qualifications to undertake this. The Kennel Club Accredited Instructors scheme (KCAI) is the only scheme in the UK for dog training instructors that is externally verified by City and Guilds the UK s leading awarding organisation in the land-based sector encompassing animal care. There are almost 900 members of the scheme training towards this qualification, with more than 90 fully accredited members. There are a wide range of accreditation disciplines available to instructors, with the most popular ones being those in Companion Dogs, the Good Citizen Dog Scheme and Rescue and Rehoming. Following a review of the scheme in 2016, changes were made to the accreditation application process to provide members with a more accessible route to accreditation whilst still maintaining the scheme s rigorous and robust standards. The anticipated increase in demand for accreditation is expected to lead to a much wider and more accessible choice of competent and qualified dog training instructors and canine behaviourists for dog owners. Many KCAI scheme members chose to take their first steps towards accreditation through the Kennel Club Academy during This online route to accreditation proved very popular with 45 % of members successfully completing at least one or more of the scheme s online assessments during the year. Seventy members have successfully completed all of the online assessments, and are well on their way to achieving accreditation and becoming Kennel Club Accredited Instructors in the next year. Crufts 2017 played host to the KCAI Trainer of the Year ceremony, which is now in its third year. Kennel Club Accredited Instructor, Martha Brindley from Ayrshire won the award which recognises dog training instructors who have made a positive difference to the lives of dog owners and their dogs. Annual Report 2016/

22 The Kennel Club supports young dog lovers through the Young Kennel Club (YKC), which is for those aged from The YKC covers many aspects of education and training and its mission is to engage and support young people within all dog-related activities by providing an enjoyable, challenging and rewarding programme centred on the love of dogs. What we do for... Young Dog Lovers The majority of the YKC s work is focused around providing opportunities for young people to train and compete nationwide with their dogs. The YKC held six successful training days during 2016, which not only provided excellent training opportunities for members, but also developed the skills of older members by inviting them as trainers, photographers and organisers at these events. Eleven training days/events have been arranged for 2017, with the first three of the year selling out already. The YKC Outstanding Young Person of the Year was awarded at Crufts 2017 and was won by 15 year-old Daisy Buckland, who suffers with selective mutism and Asperger syndrome, but who has battled to overcome this through competing in agility with her Border Terrier, Charlie. Last year s YKC Handler of the Year, Antonia Leech, represented the UK at the World Dog Show in Moscow in June 2016 and was awarded runner-up in the junior handling competition. This achievement was the first time in 18 years that a UK representative has been placed and the very first time that a handler put forward by YKC had been placed. The 2017 YKC Handler of the Year was awarded at Crufts 2017 and was won by Georgia Brown, aged 16, and her English Springer Spaniel, Toby. YKC members are offered numerous events and competitions in which to qualify for Crufts, and they were also given the chance to represent YKC Agility Team GB at the European Open Junior Championships in Slovakia in The team won two overall bronze medals after competing at the event for the first time. 22 The Kennel Club

23 What we do for... Dog Walkers The Kennel Club works to protect the rights of dog walkers to access open spaces around the UK through our KC Dog initiative, in the face of threats of increased restrictions. Over the past year we have continued to respond to an increasing number of proposed Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs), which impact where dog walkers could exercise their pets. We have helped several local dog-walking groups which were formed as a result of their local authority consulting on PSPOs which would have potentially had a negative effect, and we have also helped local authorities think of better ways to encourage responsible dog ownership. Although in the majority of instances KC Dog is successful in ensuring PSPOs are reasonable, some local authorities fail to take our advice. For this reason, we held a KC Dog event in Parliament in October 2016 to launch a report raising the ever-increasing challenges some dog walkers face to access local land for exercising their dogs, and offer solutions. We invited affected dog owners to share their stories with decision makers at every level from within local authorities, to the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Home Office the government department ultimately responsible for introducing PSPOs. The report received an overwhelmingly positive response from media outlets and from the LGA and the Home Office, who both committed to review their guidance on PSPOs issued to local authorities. We are now working with the Home Office on the review, which should support much of the advice KC Dog offers to local authorities; i.e. about adopting the least-restrictive approach for dog walkers and targeting irresponsible dog owners, as opposed to penalising the majority of responsible ones, when issuing PSPOs. At the end of 2016, the Kennel Club achieved a momentous win in our challenge to a Private Bill proposed by the City of London, which would have given them the ability to impose restrictions on dog walkers access to huge swathes of land without being subject to any local scrutiny. This was the first time we had been involved in challenging a Private Bill and we were delighted that we were successful, and that the MPs present at our hearing agreed that the proposals put forward by the City of London lacked the necessary transparency to safeguard the rights of dog owners. As a result the Bill must be significantly amended. Annual Report 2016/

