The American Kennel Club® has announced that the number of breeds that may be applied for on a single application has been increased from 13 to 14 in the recent revision of the judging approval process.

The 13 breed limit was designed to make any group attainable in two applications. With new breeds being added to the AKC registry, the largest group now contains 27 breeds. To accommodate this change and to remain consistent with the intent of the present policy, qualified applicants may now receive a maximum of 14 breeds, which would be slightly more than one-half of the largest group.

This new limit applies to all judges other than members of the AKC Board of Directors. At the July Board meeting a policy was adopted stating that AKC Board members would be restricted to no more than nine breeds which is one-third of the largest group (or five breeds less than the maximum for any other applicants, consistent with the previous judging approval policy). These policies are effective January 1, 2007.