On 18th March 2023, the Annual Meeting took place and this was followed by an Ordinary Meeting.  Here are the Chairman's synopses from both and the reports from the Breed Education Coordinator and the Breed Health Coordinator.

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Synopsis of Annual Meeting of the UK Whippet Breed Council held via Google Meet on 18th March 2023.  Nine of the ten paid-up member clubs were represented at this meeting, as well as the

Breed Health Coordinator (BHC), Breed Education Coordinator (BEC), ViceChairman, Secretary, Treasurer, and three observers were present.

Minutes of the 2022 Annual Meeting held on 20th January were approved by the member clubs present, proposed by NWA (Katie McDonald) and seconded by MWC (Rachel Hambling). There were no matters arising.

In the Chairman's report a mention was given to Whippet friends lost through the last year and a minute's silence was observed.

The Treasurer, George Poole gave a clear and concise update on finances of the BC and was duly thanked. The Breed Health Coordinator gave her report which is available to see in full of the

BC website and FB page and the Breed Education Coordinator gave her report which is also available to see on the BC website and FB page.

George Poole was elected for a 3-year term as Treasurer. Proposed by EAWC and seconded by SYWC, supported by all clubs. Other officers were returned unopposed. Chairman (Jan Wood) has the current year to serve, Vice Chairman (Roger Perkins), Secretary (Mel Sampson), and BHC (Jo Whitehead) all have a 2-year term to serve.

The BEC position sits outside the Annual Meeting Elections.

Subscriptions for member clubs are set at £100.00. It was proposed by NCWC and seconded by SYWC that they remain at this figure.

Two amendments to the BC constitution were agreed.

The title should include The UK prior to the wording Whippet Breed Council this was agreed. The Council shall now be called The UK Whippet Breed Council. Additional wording is added to 3g, it now reads as follows - Full members of

Breed Clubs may attend Breed Council meetings as Observers but cannot vote. At the discretion of the Chairman, they may be invited to participate in the debate as deemed appropriate to the item being discussed. It should be understood by Club Representatives and Observers that matters discussed within the meeting can

sometimes be sensitive and therefore it is expected that Breed Council business will not be discussed outside of their club’s committee meeting.

Jan Wood, Chairman UK Whippet Breed Council

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Synopsis of Ordinary Meetings of the UK Whippet Breed Council held via Google Meet on 18th March 2023.

On opening the meeting, the Chairman asked for remembrances and condolences to be noted in the minutes. Ten clubs were represented at the Meeting, present were the officers of the UKWBC, the BEC, the BHC, and three observers.

The minutes of the previous meeting were read and approved.

Matters Arising - The definition of show classes for racing and lure coursing is a work in progress. It was reported that Breed Clubs do not support any amendment to the Breed Standard

regarding movement. The Treasurer reported that all Breed Clubs had paid their subscriptions. Northern Ireland Whippet Club has opted not to subscribe to UK Breed Council.

A discussion was had on the merits and demerits of publicising heart test results and the difficulty of getting information required to progress matters from the KC. A lengthy discussion took place regarding Breed Appreciation Days and concerns were expressed that it was becoming increasingly difficult to fill these days. Clubs are expected to run a BAD at least every two years and with the number of clubs involved, it is not seeming to be easy to find enough candidates. It was suggested that perhaps clubs could get together and/or BADs could be run regionally. The BEC is going to

discuss this with The Kennel Club. Candidates on BADs will be provided with an online pdf version of Pam Marston-Pollock’s The Illustrated Extended Breed

Standard. It is watermarked for each BAD. If you have attended a BAD and not received a copy please get in touch with the Breed Council Secretary.

An update on WOTY was given and it is hoped that for 2023 this will be a stand-alone event.

Jan Wood, Chairman, UK Whippet Breed Council

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BREED COUNCIL REPORT FROM THE BEC MARCH 2023

Much has happened since my last communication. MWC held its BAD/MCE in November 22 and NIWC held (with much help from Mel) an online BAD/MCE in December 22. This was attended mostly by all-rounders, and it is positive that there are those who are willing to advance their knowledge of the breed before they accept a CC appointment or judge the breed in Stakes classes.