24 Picture: A Hurst / The Kennel Club What we do for... Dog Owners Rights The Kennel Club lobbies at a local, national and international level on a wide range of issues on behalf of dogs and dog owners. Issues include breeding regulations, dog health, the dog-meat trade, electric shock training devices, puppy farming, dog walkers rights, dangerous dogs, education, pet advertising, and animal testing. We offer support and advice to Defra and animal welfare teams in Scotland and Wales as well as government committees, through regular meetings, written correspondence and input into committee inquiries. In England, Defra s proposed new dog breeding regulations remain under review, with the litter licensing threshold set to be reduced to three litters. We broadly support this and we are currently campaigning for the Assured Breeder Scheme to be formally recognised as being low risk and therefore subject to less frequent inspections and lower licensing fees, with our staff carrying out inspections and sharing relevant information with the local authority. In order to achieve this, we outlined our vision for licensing to more than 100 delegates at an animal welfare conference, and held our first ever surgery session at Crufts, allowing for Assured Breeders to share their views with the government minister responsible. In Wales, we arranged a programme of meetings to discuss updated Welsh breeding regulations with Assembly Members, who have been kept up to date with work being done in this area with English local authorities. Our campaign against electric shock collars has focussed on Scotland over the past year, resulting in the Scottish Minister s announcement that the use of electric pulse, sonic and spray collars will be prohibited, unless under the guidance of an approved trainer or vet. As a member of the Greyhound Forum, we continue to push for better outcomes for racing greyhounds. Following extensive lobbying efforts, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain has pledged to develop a new welfare standard for greyhound trainers residential kennels, with the Kennel Club represented on the steering group which is tasked with developing the new standard. We are part of a number of groups and coalitions set up to advise government such as the All Party Group for Animal Welfare, the Pet Advertising Advisory Group and the Canine and Feline Sector Group. We work with MPs, MSPs and AMs to ensure that dog issues associated with dog welfare are raised at the highest levels to the Government. In order to maintain this contact, our annual Westminster Dog of the Year competition provided an opportunity to speak with more than 20 MPs interested in welfare issues. We are currently planning the first Holyrood Dog of the Year competition in Scotland. 24 The Kennel Club

25 What we do for... Lost Dogs Having a dog go missing is many dog owners worst nightmare, which is why the Kennel Club manages Petlog, which is the UK s largest lost and found database for microchipped pets. We have been an advocate for microchipping dogs as the best way of reuniting missing pets with their owners for many years, long before it became compulsory in April All puppies in England, Scotland and Wales must now be microchipped by their first keeper (usually the breeder) by the time that they are eight weeks old (Northern Ireland had introduced similar legislation four years earlier). Petlog now has more than 11 million pets registered, of which 7.2 million are dogs. Just under 1.5 million new microchips were added to Petlog in 2016, an increase of 40% on the previous year. More than 70% of the new records were dogs, and this phenomenal number can be largely attributed to the introduction of compulsory microchipping legislation. In the month the legislation was brought in, call volumes for Petlog general enquiries increased by 71% and s more than fivefold as a result. To help cope with this unprecedented demand, a new Petlog website was launched in 2016, which saw online activity increase to 65%. Around 200,000 new Petlog accounts have been created since the launch of the new website, of which 95% are for keepers (owners), 4% breeders and 1% authorised agents such as vets. In total, 150,000 transfer of keeperships were applied for by pet owners last year, and an additional 43,500 applications were received from welfare organisations for re-homing, of which nearly half came via the new online welfare facility which was added to the Petlog website in Petlog operates to ISO standards for information security management and is the only UK database to be a member of European Pet Network which enables national and local associations based across Europe to share information on missing pets. New Petlog Records (Recorded in 2016) 1,479,765 new records including: 7,283,647 Total Petlog Database (at end of 2016) 11,221,263 total pets recorded 1,065,170 Dogs (72%) 349,652 Cats (24%) 64,943 Other (4%) Dogs (65%) 3,473,491 Cats (31%) Picture: Karen Jackson / The Kennel Club Other: Horses, Donkeys, Rabbits, etc. 464,125 other (4%) Annual Report 2016/

