Bernese Mountain Dog CC Awards

Welcome to the section where we detail and give some summary analysis to all the CCs that have been won by Bernese in the UK and also give dates and judges of forthcoming appointments when available.

For anyone who may not know, CCs, or to give them their full name Challenge Certificates, are awarded by the Kennel Club to Bernese at Championship shows, either at most general ‘All Breeds’ shows** or one of the  annual BMD Breed Club Championship shows. The judge or, occasionally at club shows, 2 judges, will award a single CC to the best dog and a second one to the best bitch in breed at the show, one of these two will then be selected as BOB – Best of  Breed. The BOB does not count for any further status but this is the dog that will go through to represent the breed in the Working Group at a General Championship show.

An individual dog requires 3 Challenge Certificates (from three different judges) to become a Champion. Every dog in the lists accessible from this page who has three or more CCs will be a UK Champion and their name will sometimes be recorded in red on traditional pedigrees.

(**Please note a few General Championship Shows do not schedule CCs for our breed so always check if you are specifically travelling to see our breed – or any other breed for that matter. You also need to check which day our breed is scheduled for as not every group of dogs is present on every day, each just having one day when their group is featured).

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Champions Parade 2023 Championship Show – all these dogs have won at least 3 CCs

The chance to win one of these Challenge Certificates is the main reason why Championship shows garner much bigger entries than Open shows. On the day they actually take the form of a small card certificate, signed by the judge and are often referred to as ‘tickets’ by the show fraternity – hence you will probably hear talk of the ‘dog ticket’ or ‘bitch ticket’ more often than using the term ‘CC’. Just to be technically correct, the CC is not completely valid until it is confirmed by the Kennel Club and the owner is sent a full certificate from the KC. This also applies to the award of the title of Champion, it is not truly valid until the KC have confirmed it.

In order to be approved to award CCs to a breed judges have to go through a defined process involving such things as experience at lower level, attendance on specified courses, active assessment and breed club approval although the exact nature of this approval and the judges training process is currently being revised by the Kennel club and will be known as the JEP, Judges Education Process, replacing the JDP (Judges Develop Programme) with the two systems currently running alongside each other giving people well into the older system chance to qualify. Details of this process can be gained from the BMD Breed Education CoOrdinator, or BEC, Emily English via education@bernese.co.uk

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History of BMD CCs

As you can see from the table below, CCs were first granted to Bernese in 1977 when there were just 6 sets awarded. Over the following years the number rose to 32 in the mid nineties and since then has fluctuated between that and 27 influenced by numbers of breed registrations in the preceding years. The way the KC allocates CCs and appoints judges is changing and it is not completely clear yet how things will settle down. So we can only say ‘watch this space’ for future allocations to become clear. 2022 had some COVID delayed CCs added to the normal quota plus a bonus set awarded to the BMDC of GB to recognise our Golden Jubilee year.  At the last major update, following Manchester 2024, there had been 1,180 sets of BMD CCs awarded to Bernese since those first ones 47 years earlier. Those who have been around the breed for a few years will recall a few memories of dogs and people when looking through these lists and I hope people will find them interesting and enjoy browsing through them.

Here is a numbers breakdown of the winners of the Dog CCs

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and the corresponding list for BMD bitches

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Just to be clear what the charts mean, 310 different dogs and 348 different bitches have won those 1,180 CCs and after Manchester 2024 there had been 163 dogs winning at least 3 CCs so qualifying as Champions and 180 bitches.

Several lists featuring dogs, bitches, kennels and judges can be accessed from the links below but firstly, here is a simple year by year breakdown of the numbers of all the BMD Challenge Certificates issued to date from the first CCs in 1977.

What is the point of showing and CCs?

The fact is that, rightly or wrongly, showing is still the single biggest activity that underpins most breeds. It generates the most money and interest within and outside breeds. Traditionally the point of showing was providing essential part of  evaluating breeding choices, dog show fanciers actually coming together to check out each other’s stock and look for breeding options in the only way they could. However, nowadays many breeders operate in totally detached from the show world and may have never been to a show so have no real life knowledge of the breed outside their own circles, probably choosing to learn as much or as little as they want about the breed entirely from web sites and social media.

Not Just a Beauty Contest

Some would say that CCs only relate to ‘standing appearance’ which many people have no interest in and of course many happy owners of happy and healthy Bernese Mountain Dogs  have never been to a show and the vast majority of dogs never go to shows either.  From time to time some sections of the media have been very critical of the show world and showing is often seen as only relating to ‘beauty or appearance’ to the exclusion of everything else. It is seen solely as promoting the breeding of exaggerated features in certain high profile, well documented breeds.

However, showing should also reflect soundness, temperament and where possible should overlap with certain visible aspects of specific breed health. The Kennel Club have been been strongly promoting this aspect for well over a decade now using campaigns with various tag lines, such as ‘Fit For Function, fit for life’, and judges are strongly reminded that they have to consider health aspects of every breed wherever this is directly relevant to the show ring.

