he Kennel Club’s early aspirations to
establish a system of canine government did not meet with universal approval. Their Registration Scheme, inaugurated
in 1880, took time to establish itself, for whereas later converts to the fancy appreciated the advantage of reserving a name for the exclusive use of a particular animal, older exhibitors considered such requirements draconian. Well established show promoting societies were also suspicious of a body that wished to limit inclusion in its Stud Book to shows adopting their own set of rules. Birmingham Dog Show Society, in particular, so strongly opposed such dominance that they contemplated publishing their own Stud Book, but in 1885, with most of the larger societies accepting the status quo, a traditional British compromise between Club and Society ensured Birmingham was granted special privileges which guaranteed two permanent representatives for the Society on the Kennel Club’s General Committee, and special status, equal to that afforded the Kennel Club’s own show, for Birmingham Dog Show Society’s ‘National Dog Show’.