26 Sadly there are all too many dogs in the UK which need re-homing, for a wide variety of reasons. Alongside our work to recommend that potential puppy buyers always buy from a Kennel Club Assured Breeder, the Kennel Club encourages people interested in older dogs to consider taking on a purebred dog from a rescue organisation. We operate our Kennel Club Breed Rescue (KCBR) initiative as a means of promoting and supporting the many breed rescue organisations that operate throughout the UK. There are currently more than 330 KCBR organisations operating across the UK, covering more than three quarters of the 217 pedigree dog breeds which we currently recognise. This support provides the organisations with a recognisable identity to more effectively promote their activities. Over the 12-month period from August 2015-July 2016, KCBR organisations collectively helped to re-home almost 10,000 dogs. Our online Find a Rescue service enables people interested in taking on a rescue dog to find their nearest KCBR organisation. There were around 820,000 searches carried out using this facility in KCBR organi sations are also listed in the Kennel Club Rescue Directory booklet which is available on request. The Kennel Club publishes a newsletter for rescue organisations biannually, which provides information, advice and news stories, and we produce an annual KCBR calendar, which features the stories of 12 dogs which have been helped by breed rescue organisations. We organise a regular breed rescue conference to provide information in areas of common interest, such as the law, fundraising and promotion. The Kennel Club Charitable Trust (KCCT) provides significant support to rescue dogs, and in 2016 awarded more than 70,000 in grants to KCBR organisations seeking assistance with kennelling and veterinary fees. The KCCT encourages breed clubs to match funding in some cases, to show their support for the vital work that these organisations do in finding permanent homes for the dogs in their care. The Kennel Club actively promotes the work of KCBR organisations at its two flagship events, Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs, by inviting representatives from a number of breed rescues to promote the work that they do and allow the public the opportunity to meet dogs looking for a new home alongside past success stories. The Find a Rescue Dog information stand is now an established favourite at both events. What we do for... Breed Rescue Picture: Nick Hanson / The Kennel Club 26 The Kennel Club

27 What we do to... Communicate Press and Marketing Our press office and marketing teams are at the forefront of our work in communicating to a wide variety of audiences, including the dog world, local and national media, specialist press and the public. Our in-house press office team deals with all aspects of public relations for the Kennel Club and achieves press coverage across all media. This increases awareness of our brands, campaigns and services and helps to position the Kennel Club prominently in the minds of the media. We plan and execute proactive media campaigns throughout the year to support and promote many areas of the business. This is done by commissioning research and generating statistics to develop news angles, promoting positive dog stories and case studies, and organising media events, launches and photo opportunities. The press office also monitors the news agenda and responds to breaking news by offering expert comment on a range of dog related issues which helps give the Kennel Club a good share of voice when canine matters are discussed in the press. The press office has developed good relationships with journalists from a range of different media, from national newspapers and TV, to specialist writers and radio producers. The team builds strategies, plans and communications material to deal with potential issues that could cause reputational damage to the Kennel Club or to dogs in general and ensure that issues are dealt with before they can escalate. The marketing team supports all areas of promotion including printed materials, advertising support, social media, , branding and website content and creation. The team ensures that each area of the Kennel Club s work receives the awareness and promotion that it needs. In the last 12 months, the team has continued to promote the key products and services provided by the Kennel Club, including increasing usage of the Kennel Club Academy, re-branded the Good Citizen Dog Scheme, increased the entries for Scruffts heats across the UK and, together with the press office, helped deliver the highest attendance at Crufts on record. The marketing department is also responsible for the delivery of sponsorship for events and activities and manages relationships with commercial partners and supporters. First on the list of our strategic objectives is to promote the recognition of the Kennel Club as the leading national organisation for referral and advice regarding all canine related matters. How we communicate with the outside world is an integral part to achieving this. 2,000 pieces of local and regional coverage 7,340 press articles mentioning the Kennel Club More than 1,300 TV and radio items approx 500 pieces of coverage in national newspapers Picture: Louise Farrell / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

