Regulations of the Centre for the Development of Cynological Competences

Regulations of the Centre for the Development of Cynological Competences — the Judging School of the Club Federal Chinologic – Royal Association.

Aligned with the standards of the World Dog Federation (WDF) and the International Institute of Professional Cynology (IIPC). Adopted by the Board of Directors by Decision no. 183/13-08-2026.

Preamble

A judge is not born on the day of the examination. A judge is formed in the months of study that precede it: in the modules worked through evening after evening, in the ring assistantships, in the questions put to a lecturer, in the way one learns to separate what one sees from what one would like to see. The place where all of this happens is the Centre for the Development of Cynological Competences — the Judging School of the Association.

Since its establishment, the Centre has operated on a learning platform of its own, with modules, assessments, recorded assistantships and examinations held in sessions. These Regulations do not invent that school — they place it in law: who governs it and with what division of powers, who teaches, who learns and with what rights, and how one travels from enrolment to certification.

One principle divides the waters in all that follows: content is decided by a single scientific authority, and delivery by a single operational authority. What is taught — and how it reaches the trainee. Two questions, two responsibilities, one road.

Chapter I. General provisions

Art. 1. Object of the regulations

(1) These Regulations establish the organisation and operation of the Centre for the Development of Cynological Competences (hereinafter the Centre), the educational structure of the Association provided for in Art. 6 and Art. 12 of the Internal Operating Regulations, also known as the Judging School.

(2) They are adopted by the Board of Directors and are supplemented by:

a) the Regulations of the Panel of Judges (Annex 3 to the Internal Operating Regulations) — the conditions of admission, the traineeship, the judge’s examination and the continuing training of judges; where these Regulations organise, those confer entitlement;

b) the Code of Ethics (Annex 1) — in particular the ethics of teaching activity (Chapter IV) and the ethics of the trainee (Chapter VII);

c) the Disciplinary Procedure (Annex 2) — for misconduct investigated under disciplinary proceedings.

(3) The acquisition, retention and loss of the standing of judge are not governed here: they belong to the Regulations of the Panel of Judges. The Centre trains and examines; the Panel and the Board of Directors confer the standing.

Art. 2. Mission of the Centre

The Centre organises:

a) the training of candidates for the standing of cynological judge, in accordance with the approved curriculum;

b) the annual continuing training of judges in activity, in accordance with Art. 25 of the Regulations of the Panel of Judges;

c) the professional development of the body of lecturers;

d) the preparation, safekeeping and protection of the study materials;

e) other cynological educational programmes approved by the Board of Directors.

Chapter II. Governance of the Centre

Art. 3. Governing offices

(1) The governance of the Centre is exercised through two offices, appointed by the Board of Directors in accordance with Art. 9 and Art. 11 of the Internal Operating Regulations:

a) the Educational Vice-President — the operational authority of the Centre;

b) the Academic Director — the scientific authority of the Centre.

(2) Neither of these offices constitutes a seat on the Board of Directors, nor does it confer a right to vote in the Board.

(3) Judging activity proper — the authorisation, records and evaluation of judges — remains under the coordination of the Technical and Judging Vice-President, in accordance with Art. 10 of the Internal Operating Regulations; the two governing offices work together on the practical component of training.

Art. 4. The Academic Director — what is taught

(1) The Academic Director is the scientific authority of the Centre. The Academic Director decides what is taught: the content, the logical order of the subject matter, the examination methodology and the specialist terminology.

(2) In this capacity, the Academic Director:

a) draws up and approves the curriculum by specialisation, before it is put into practice;

b) scientifically validates the study materials — no material enters pedagogical use without the Academic Director’s approval;

c) approves the examination methodology and the assessment criteria;

d) watches over terminological unity across the disciplines and over the scientific rigour of the body of lecturers;

e) maintains academic relations with scientific experts and collaborators, domestic and international.

(3) The decisions of the Academic Director in scientific matters are binding on all teaching structures of the Centre. They may be altered only by a reasoned decision of the Board of Directors, after hearing the Academic Director.

