Staff proposed, and it was approved at the May meeting of the AKC Board of Directors a suffix title for the breeds currently competing in the Miscellaneous Class, which will be a Certificate of Merit.  This will go into effect January 1, 2010.  Below are the details of this revision:

Section 23. The Miscellaneous Class shall be for purebred dogs of such breed as may be designated by the AKC® Board of Directors. No dog shall be eligible for entry in the Miscellaneous Class unless the owner has been granted an AKC identification number, and unless the AKC identification number is given on the entry form.  Application for an AKC identification number shall be made on a form provided by the AKC and when submitted must be accompanied by a fee set by the Board of Directors.
    The regular Miscellaneous Classes for each breed shall be Puppy and Open, with the same eligibility requirements in Sections 4 and 9 of the Chapter respectively.  These classes shall be divided by sex. All class winners within a breed shall compete for Best of Breed and Best of Opposite Sex to Best of Breed. 
    Each of the Miscellaneous Class Best of Breed winners shall be eligible to compete for Best in Miscellaneous Class. All entries for Best in Miscellaneous Class shall be made after judging of the individual Miscellaneous breed classes and no entry fee shall be charged. In the event that the owner of a dog designated Best of Breed shall not exhibit the dog in the Best of Miscellaneous Class Competition, no other dog of the same breed shall be allowed to compete. There shall be no further competition for dogs entered in the Miscellaneous Class. 

Winners of the Best of Breed and Best of Opposite Sex to Best of Breed in each of the individual miscellaneous breeds will be awarded points towards the Certificate of Merit (CM)  title based on the number of dogs defeated.  Upon completion of the CM title a dog may continue to compete in the Miscellaneous class so long as they are of an eligible breed.

The CM suffix title is an introductory title to AKC conformation events and will be superseded by the CH title when earned .  The Certificate of Merit requires 15 points awarded in accordance with the following point structure

Dogs CompetingPoints
2                                1
4                                2
8                                3
12                              4
16                              5

    The ribbon shall conform to Chapter 5, Section 2 of these rules and shall be the following colors:
• First Prize - Rose
• Second Prize - Brown
• Third Prize - Light Green
• Fourth Prize - Gray
• Best of Breed - Orange
• Best of Opposite - Lavender
• Best in Miscellaneous - Pink and Green

At present, the Miscellaneous Class is open to the
following breeds:
American English Coonhound (eligible as of 1/10/10)
Cane Corso (eligible as of 07/01/08)
Cesky Terrier (eligible as of 07/01/08)
Entlebucher Mountain Dog (eligible as of 01/01/09)
Finnish Lapphund (eligible as of 07/01/09)
Icelandic Sheepdog (eligible as of 07/01/08)
Leonberger (eligible as of 07/01/08)
Norwegian Lundehund (eligible as of 07/01/08)
Russell Terrier (eligible as of 1/10/10
Treeing Walker Coonhound
Xoloitzcuintli (eligible as of 01/01/09)


New Title for FSS Breeds in Miscellaneous Class
This page was last updated: July 9, 2009
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