You may have noticed the various letters that appear before and after some dog’s names. These are called “Titles”. There are several Clubs and Associations that offer titles. The most notable in the United States is The American Kennel Club (AKC). The AKC has many events in which titles are offered. AKC titles become an official part of a dog’s AKC record and are listed on the dog’s pedigree, on official certificates, and in event catalogs. Other titles are offered by other national associations and breed clubs and also become a part of the dog’s name but are not recognized by the AKC in the dogs official pedigree record. Some titles are listed as prefixes and some as suffixes. A listing of the various official AKC titles with their abbreviations can be found on the AKC website at: http://www.akc.org/events/titles.cfm

For example, this is Kanzu’s official name with all of his titles, a description of each and the granting association:

GCH TC Tigris African Treasure, RE MC FCh JOR CGC ET HIC VC

GCH Grand Champion
25 Grand Champion points and at least three Major wins under three different judges
AKC

TC Triple Champion
Received Dual Champion and awarded Agility Champion (MACH)
AKC

DC Dual Champion (Combination of Ch – Champion and FC – Field Champion)
AKC

RE Rally Excellent
Received after Rally Novice and Rally Advanced
AKC

MC Master Courser
AKC

MX Master Agility Excellent
Received after Novice Agility, Open Agility, Agility Excellent
AKC

MXJ Master Excellent Jumpers with Weaves
Received after Novice Agility Jumper, Open Agility Jumper, Excellent Agility Jumper
AKC

FCh Field Champion
American Sighthound Field Association (ASFA)

JOR Junior Oval Racer
National Oval Track Racing Association Other Breed (NOTRA-OB)

CGC Canine Good Citizen
AKC

ET Endurance Title
Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States (RRCUS)

HIC Herding Instinct Test
Orange Coast Rhodesian Ridgeback Club (OCRRC)

VC Versatility Certificate
Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States (RRCUS)

After receiving the Agility Excellent (AX) title in May 2010 and the Agility Excellent Jumpers (AXJ) title in June 2010, Kanzu began to accumulate legs toward his Master titles. While the first 3 agility titles require 3 qualifying legs in order to advance to the next level, the Master agility title (MX) and the Master Agility Jumpers (MXJ) both require 10 perfect runs in order to achieve the MX or the MXJ titles. With his handler Tracy Tennison, Kanzu earned his MX title on September 5, 2010 and his MXJ on November 5, 2010. These are the last agility titles he will earn on his way to his much coveted Master Agility Championship (MACH). There are few Rhodesian Ridgebacks who achieve a MACH. This title requires 20 double Qs (Perfect runs in both the Jumpers run and the Standard run on the same day) as well as 750 MACH points. (Each MACH point represents 1 second under the course time for a given run) At the time Kanzu earned his MXJ he had earned 8 QQs and 101 MACH points.