At the end of 2022, I produced a report for the KC detailing the activities that the clubs had been holding. 68 people have taken the MCE and 56 have passed. There has been 32 one-to-one mentoring sessions and 3 group mentoring sessions. I now have 3 people ready for observations at club shows. I wasn’t expecting to have to report on Clubs who did supported entries, the club for which they were supporting, the name of the judge and the number of entries, so please can secretaries please make a note of their supported entry details and forward them to me ,either at the time or in December each year. Thank you in advance!

WCoW held their BAD/MCE in February 23 and the combined WC/NWA is to be held on May 1st. Please encourage people with Whippets to attend. They don’t have to do the MCE they can just come and learn more about the breed standard. It would be rewarding if some of the attendees were juniors to enable & nurture their knowledge as they will be the future of the breed. NCWC are also holding a BAD/MCE 13th May in Preston with group mentoring to follow. Can you impress upon the mentees that it is their responsibility to contact me in order to progress through the JEP system? I feel that this is not being utilised to advantage. SYWC will hold a BAD/MCE in November and as yet I am still waiting for SWWC and WCoS to contact me with regards to their events. I now have a full list of people who have taken the MCE and are on Level 2, unfortunately, many contact details are missing so if you know anyone who is on Level 2 can you get them to check their details with me, please. A breed speakers meeting was held in January where a discussion took place about some of the issues raised by the feedback forms. A formula for the presentation was agreed upon so that all our candidates for the BAD/MCE have the same experience whether they are in Scotland or down in the South West .of England Once again I thank all the mentors and breed speakers for their time and enthusiasm to ensure that the breed continues to move forward with the times.

whippeteducation906@gmail.com

07719637969 & WhatsApp or 01246 467560

Editha Newton (Note added by BC Secretary. Please note that the NCWC has now linked with WCOS and the BAD is being held at Middlebie Community Centre on 13th May.)

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Breed Health Coordinator Report: Annual Meeting 2023

The Kennel Club has still not provided the heart statement that was originally requested/agreed to last summer. I am also still waiting for contact from the KC Cardiology board lead, Hannah Stephenson. This has also been chased up by our Chair but still to no avail. It is extremely frustrating. SYWC kindly hosted the most recent group testing session at their February double-open shows. The cardiologist was Emily Dutton who has done a lot of Whippets over the last few years. 39 Whippets were tested and as well as show breeders, there was an uptake from pet breeders who attended purely to get their dog's heart tested. I think this demonstrates how the message around the importance of testing is spreading and that the KC recommendation has been helpful. The Whippet Club host the next session at their Championship Show in April.

Dave Fisher has been booked as the cardiologist.

SYWC added a small fee to the cost of testing for each dog and their Committee has very kindly agreed to donate the surplus from the day to Breed Council to go towards heart testing. If other Clubs could consider doing this in the future it could allow us to build up a health fund. The BHC and BC Secretary helped to facilitate the clinic on the day and would be happy to continue to do this so that Clubs only need to offer

the space. Moving forward, my intention is to publish results from group sessions. The format of this will include the number of dogs tested and the number at each grade / clear. I will start with the SYWC session but wanted to wait until after the meeting so that Clubs were informed of this move. I think that this is a logical next step. 37 of the 39 dogs tested at SYWC were clear. Health test results for individual dogs are published in other breeds. For example, the Boxer Breed Council collates and publishes a list of dogs with clear or grade 1 test results. This is something that I believe we need to move towards and implement. There is no capacity to back date and we would like a list to be current – so only those that have been tested within 2 years to appear on it, then will drop off. I

would like our list to consist of clear results only due to the advice around low-grade murmurs that will be published (when the KC finally produces it!).

Jo Whitehead

Breed Health Coordinator