Other Breeds Dogs Information.

Besides the breeds recognized by the English Kennel Club, there are many other dog breeds located throughout the world; indeed it is estimated that there are between 700 and 800 recognized breeds worldwide. However, those recognized in one country are not necessarily recognized in another. Breeds recognized by the English Kennel Club are generally found in many other countries and, in the main, are recognized by other leading authorities in dog breeding, although there are always exceptions.

The federation Cynologique International (FCI) recognizes over 300 dog breeds, while the American Kennel Club gives its recognition to over 140 breeds. In addition to these breeds, many other dogs are recognized by the smaller official and semi-official bodies that exist in individual countries.

With headquarters in Belgium, the FCI is an international federation, originally founded by canine societies in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and the Netherlands in 191l. The FCI is now the World Canine Organization and includes 77 members and contract partners (one member per country). Each of these issue its own pedigrees and trains its own judges. The FCI recognizes 329 breeds of pedigree dogs, although each breed remains the 'property' of specific countries, and breed standards are compiled by the countries which are designated 'owners' of any given breed, not by the FCI itself.

Contrary to widespread opinion, the FC1 is not a registry and does not itself issue any pedigrees, unlike the English Kennel Club which can provide pedigree information for dogs registered under its auspices. The American Kennel Club, known as the AKC, was founded in 1884 and now records the parentage of more than one million dogs annually.

In this section of the book, many breeds are incorporated which are either not known or not registered in Britain, s but it would not be possible to include each and every breed. Instead they have been restricted largely to those recognized by the FC1 and AKC; with a few others which the author considers are particularly deserving of mention. So often the reader has no opportunity of seeing some of the breeds outlined here, but it is to be hoped that through this book more people throughout the world will at least learn of the existence of some of the rare breeds.

Besides alternative names in use for many of the breeds, breed standards also differ from country to country, and it is often the case that there are subtle differences between the standards recognized in different parts of the world. For this reason, some of the heights and weights of individual breeds indicated here may be slightly different according to the country in which a breed resides.

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