Confederação Brasileira de Cinofilia (CBKC): Brazil’s National Kennel Club
Confederação Brasileira de Cinofilia (CBKC): Brazil’s National Kennel Club
Brazil is home to native breeds found nowhere else in the world, and the organization that registers, standardizes, and represents them internationally is the Confederação Brasileira de Cinofilia (CBKC). Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, CBKC was created as the successor to the agreements of the former Brasil Kennel Clube and today stands as the sole representative of the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) system in Brazil. The confederation congregates state federations and kennel clubs corresponding to roughly ninety associations headquartered in state capitals and municipalities across the country.
Most recently, CBKC entered a cooperation agreement with the American Kennel Club (AKC) in December 2025, extending its international reach beyond the FCI network.
The Role of CBKC in Brazilian Dog Ownership
CBKC establishes breeding standards, issues registrations and pedigrees, and promotes exhibitions and awards for purebred dogs throughout Brazil. Its registration system is notably layered: it issues blue pedigrees for FCI-recognized breeds, brown certificates of racial purity, and red certificates for what it calls Group 11 — a category CBKC itself created for breeds not recognized by the FCI, including Brazil’s own native dogs and foreign breeds recognized by non-FCI kennel clubs elsewhere.
That Group 11 structure matters because Brazil has produced several distinctive native breeds — among them the Fila Brasileiro, Brazilian Terrier, Dogue Brasileiro, and Campeiro Bulldog — and CBKC’s own classification system gives these dogs an official path to registration and exhibition even where FCI recognition has not (yet) been extended.
What Confederação Brasileira de Cinofilia Does
| Function | With CBKC Registration | Without It |
|---|---|---|
| Pedigree registration | Blue (FCI breeds), brown (racial purity), or red (Group 11) certificates issued | No formally recognized pedigree of any kind |
| International recognition | Standing through FCI membership, plus a cooperation agreement with the AKC since December 2025 | No recognized standing with either FCI or AKC networks |
| Native breed registration | Group 11 pathway for Brazilian breeds like the Fila Brasileiro and Dogue Brasileiro | No official channel for registering native, non-FCI breeds |
| Show participation | Eligible for CBKC-affiliated shows, work tests, and agility events | Excluded from official Brazilian and FCI-aligned show circuits |
3 Real-World Scenarios
- A breeder in São Paulo whelping a litter of Fila Brasileiro puppies uses CBKC’s Group 11 registration path since the breed sits outside standard FCI classification.
- A handler in Rio de Janeiro preparing a purebred Poodle for an FCI-recognized show confirms the litter’s blue pedigree is properly registered with CBKC beforehand.
- A kennel club in a state capital affiliates with CBKC to gain access to the confederation’s judge certification and official show calendar for its region.
2 Brazil Kennel Facts
- CBKC congregates state federations and kennel clubs corresponding to roughly ninety associations across Brazilian state capitals and municipalities, and is the sole FCI representative in the country.
- CBKC created Group 11, its own registration category for breeds not recognized by the FCI, giving native Brazilian dogs such as the Fila Brasileiro, Brazilian Terrier, Dogue Brasileiro, and Campeiro Bulldog an official path to registration.