28 Publications The Kennel Club publishes a range of print and online publications which address a variety of subjects and audiences. Our monthly magazine aimed at the members, the Kennel Gazette continues to be popular since its reintroduction in The magazine is feature-led and contains personality profiles, a viewpoint column, historical features, health news and the popular Judges Choice. The Kennel Club Journal continues as a monthly online publication and contains all official information with news from the Kennel Club Board on judges, Challenge Certificate allocations, AGM reports as well as show and seminar listings, Junior Warrant winners, KC Dog notifications and regulation changes. The fifth edition of the Kennel Club Illustrated Breed Standards was published in March 2017 and includes all 217 Kennel Club recognised pedigree breeds. It provides a comprehensive overview of each breed with their breed standard and new images of all the breeds, provided by expert photographers. We produce a series of Breed Record Supplements, a quarterly publication where all registration-related applications such as litter registrations, lists of exported and imported dogs and health test results are shown. The Stud Book is an annual publication containing the details of all dogs which have won specific awards at our licensed events in the previous year. The Dog Owners Handbook is a printed guide to caring for puppies which gives new owners advice and information to help get them off to the best possible start with their puppy. A guide is issued to new owners once a puppy has been transferred into their name. We have a total of 14 online newsletters that interested parties can sign up to receive, and there are more than 20 different information guides available to download, covering a diverse range of subjects such as choosing the right dog for you, breeding for health, road travel with your dog and introducing dogs to children and babies. Picture: Taimara da Silva Neto / The Kennel Club 28 The Kennel Club

29 Website and Social Media We have a strong online presence, including hosting a number of custom-built websites and being actively engaged across several social media platforms. Our website continues to be a popular destination for a whole raft of enquiries and information, with more than 802,000 individual visitors attracted to the site each month, establishing it as one of the most popular sources of information on dogs. The most visited areas are the Find a Puppy service, Breed Information Centre, Find an Assured Breeder and the Looking to Buy a Puppy advice pages. The Kennel Club s other websites, including Crufts, Discover Dogs, Young Kennel Club, Petlog and the Kennel Club Charitable Trust, are also extremely popular. The Kennel Club is actively engaged with social media and intends to improve the reach to new customers in this area through the year. In total, we have more than 560,000 Facebook fans, and every month our posts are viewed by more than five million social media users across Facebook and Twitter. We have more than 60,000 Twitter followers for our three feeds, which tweet about the club itself, the YKC and Petlog respectively. Website Facts 7,607,000 Average monthly page views of the Kennel Club site 694,000 Average monthly visitors to the Kennel Club site 1,013,351 Annual visitors to Crufts site 665,229 Average monthly Find A Puppy look ups Picture: Darren Hall / The Kennel Club 336,150 Monthly visits to Petlog site 156,093 Annual visitors to Eukanuba Discover Dogs site 7,100 Monthly visits Young Kennel Club site Annual Report 2016/

