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The Kennel Club have four champion titles available to be achieved by setters competing in the UK. These are Show Champion (Sh Ch) which is awarded to dogs who have won three Challenge Certificates (CCs) under three different judges with at least one CC won after 12 months of age; Champion (Ch) is the title gained by dogs who have won a Sh Ch title plus a field trial award, Diploma of Merit or a Show Gundog Working Certificate; Field Trial Champion (Ft Ch) means the dog has won a pointer or setter open stake or two first prizes at two different stakes under two different A Panel judges. There must be no less than 16 runners entered; and a Dual Champion - the highest award available to setters - is a dog who has achieved the titles of Show Champion and Field Trial Champion.
Challenge Certificates were first introduced by the Kennel Club in December 1900. Prior to 1958, a gundog could not claim to be a champion no matter how many CCs it won until it had gained a qualifier in the field as well. When the Show Champion title was instigated in 1958, it was agreed this could be applied retrospectively.
An indication of the difficulty of becoming a Dual Champion in the UK is the fact it has only been achieved by two dogs since the second world war. The first was a pointer and the second was a Gordon Setter, the only Gordon to ever achieve this accolade. The first ever gundog to attain the title was an English setter.
Setters have been best in show at Crufts seven times. The award was secured by Irish setters in 1981, 1993, 1995 and 1999. English setters were best in show in 1964, 1977 and 1988. The Irish setter best in show of 1981 was already a Field Trial Champion proving she had brains as well as beauty.
At the Westminster show in America an English Setter won the best in show title in 1938. He was only 11 months old and at his very first show. This was before entry to the show was restricted to Champions in 1992. He is the only setter to achieve best in show at Westminster.
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