Art. 5. The Educational Vice-President — how it reaches the trainee

(1) The Educational Vice-President is the operational authority of the Centre. The Educational Vice-President decides how and when teaching is delivered: planning, the calendar, the allocation of lecturers, and the monitoring of the trainees’ progress.

(2) In this capacity, the Educational Vice-President:

a) puts the approved curriculum into practice: the calendar order of the modules and the scheduling of activities;

b) coordinates the body of lecturers as a teaching resource — proposes their appointment, schedules them, and evaluates their pedagogical performance;

c) monitors the progress of each trainee and reports periodically to the Board of Directors;

d) proposes adjustments to the programmes; where these touch upon content, the Educational Vice-President first seeks the opinion of the Academic Director.

Art. 6. Separation of competences and disagreements

(1) Materials, the curriculum and the examination methodology enter into use only with the written approval of the Academic Director. Putting them into practice is the responsibility of the Educational Vice-President.

(2) The Educational Vice-President may challenge a scientific decision only where putting it into practice is impossible for want of time, people or means. The challenge shall be made in writing, with reasons.

(3) Where the two cannot agree on the classification of a matter — scientific or operational — the Board of Directors decides. Its decision is binding on both and is placed on record.

Art. 7. The platform coordinator

(1) The Centre’s learning platform — the modules, the assessments, the electronic records — is in the care of an IT and Educational Platforms Coordinator, appointed by the Board of Directors on the proposal of the Technical and Judging Vice-President, under whose authority the Coordinator works.

(2) The Coordinator is responsible for the operation of the platform, for the security of the trainees’ data and for the electronic archiving of the records; the security measures follow the Association’s public security page and its privacy policy.

Chapter III. The body of lecturers

Art. 8. Appointment

(1) The Centre’s lecturers are appointed by the Board of Directors, on the proposal of the Educational Vice-President, with the scientific opinion of the Academic Director.

(2) The Association’s judges, specialists with proven cynological training and, for particular disciplines, external experts may serve as lecturers.

(3) The record of lecturers and their access to the platform are kept by the secretariat, in accordance with the published access rules.

Art. 9. Rights and obligations of the lecturer

(1) The lecturer is entitled to the study materials of the lecturer’s disciplines, to the working space on the platform and to the list of candidates assigned to the lecturer.

(2) The lecturer is under an obligation:

a) to teach in accordance with the approved curriculum and terminology;

b) to observe the ethics of teaching activity set out in the Code of Ethics (Chapter IV), including the prohibitions concerning relationships with the trainees whom the lecturer assesses;

c) not to distribute the study materials outside the platform;

d) to record in due time the assessments and observations concerning the candidates assigned.

Art. 10. Assignment of candidates

(1) Each candidate declares on the platform their specialisation interests — the groups and breeds towards which they are heading — choosing at least two groups from the WDF nomenclature.

(2) On the basis of the declared interests, the Educational Vice-President assigns each candidate to a supervising lecturer. The assignment takes account of the lecturers’ specialisation and of the coverage of under-served groups.

Chapter IV. Trainees

Art. 11. Status of the trainee

(1) A trainee is a person enrolled in a training programme of the Centre.

(2) The standing of trainee does not, of itself, confer membership of the Association, nor any entitlement to the standing of judge; the road to that standing is the one laid down in the Regulations of the Panel of Judges.

Art. 12. Enrolment

(1) Enrolment is made upon application, with the documents required by the programme concerned, and becomes effective upon signature of the study contract and payment of the tuition fee.

(2) The tuition and examination fees are those set out in the Association’s fee schedule in force, published on the website.

(3) On first entering the platform, the trainee undertakes to abide by the Code of Ethics; without this undertaking, access to the materials does not open.

Art. 13. Rights of the trainee

The trainee is entitled:

a) to the training programme as described at enrolment;

b) to the study materials of the programme, under the conditions of Art. 17;

c) to objective assessment and to timely communication of the results;

d) to appeal against the examination results, under the conditions of Art. 16;

e) to the certificate due upon passing;

f) to the protection of their data, in accordance with the privacy policy.