30 What we do for... Members Picture: Heather Preece / The Kennel Club The Kennel Club has three levels of membership available and encourages dog enthusiasts to join either as members, associates or affiliates. Each receives a package of benefits tailored to the level of membership. Benefits for members include a season pass to Crufts, copies of the Kennel Club year book and stud book, the monthly Kennel Gazette magazine, a 10% discount on publications and Crufts and Eukanuba Discover Dogs tickets and use of the club s premises. Members can hire meeting rooms at Clarges Street at very competitive prices. During 2016, we introduced a new benefit, whereby members can visit any of the five Royal Palaces for free on production of a corporate card available from the club. Members also have voting rights and regularly help to shape the Kennel Club s work through voting on resolutions, which they themselves are able to propose, at general meetings. The Kennel Club held three general meetings during the past year: an SGM and AGM in May 2016, and a further SGM in November. At the first SGM, proposals to make amendments to the club s Articles of Association and A rules were not passed, but a revised version of these was subsequently voted through at the second SGM. At the Annual General Meeting, members voted in favour of the Kennel Club withdrawing from its mutual agreement on dog show judging with the FCI, a membership organisation for a number of other kennel clubs around the world. At the November SGM, the members voted for the Kennel Club to invest up to 2.72m to build a canine activity centre at Chepstow racecourse, and for changes to show licence fees. The members enjoyed a series of social events throughout the year, including a winetasting lunch and a visit to the Royal Academy for an exhibition. A month-long programme of Christmas lunches proved to be popular as always, with the members dining room being fully booked for the duration, resulting in a total of more than 1,100 covers served in total over the period. In the first full year in our new premises, the Kennel Club served more than 7,000 lunches to members and their guests. Caroline Kisko, Secretary Number of Kennel Club... Members (UK) 1, Honorary Life Members 31 Affiliates Members (Overseas) Honorary Members 305 Associates 30 The Kennel Club

31 As well as members and their guests, the Kennel Club receives many other visitors over the course of the year. Our meeting rooms are used by a number of external organisations, and the Library and Art Gallery are popular attractions. The Library and Collections department is responsible for the care and development of the Kennel Club s collections of dog literature, art, photographs, archives and ephemera, and for making these collections accessible to members, researchers and the wider public. The Kennel Club Library is the largest canine library in the world and deals with thousands of research requests from visitors in person and by and telephone each year. Library users include the Kennel Club s own staff, members, journalists, authors, TV and radio researchers, breed historians, private researchers, university academics and students, as well as members of the public. The library is involved in promoting the work of the Kennel Club Bark & Read Foundation which provides financial and practical support to 12 different individuals and charities, big and small, who take dogs into classrooms and libraries to assist children and young people to become confident and happy readers. Promotional activities were held at Eukanuba Discover Dogs in October 2016 and at Crufts The Kennel Club Art Gallery maintains the largest collection of dog paintings in Europe and the permanent collection features works by a number of famous dog artists and includes the famous Crufts Best in Show trophy. The Gallery has received a number of notable new acquisitions in the form of donations, bequests and purchases in the past year. The Gallery hosted a regular programme of guided tours and put on four exhibitions over the past 12 months: The Labrador Retriever in Art, Dog Photographer of the Year, Canine Trailblazers: Dogs in Exploration and the current exhibition, Magnificent Molossers, which runs until the end of July. The Kennel Club Picture Library curates and supplies thousands of images for use by the Kennel Club and external customers each year. These are used for our website, social media and publications, to accompany press releases and on Kennel Club- and Cruftslicensed products. The library also oversees the world s largest dog photographer competition, the Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year competition, supported by sponsors, SmugMug and Nikon UK. What we do for... Visitors In the Kennel Club Collections 2,000,000 Scanned Pages of dog show catalogues 91,000 Images in our online picture library 10,500 Books in our library 1,300 Artworks in our collection 800 Schools Visited by Bark & Read dogs 90 Countries represented in the Dog Photographer competition

