The Fédération Cynologique Internationale, known as FCI, is the largest international federation of national kennel clubs, with 98 members and contract partners, one per country. Its obedience program runs on three classes, Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3, each raising the bar on precision, distance, and how much a dog works from instruction alone rather than a handler’s visual cues.
FCI works differently from AKC. AKC is one national body governing trials across the US. FCI is an international federation instead, and its 98 member countries each run obedience under FCI’s shared rules. AKC, Canada’s CKC, and the UK’s Kennel Club aren’t FCI members. They run independently, under their own separate agreements. FCI’s Class 1/2/3 system is one obedience system among several worldwide, alongside AKC’s Novice, Open, and Utility system and the UK Kennel Club’s own regulations.
The Class Progression
FCI’s obedience path runs through three classes, in order. Most FCI-affiliated countries also run a novice or beginner class before Class 1, a non-gating warmup similar to AKC’s Beginner Novice.
Age minimums aren’t fixed by FCI itself. Each national kennel club sets its own rule, and FCI only supplies a default when a country hasn’t specified one: 10 months minimum for Class 1, 15 months minimum for Class 3. AKC fixes one age minimum instead, 6 months, for every class, in every country running AKC trials.
Moving up a class needs just one qualifying “Excellent” score, not three. Three Excellent scores matter later, for titles and awards, but a dog can climb from Class 1 to Class 2 to Class 3 after a single top grade in each. AKC’s ladder works differently: a dog needs three qualifying legs before it can even move up to the next class.
- Class 1: 10 months minimum age (national default), 1 Excellent score to move up
- Class 2: no separate FCI-wide age floor, 1 Excellent score to move up
- Class 3: 15 months minimum age (national default), the top class, 3 Excellent scores from 2 different judges toward a National Obedience Champion title
Class 1
Class 1 asks for real distance work from the first class, not just heeling and stays. That’s a genuine structural difference from AKC’s Novice level, which stays leash-based longer and doesn’t introduce distance-cued position changes until Open. Class 1’s own group exercise runs on the same steadiness PetCoach’s guide on teaching a reliable stay builds from the first rep.
- Sitting in a Group: group steadiness with the handler still in sight, an easier first version of the group stay
- Heelwork: moving as a unit at the handler’s side through pace changes and turns
- Position Under March: dropping into one commanded position, stand, sit, or down, without stopping mid-walk
- Recall: a straight, prompt return to the handler from a distance
- Send Away Into a Square: sending the dog forward into a marked area and dropping it there, entirely at a distance
- Distance Control: cycling the dog through four sit and down changes from a distance, cued by a steward’s signal board the handler can’t see
- Retrieve Over a Hurdle: fetching a thrown dumbbell over a low jump, in both directions
- Send Around Cones or a Barrel: directing the dog to circle an obstacle at a distance and return to heel
- General Impression: a scored category of its own, judged on willingness, teamwork, and precision across the whole run
Storm, one of PetCoach’s dogs in training, is working through this exact kind of position-change work below. His front paws keep drifting during the transition between positions, the same front-fixed sit and down mechanic that Position Under March and Distance Control both grade on directly. The stacking bars in the clip were built in-house, giving him a clear physical reference for where his front paws are supposed to stay through the change.
Class 2
Class 2 keeps every Class 1 skill and pushes it further, while adding two exercises AKC saves for its top class.
- Lying in a Group: the group down-stay, now two minutes long and with handlers out of sight entirely
- Heelwork: the same core test, run through a more demanding pattern
- Stand, Sit, or Down Under March: position-under-march again, now holding two different positions in one pass instead of one
- Recall With a Stand: a recall interrupted partway by a stand command, then finished
- Send Away, Down, and Recall: the Class 1 send-away extended with a recall back out of the square
- Directed Retrieve: fetching one of two marked dumbbells on the handler’s left or right direction, not just whatever was thrown
- Scent Discrimination: picking the handler’s own scented object out of a set of identical decoys, by scent alone
- Distance Control: the position-cycling exercise from Class 1, now with six changes instead of four
- Send Around Cones, Stop, and Jump: the send-away exercise combined with a stop and a jump on the way back
- General Impression
Scent discrimination and directed retrieve are AKC’s two signature Utility exercises, its top tier. FCI asks for both a class earlier, at Class 2. Class 3 adds its own difficulty a different way, chaining skills together inside a single exercise and pulling the handler out of sight earlier and for longer during group work.
Class 3
Class 3 is FCI’s top class, and it’s also the exact ruleset used at FCI’s biggest international events.
- Group Exercises: sitting for two minutes and lying for one, both with handlers out of sight, ending in a recall out of the down
- Heelwork: the same test, at its most demanding pace and pattern
- Positions Under March and Recall: position-under-march folded together with a recall in the same pass
- Recall With Stand, Sit, or Down: a recall with an even later, less predictable interruption command
- Send Away, Directing, Down, and Recall
- Directed Retrieve: three dumbbells, left, middle, or right, instead of two
- Send Around Cones, Stop, Retrieve, and Jump: a stop, a retrieve, and a jump chained into one sequence
- Scent Discrimination
- Distance Control: six position changes, judged to the class’s tightest tolerance
Class 3’s exercises and scoring are the exact ruleset used at FCI-CACIOB international trials and at FCI World and Section Winner Championships. A dog’s domestic top class and the format used at the sport’s biggest international stage are the same ruleset, with no separate, harder championship-only exercise list layered on top.