Art. 14. Obligations of the trainee

The trainee is under an obligation:

a) to follow the programme in accordance with the calendar and the attendance requirements;

b) to pay the fees when due;

c) to observe the ethics of the trainee set out in the Code of Ethics (Chapter VII) — including the prohibition on defrauding assessments;

d) not to reproduce, distribute or use the study materials for commercial purposes;

e) to use only their own access code; the code is personal and non-transferable, in accordance with the Internal Operating Regulations.

Chapter V. The training programme

Art. 15. The curriculum and the platform

(1) The training of candidates is carried out in modules, published on the Centre’s platform, in the order and with the assessments established by the curriculum approved by the Academic Director.

(2) Each module closes with an assessment; passing the modules is a condition of access to the final examination, in accordance with the examination methodology.

(3) Theoretical training is supplemented by the practical component — the ring assistantships at the Association’s shows, recorded on the platform and in the candidate’s traineeship file, in the number required by the Regulations of the Panel of Judges.

(4) Attendance and progress are recorded in the platform’s electronic register.

Art. 16. Examination

(1) The final examination may be sat only in the sessions of the approved calendar — as a rule two per year — before the examination committee constituted for each session, in accordance with Art. 6 of the Internal Operating Regulations.

(2) The examination methodology — the tests, the pass thresholds, the number of attempts — is approved by the Academic Director and brought to the trainees’ knowledge before the session.

(3) The result is communicated on the platform. It may be appealed within no more than 3 days of communication; the appeal is determined by the examination committee, and an upheld appeal annuls the attempt, with the right to retake it.

(4) The passing of the examination is established and takes effect in accordance with the Regulations of the Panel of Judges: the proposal of the committee, the validation of the Technical Vice-President, the decision of the Board of Directors, and the entry in the Register of the Panel and in the public register of judges on the website.

(5) The annual continuing training of judges is organised on the platform, with its own module and assessment, in the hours required by the Regulations of the Panel of Judges.

Chapter VI. Study materials

Art. 17. Protection of the materials

(1) The study materials are intended exclusively for enrolled persons and are not to be distributed outside the platform, in accordance with Art. 12 of the Internal Operating Regulations.

(2) The platform serves them under conditions that prevent copying, and each page bears the trace of the person reading it. The trace is not a suspicion but a measure of good faith: material that ends up where it should not shows of itself where it left through.

(3) Copyright in the materials belongs to the Association or to the authors who have entrusted them to it. The plates and illustrations used must have a clean provenance — from the public domain, with rights purchased, or created for the Centre.

Art. 18. The School’s Bulletin

The Centre may publish a bulletin of its own — archived on the platform and sent by e-mail to those who have subscribed — with programme news, examination sessions and new materials. Subscription follows the Association’s consent rules.

Chapter VII. Records of the Centre

Art. 19. Registers

(1) The Centre keeps, through the platform and through the secretariat:

a) the register of trainees, with the programmes followed and the status of each;

b) the electronic register of attendance and assessments;

c) the register of certificates issued;

d) the register of examination appeals — part of the Association’s central register of appeals.

(2) Trainees’ files are kept for 10 years from the close of the programme; the other retention periods are those set out in the privacy policy.

(3) Access to the records lies with the trainee — for their own data —, with the governance of the Centre and with the bodies of the Association, each within its own remit.

Chapter VIII. Final provisions

Art. 20. Disciplinary liability

Misconduct by lecturers, trainees and the other participants in the Centre’s activity is investigated in accordance with the Disciplinary Procedure (Annex 2 to the Internal Operating Regulations), in the light of the Code of Ethics.

Art. 21. Amendment

These Regulations may be amended by decision of the Board of Directors, with the opinion of the governance of the Centre for amendments concerning the syllabus or examination.

Art. 22. Entry into force

(1) These Regulations were adopted by the Board of Directors by Decision no. 183/13-08-2026 of 13 August 2026 and enter into force on the date of adoption.

(2) Programmes begun before the entry into force continue under the rules under which they began; their trainees acquire the rights set out herein without any application.