32 What we do for... Dogs in Need Picture: Richard Donkin / The Kennel Club The Kennel Club Charitable Trust (KCCT) is an independent charity, reporting to the Charity Commission (Registered Charity no ). It was founded in 1987, since when it has awarded grants totalling more than 10 million towards making a difference for dogs, the charity s principal aim and tagline. During 2016, the Trust distributed more than 800,000 in grants to a wide variety of applicants. The KCCT awards grants across four main areas: Science: research into canine health problems Support: the training of dogs to help human beings Welfare: the rescue and welfare of dogs in need of care and attention Education: the use of dogs as a literacy and behavioural aid for children Science More than half of the money awarded by the KCCT was directed towards research into canine health. Over 250,000 was granted to support the Kennel Club Genetics Centre at the Animal Health Trust (see Scientific Research section), the third year of a research agreement between the AHT and KCCT. The Kennel Club Cancer Centre was also the recipient of a significant grant. The KCCT funds a range of other scientific work to improve pedigree dog health. In 2016, the trustees agreed a grant of 8,880 to help fund research into A New Approach to Finding the Genetic Basis of Juvenile Kidney Disease in Boxers, which will be carried out by Professor William Amos of the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and Dr Bruce M Cattanach from the MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Juvenile Kidney Disease is an extremely unpleasant disease which affects Boxers and appears to have a strong heritable component. Indications are that it is recessive, meaning that a faulty gene copy has to be inherited from each parent, not just one. Previous genetic studies have sought to identify the gene involved, potentially leading to genetic tests to identify carrier dogs, but sadly these failed to find the gene. The new study focuses primarily on UK Boxers, a population that has been extensively studied by Dr Cattanach, who has already assembled a large collection of blood samples (cases, controls and parents) with additional material available from an earlier study. The KCCT grant will help fund further sample collection, marker development, genotyping and labour costs in the research, which the researchers believe has a good chance of success and that the results should be applicable to other diseases and breeds in future. 32 The Kennel Club

33 Support Around 17% of the total grant money given by the KCCT was to fund the training of dogs to help human beings. As part of a multiyear agreement, 20,000 was awarded to each of five leading support dog organisations: Canine Partners, Dogs for Good, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, Medical Detection Dogs and Support Dogs. Another charity to benefit from a KCCT grant was Woofability, which trains assistance dogs for disabled children and adults, and also children with autism and Down s syndrome. The charity was awarded a grant of almost 23,000 in December 2016 to fund two further part-time dog trainers to complement its current team. Woofability was founded in 2010, and placed its first assistance dog in To date, 38 partnerships have been established and a further 37 dogs are currently in training. One such pairing are Doreen and Caddy. Doreen lives in a Synergy Housing Assisted Living complex in a specially adapted ground floor Grants that the KCCT distributed in 2016 Science 604,963 Welfare 75,217 Education 18,955 Total 855,200 Support 156,065 More than half of the money awarded by the KCCT was directed towards research into canine health. Over 250,000 was granted to support the KCGC. Annual Report 2016/