Class 3 alone also carries a discretionary penalty system alongside the normal point scoring. A yellow card is a warning that costs 10 points on its own. A second yellow, or a straight red card, disqualifies the dog on the spot. Neither Class 1 nor Class 2 uses this system.
Scoring and Titles
Judges grade every exercise from 0 to 10, then multiply that grade by the exercise’s own coefficient, 2 to 4 depending on the exercise. Points sum to a 320-point maximum per class.
FCI uses three tiered qualifying grades instead of one pass line:
- Excellent (1st prize): 80 percent or higher, 256 to 320 points
- Very good (2nd prize): 70 to 79.9 percent, 224 to 255 points
- Good (3rd prize): 60 to 69.9 percent, 192 to 223 points
- Below 60 percent: Not Qualified
AKC works differently, with one qualifying line at 170 out of 200 points, 85 percent, plus a floor of over 50 percent on every individual exercise. FCI’s tiered grading is a genuinely different scoring model, not just a different number attached to the same idea.
Titles differ in kind between the two systems too. FCI’s National Obedience Champion, a nationally defined title FCI recommends, typically needs three Excellent scores in Class 3 from at least two different judges. The FCI-CACIOB, FCI’s international certificate, goes only to the winner of Class 3 at a given international trial, with a reserve FCI-CACIOB for the runner-up. That’s a placement-based award, earned against the field on the day, not a qualifying score any dog can hit on its own. AKC’s UD title works the other way: any dog can earn it purely by qualifying three times, regardless of where it placed against the field.
One scoring category ties straight back to something we already believe at PetCoach. Class 1, 2, and 3 all include General Impression as its own scored category, judged on the dog’s willingness to work and how well handler and dog show mutual enjoyment together, not the individual exercises alone. A dog that goes through the motions loses points here even with clean technique everywhere else, the same standard we train to whether a dog is stepping into a competition ring or just living in your home.
The FCI World Championship
AKC has nothing quite like this. FCI’s Class 3 ruleset doubles as the format for a standing, regulated event where countries genuinely compete against each other, the FCI World or Section Winner Championship.
Each country enters a national team of six competitors, plus up to three reserve dogs. A team’s score comes from its three best competitors in the qualifying rounds.
The event runs three days, Friday through Sunday. The team competition runs Friday and Saturday, judged across two rings by judges representing different countries. The top 20 individual competitors from those qualifying rounds move on to Sunday’s individual final, where the highest total score wins the individual title.
Representing a country comes with real eligibility rules, not just an entry fee. A dog needs at least 12 months registered in that country’s studbook. An owner needs that country’s nationality, or at least 12 months of legal residence there. A handler can represent only one country at a time.
FCI runs one official Winner Championship per section each year, and it alternates between a “World Winner” and a “Section Winner,” such as “European Winner,” depending on where that year’s Dog Show falls. It isn’t literally a World Championship every single year in every section.
AKC’s own top event, the National Obedience Championship, is an individual invitational built on national ranking, not a team event and not international. None of this six-dog-team structure matters for the average pet dog working through functional obedience at home, but it’s what separates FCI’s top class from a purely domestic ruleset.
How FCI Differs From AKC
FCI and AKC share the same broad shape, three classes building toward more precision and distance, but the details diverge in ways worth knowing before assuming one system’s rules carry over to the other.
- Age minimums: FCI sets a default only, 10 months for Class 1 and 15 months for Class 3, left to national kennel clubs to adjust. AKC fixes one 6-month minimum centrally.
- Moving up a level: FCI needs one qualifying Excellent score. AKC needs three qualifying legs.
- Scoring model: FCI grades on three tiers, Good, Very good, Excellent. AKC uses a single qualifying line plus a per-exercise floor.
- Scent work and directed retrieve: FCI introduces both at Class 2, its middle tier. AKC saves both for Utility, its top tier.
- Titles: FCI’s international certificate is placement-based, awarded to the trial winner. AKC’s UD is a qualifying-score title any dog can earn on its own.
- International team competition: FCI’s Class 3 ruleset doubles as its World and Section Championship format, with defined national-team rules. AKC’s top event is an individual invitational, with no international team structure.
FAQ
What Do FCI Class 1, 2, and 3 Mean?
Class 1, 2, and 3 are FCI’s three obedience classes, run in order from foundational to most demanding. A dog needs one qualifying Excellent score in its current class before moving up to the next one.
Is FCI Harder Than AKC Obedience?
Not simply harder or easier, just structured differently. FCI asks for scent discrimination and directed retrieve a class earlier than AKC does, while AKC’s single qualifying line is stricter than FCI’s lowest passing tier.
Can I Train Without Competing?
Yes. The exercises themselves build a level of precision and focus that’s genuinely useful for a well-trained pet dog, even without ever entering a trial.
Curious what obedience training looks like for your own dog, competition or not? Talk to PetCoach’s team about a plan built around what your dog actually needs.
