The Italian Greyhound Club is the official club for Italian Greyhounds in the UK, run under the auspices of the Kennel Club. It is, if you like, the Italian Greyhound branch of the Kennel Club.
What does the Italian Greyhound Club do?
The main purpose of breed clubs, the Italian Greyhound Club included, is to be the guardian of the breed for future generations. They organise and run dog shows and sponsor Italian Greyhound classes at other shows. They also coordinate and oversee the training of Italian Greyhound breed show judges. The club is made up of individuals fulfilling roles required by the Kennel Club to facilitate the monitoring and protection of the breed. You can read about the Club’s history here.
Italian Greyhound Health
The Italian Greyhound Club has a Breed Health Co-ordinator (BHC), who advocates for the health and welfare of the breed. The main role of the BHC is to facilitate, over time, the communication and collection of data on the health of the Italian Greyhound. This is the purpose of the Breed Active Health Project website; to promote surveys, gather and collate information, and publish it to the UK’s Italian Greyhound Community. The BHC acts as a spokesperson on matters of health and will collaborate with The Kennel Club on any health concerns the breed may have.
Breeding Italian Greyhounds
The Italian Greyhound Club has a Puppy Co-ordinator, who is the go-to person for advice on identifying reputable breeders and general advice on taking on an Italian Greyhound puppy.
Showing and Judging Italian Greyhounds
The Kennel Club Breed Education Co-ordinators (the BEC) is an administrative role to co-ordinate all points of breed-specific education and support for breed judges. The BEC supports the Italian Greyhound Club’s obligations under the Judges’ Education Programme (JEP) for the education and training of breed show judges.
Other Administrative Tasks
The club has other team members, dedicated to the breed, who manage the day-to-day administration of the club. This includes sponsoring, organising, and running Italian Greyhound breed shows, producing breed club bulletins throughout the year, managing club membership, and working together as a team to collate and update information about the Italian Greyhound breed.
What does the Italian Greyhound Club mean to me?
The Italian Greyhound Club operates for you; people who love and/or own Italian Greyhounds, or want to own one.
The IG Club is working hard to collect and collate data on the breed pertaining to health and wellbeing, which in turn is used to try to limit breeding on hereditary ailments and weaknesses, thus trying to protect, where possible, puppy-buyers and their beloved dogs from the heartache of health issues further on in time. If your Italian Greyhound is suffering a health issue, a broken leg, or you are concerned in any way about the wellbeing of your IG, you can speak to the BHC for advice, support, and to simply record your experiences and concerns with the IG Club, to help and protect other IG owners through similar now or in the future.
The IG Club tries, as much as possible, to monitor poor breeding practices, identify indiscriminate breeders and puppy farmers, and generally gather information on the growth of the Italian Greyhound population in the UK. You can contact the Puppy Co-ordinator for advice on finding, securing, and bringing home your IG puppy.
In managing the training of Italian Greyhound breed show judges, the IG Club is working hard to ensure judges know everything to look for in a good example of an Italian Greyhound. This helps to limit the reproduction of weak bloodlines and, subsequently, perpetuating the breeding of weak or sickly Italian Greyhounds. If you would like to know more about showing your Italian Greyhound, please see our three part introduction to showing Italian Greyhounds.
Can I join the Italian Greyhound Club?
Yes, you can! The IG Club is a Kennel Club official entity, it’s is not simply a dog lovers club. Therefore, the ideal way to join is to visit one of our breed shows, meet the team and express an interest in becoming a member. However, it is possible to join the Club without doing this; you can visit the membership page here.
Membership fees are via an annual subscription of £8 per year for Single Members,
£12 for Joint Membership and £1 for Junior Membership (8-18 years).
Membership subs are due on 1st January each year and can be paid by standing order for added convenience!
Stay in touch with the IG Club
Please do bookmark the The Italian Greyhound Club website in your browser, so you can revisit time and again for information, news, and contact details.
If you are a Facebook user, do join our Facebook Group here!
Please do also sign up to the Breed Active Health Project mailing list, so you can participate in breed surveys and receive the survey results. This is not a newsletter mailing list, we will only contact you with important information and requests for input!