34 flat. When the charity first met Doreen, she felt lonely as the residents at the complex rarely socialised. Since being paired with Caddy, Doreen has got to know many of her neighbours and the communal areas of the complex are now used by many more residents. Doreen also visits the park twice a day to meet a new social circle of doggy friends. Welfare The KCCT awards grants to rescue bodies associated with specific breeds and general canine welfare organisations which work to re-home dogs given up by their owners. One charity that benefited from the KCCT in 2016 was Rotherham Dog Rescue, which was awarded a grant of 2,000 in December. This money will help the charity to continue to renovate its kennel facilities, with more secure fencing, roof repairs and agility equipment for the dogs. Rotherham Dog Rescue plans to use this money to help more dogs like Otto, a dog which they took in back in 2007 via the local dog warden. Otto was a 10-month old puppy which had been used as a bait dog, and therefore had severe behavioural issues. Luckily the charity has a dog psychologist, Lisa, working with them, and with Lisa s dedication, Otto began to settle down. However, Otto struggled to find a new home and was with the charity for seven years, becoming its mascot. Eventually Otto s tale had a happy ending though, as he found a new permanent home. Another dog helped by Rotherham Dog Rescue was Baxter, a Border Collie which had trust issues and was stressed in the charity s former kennels before they were able to move to new premises in 2015, with larger paddocks to exercise and play with the dogs. Thanks to Lisa s work and the greater space offered to him, Baxter flourished in the new surroundings and has recently gone to a new home of his own. Education The KCCT also supports a growing number of charities which take dogs into schools, libraries and other learning establishments to help children learn to read as part of its dedicated Bark & Read Foundation. By reading to dogs, which offer a calm and non-judgemental presence, pupils reading ages have been shown to achieve significant improvement. Vicki Turnbull and her black Labrador Retriever, Yogi, were the recipients of a grant of 1,500 towards their work in support of the Bark & Read initiative in The grant and inclusion in the Bark & Read scheme has helped Vicki pay for items such as the necessary insurance policies, printing, petrol and uniforms. It also gave her the opportunity to purchase a puppy sooner than expected, with the express purpose of training it in a school canine therapy role. Vicki now gets enquiries from schools all over the country wanting their own school dog or visits. Yogi and Vicki have helped Aidan, a boy in Year 1 who spent all of reception year with selective mutism. Aidan worked with Yogi and Vicki for a 15 minute slot every week for half a term. The first week while he was reading he was barely audible, but each week his voice got louder, and by the end of the six weeks he was reading at a normal level. Fundraising The KCCT gets the income which it uses to make a difference for dogs from a variety of sources, primarily from the Kennel Club itself (including all administrative and publicity costs) and its insurance partner Agria Pet Insurance. 34 The Kennel Club

35 Picture: Carla du Rose / The Kennel Club There are also many smaller organisations and activities that support the Trust through a variety of activities, for example: Crufts competitors made voluntary donations totalling almost 1,600 along with their entry fees to the 2016 show, with a further 1,000 donated by visitors at the event itself. Heats of the Kennel Club s crossbreed competition, Scruffts, raised more than 3,400 for the KCCT through class entry fees throughout the year. The Kennel Club International Agility Festival in August raised more than 1,800 from entrants and spectators. The launch of the 2017 Kennel Club Breed Rescue calendar at Eukanuba Discover Dogs in October, with the proceeds from sales going to the KCCT. Picture: Taimara da Silva Neto / The Kennel Club The KCCT s accounts can be viewed on the website charitabletrust and in summary form on the Charity Commission s website. Annual Report 2016/

36 What we do for... Finance & Governance The Kennel Club is managed in a business-like manner, though it is very much recognised that it is far more than simply a business......it is an institution with an important mission to improve the health and welfare of dogs. Total Income 20.8m The Kennel Club made an operating surplus of 76,000 after charging depreciation of 1,209,000 and before investment income of 137,000. Total Expenditure 20.7m 36 The Kennel Club

37 Income 2016 Shows & Events 4.2m Health & Welfare 3.2m Registrations 12.2m Education 2.5m Canine Activities 3.3m Health, Welfare & Charity 3.9m External Relations 1.1m Expenditure 2016 Publications 0.3m Canine Activities 0.4m Members 0.5m Registrations Services 5.8m Shows & Events 4.1m Picture: Ed Felker / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/

38 Mission & Strategic Objectives The Kennel Club is the national body which exists to promote the general improvement, health and well-being of all dogs through responsible breeding and ownership. Promote the Kennel Club as the leading national organisation for referral and advice regarding all canine related matters Facilitate the breeding of healthy dogs Encourage responsible ownership of dogs Encourage the responsible breeding of pedigree dogs Promote and regulate canine activities and competitions Promote the positive benefits of dogs in society Invest in canine health and welfare Provide opportunities for education and training through Kennel Club led initiatives Engage with the wider dog owning audience/ fraternity 38 The Kennel Club

39 Picture: Rae Prince / The Kennel Club Annual Report 2016/