The B.H.C.
The Belgian Hovawart Club is a cllub for every Hovawart owner in Belgium, and why not also for those who live abroad!
The BHC was founded in 1989. It is affiliated (nr 1011) with KMSH, the Belgian National Kennel Club, which is a member of the FCI.
The objectives of BHC are to:
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promote healthy and stable Hovawarts in line with the FCI breed standard. There is no beauty without strong health and good character – to find out more, see our pages on breeding;
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promote Hovawart as a working dog by encouraging different sport disciplines and training;
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organize activities for our members in support of these goals; such as training events, play days, walks, character/breeding tests and naturally our annual Club Show which is by far the biggest gathering of Hovawarts in Belgium !
If you are curious about what we do together, why not check some of the slide shows on our recent activities on page activities.
BHC publishes a Club magazine – Hovawart News. In Hovawart news you will find plenty of information such as reports from latest events, agenda for the coming months, health tips and breeding information – all that with lots of photos of course.
Since the number of members is constantly growing and as we increase our activities, the annual meeting in 2002 decided to change the form of the club into vzw/asbl. Hopefully our new BHC vzw/asbl will be able to serve you even better in the future.
• If you already have a Hovawart, join us – we would love to meet you and your dog! It is amazing how these hairy balls will give endless topics for amusement and discussion. You will also find a lot of knowledgeable people, in case you have any questions on up bringing, behaviour or training your 4-leg friend!
• If you do not yet have a Hovawart, but are thinking of adopting one in the future, please come to meet us in one of the next events. You will have the chance of your life to talk to many different Hovawart owners and you can test if Hovawart is what you really want! See the coming events on our calendar page.
Want to join ? Please go to the membership page.
Until one of the next events?
The world of Clubs and Organisations : IHF – RZV – FCI
Owners of dogs have come together to enjoy the same things, share information, learn from each other, they have come together in the attempt to produce even better dogs, to compete one another – the list is non-exhaustive. This was the start of the Dog Clubs, be it for training or for a particular breed, be it national or international. How does it all work? What is IHF and what about FCI? Ever heard of RZV?
Let’s start here in Belgium. There are mainly two kinds of Dog Clubs, ones for training/sport and ones for a particular breed or breeds. The training clubs can be for one discipline only, for example obedience, or for several disciplines like agility, obedience, defense and tracking or even show training. To be recognized nationally and internationally, these Clubs have to be affiliated to Societe Royal Saint Hubert, SRSH, which is the national organization for canine activities in Belgium (“National Kennel Club”). There can be several clubs for the various disciplines but only one Club is allowed to represent any one breed at SRSH.
SRSH, as the National Kennel Club for Belgium, is a member of Federation Cynologique International, FCI. FCI is the top organisation for National Kennel Clubs. Other National Kennel Clubs, whose names you may have heard of, include “Societe Central Canin” (SCC) in France and “Verbandes fur das Deutsche Hundewesen e.V” (VDH) in Germany. These are all members of FCI. The work of FCI is quite far away from our every-day-dog-owner’s life but you may have come across FCI if you have participated in exhibitions or done breeding. Among its tasks, FCI is responsible for authorizing and approving titles for International Champions (for work and beauty) and approving and keeping register of kennel names, such as “van Hovaveld”.
In Belgium, our Club, CBH, represents Hovawarts in SRSH. In other countries there are similar Clubs for Hovawarts e.g. Rassezuchtverein für Hovawart-Hunde e.V (RZV), Club Francais du Hovawart and Hovawartclub Nederland. These clubs are also members of their respective National Kennel Clubs such as SCC and VDH.
Since the Hovawart owners are passionate about their breed, and want to ensure the best possible future for Hovawarts, a roof organisation was founded where all national Hovawart Clubs will come together. This organisation is called International Hovawart Federation, IHF. The member organisations have to be recognised by FCI (like CBH is recognised by FCI via KMSH).
What is the role of the IHF ?
IHF has currently 13 member countries. With the national clubs IHF represents over 10 000 Hovawart owners. The purpose of IHF is to maintain good contacts between the national Hovawart Clubs with the main focus on:
- exchange of breeding information;
- organization of common events;
- reinforcement of co-operation concerning all fields of breeding of Hovawart;
- establishment of a special “commission for breeding questions” within the IHF to assist in this task.
How does it all work ?
One example is title “IHF Champion”. National Hovawart Clubs can request IHF-recognition for certain important dog shows such as the annual Club Show. The best male and female are given IHF points and with these points your dog can eventually acquire a title ‘IHF Champion’.
Another example is from breeding: National Hovawart Clubs agree during the IHF meetings on minimum standards for breeding. This way you, when requesting a mating with a male from another IHF member country, can be assured that the male, which is given to your female, respects those very same rules.
In practice, all breeding requests with foreign males from the member countries of IHF (like Germany, France) are handled via the National Hovawart Clubs. This gives assurance that the same rules apply to all of us and the very best principles of good and sensible breeding is reserved for our Hovawarts.