Expert: Marcia Owen - 1/25/2011

Question
im new to showing with the gccf and was wanting to know how you get your cats to progress to champion or premier do they need to win 3 open classes by different judges or do you need to get certificates with your 1st open classes as well

Answer
Dear Diane

Welcome to cat showing - I'm sure you will enjoy it a lot.

Yes you need to win and be awarded the CC in three open (breed) classes under 3 different judges to be awarded the title of Champion or Premier.  Once they attain that status then they can open the Grand Champion/Premier classes and again they need to win three of these classes and be awarded the certificates by 3 different judges (can be the same judges as the open classes) to gain the title of 'Grand'.  Once you have achieved that, you are then eligible to enter the Imperial classes but you need 5 of these certificates to gain the title of Imperial.  Once you have the Grand status, you can also enter the UK Grand classes at the Supreme Show which is held once a year, and you only need 2 of these certificates to be able to call your cat a UK Grand Champion, but of course if you have also achieved Imperial you can then call your cat a UK and Imperial Grand Champion.

To save getting too involved in this email I would suggest you have a look at this page on the GCCF website http://www.gccfcats.org/showdef.html and then if you are not sure about anything, come back to me and I will try to clear up any further questions you have.

Good luck at shows.

Regards

Marcia.