CCs are a focal point of serious showing and winning them is the basic desire of most show goers even if they have no realistic expectation of winning one. Shows awarding CCs, known Championship Shows, garner by far the largest entries and the All Breed Championships Shows which include Crufts, are the biggest events in the show calendar attracting thousands of dogs. At these shows, and at single breed Championship Shows, no matter how many dogs are present only a single Challenge Certificate, (CC,), is offered to the best dog and the best bitch in each breed. Many people still like to have ‘lots of red’ (champions) on a pedigree and show wins, including CCs, do say something about the temperament, soundness and breed type of a dog. A regular show dog will enjoy the days at a show and be well socialised with people and other dogs as a result and the vast majority of dogs get very excited when they know they are getting ready to travel to a show, this excitement sometimes being palpable from the pre show bath the day before. Almost all show dogs are also well balanced, confident pets whose lives are enhanced by their show experiences irrelevant of whether they win or lose.

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More to Shows than winning CCs

Having said all that, with only 1 CC for each gender the vast majority of exhibitors do not go home with a CC so to maintain its sustainability and keep shows viable the show experience has to be about much more than just winning CCs and for many the social side is a main attraction. Discussions about issues in the breed, news about dogs and people are just the starting point and just being a part of the show is important for most people.  Most exhibitors make good friends at dog shows and shows are full of people who may have no realistic expectation of winning a CC but still want to be a part of it, indeed this massive majority of exhibitors are the essential body of the show world.

In summary, whilst shows and CCs are important for all the reasons above there also is a much less easy to define attraction of shows, many people’s dogs never win CCs and they don’t expect to and yet they keep returning every week, they are a part of the community around their breed. You will hear complaints about the expense, the venue, the cost of the food, the judging, the travel, the size of the ring, the state of the ring, the parking and many more things but please realise everyone will be back the next time and the time after that. So, if you want to give showing a go don’t make it all about winning and give the occasion a chance, engage with people and get involved in the conversation around the ring and you will not only learn much more about the breed but could also become drawn into a hobby that will take over your life.

A few extracted Figures

From the links below you can access lots of different tables showing the biggest wining dogs and bitches, the highest achieving kennels over the years, a complete list of all CC winners, a complete list of all judges who have awarded BMD CCs and which dogs each of them awarded their CCs to as well as an historical list of judges and CC winners at our club Championship Show and Crufts. Finally there is a complete chronological list of all the years of BMD Championship shows since the first in 1977.

The show by show calendar list of CC winners should be updated regularly but the summary lists will only be recalculated from time to time, maybe only annually, with the latest show included in the figures being stated within the section.

Looking at the list of the top CC winning dogs and bitches combined  you can see that the highest number of CCs won by any Bernese is 54 by Carole Hartley-Mair’s Champion Meadowpark High Class (Milo) between late 2015 and mid 2019 just pipping former record holder Michelle Gurney’s bitch Champion Monalou Nelly Pledge whose total is even more remarkable for a bitch who took time out to have three litters. In addition to his CCs the impressive Milo collected an unprecedented, by any Bernese, run of  group and Best In Show placings and wins. Moving down the list of the most CC winners there are then 5 more males before the next bitch, which at 36 CCs less, further highlights the achievements of Nelly Pledge who won her CCs between 2002 and 2009.

All Time CC Winning Bernese with 10 or more CCs (dogs & bitches)

Moving down the all time CC winners list in third place is Julie Vaughan’s Champion Carlacot Fido on 34 CCs who was the long time breed record holder winning his CCs between 1986 and 1993. Another well known dog of his day and former breed record holder is next, the late Pam Aze’s Champion Forgeman Footpad who won 30 CCs between 1981 and 1990. 26 CCs were won by Nicola Jeffries’ Ch Viking’s Dark Billy Majigs (1990-95) followed by Julie Baldwin’s Ch Fortonpark Its Otto (2004-2006) and another Meadowpark, namely Meadowpark Vertigo (2014-2017), both on 19 CCs in joint sixth place. Only then in eighth place do we come to the second bitch in the top ten Mick and Julie Bramble and Shirley King’s Ch Shirdees Star of Wonder on 18 CCs (between 2004 – 2008). The top ten is completed by a dog and a bitch in joint ninth place with 17 CCs, namely Teresa and Stephen Nightingale’s Ch Manisla Ebony Dusk (2008 – 2014) and Ch Meadowpark Whispers Breeze (2012 -2014).

To see the full list of ALL BMD CC winners click here

The list of Kennel bred CC winning dogs also has Meadowpark at the top of the list with a distinct gap to the followers namely Monalou and Fortonpark, the list shows numbers of CCs and the number of CC winning dogs bred by each kennel.

When it comes to the lists of judges you can either view a list of all judges to date and how many shows they have judged or you can view a list of every appointment for each judge and see who their winners were.

Some top dogs and bitches and links to Updated Lists

Here are some extracts from the lists updated to the end of 2023

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Ten or more CCs Winning Dogs (Males)

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 Ten or more CCs Winning Bitches

Click on the links below to view the corresponding lists.

Please note that the Master Calendar List of All BMD CCs will always be updated first and will therefore always be the most up to date, this is the list that will also end with forthcoming appointments as announced to date. The various analyses and extractions from it will not always be as up to date as this list but the last show taken into account should be indicated at the top of each list.

Complete Calendar order list of ALL BMD CCs Shows and Judges  1977 to present day

ALL BMD CC winners Dogs and Bitches Combined List

Shortcut to most recent section of above list – CCs 2020 to 2024

All Individual CC Winners combined and split into dogs and bitches

CCs Winners Bred by Kennel

CC Winners at Crufts and Our Club Championship Show

Complete Record of All Judges awarding of CCs