Message from USCA DOJ Nathaniel Roque
Hi USCA Members,
We have a number of newer Regional Directors and newly formed clubs/members, and it has been brought to my attention that some basic Guidelines and Requirements have not been correctly met.
1. Membership requirements to be a USCA Full Member Club is a minimum of 5 current USCA members in good standing. No more than 2 of the 5 club members can be from the same household to be counted against the required 5 members.
2. To remain a Full Member Club at least 1 USCA authorized event a year must be held by the club. Authorized events are USCA Trials, Breed Shows, Breed Surveys or USCA Tracking or Helper seminars using USCA Teaching Tracklayers or Helpers. Training seminars are not accepted as part of the annual event requirement. Training Seminars (Tracklayer or Helper) may only be used for the annual requirement once and then a trial, show, survey must be hosted before another seminar can be used for annual requirement.
3. Co-hosted events only give credit to 1 of the clubs for the yearly event requirement.
4. If a club cannot host a yearly event, they may request a 1-time waiver for that calendar year from their Regional Director. Clubs may not receive 2 years in a row waiver.
5. Clubs may use the same judge 2 events in a row before being required to use a different judge.
6. Clubs may host a trial under the same authorization for both IGP and USP. IGP and USP entries may show on the same day.
7. Judges that will be approved for USCA events must be licensed from a WUSV member organization. This is because all titles earned at USCA events are WUSV GSD Breed recognized towards Breed Surveys.
8. If a club is going to offer USP titles and is using a non-USCA Judge, be sure to check that they are willing and able to award USP titles.
9. All non-USCA judges must have a release from their licensing organization to judge a USCA event. SV judge requests are processed through the USCA office.
10. USCA Regions may have their own “Regional Guidelines /Rules” as long as they do not violate any USCA Bylaws, Rules or Regulations set by the national organization.
11. A new USCA IGP/USP rulebook and BH written exam (the BH written exam is required for all first-time handlers entering a Trial) will be released within the next 2-4 weeks. All evaluation criteria and exercise descriptions are the same as the 2025 FCI trial rules. One of the delays in producing the new rulebook is that some clarifications of correct exercise evaluation are still being decided and released. We wanted the book to be as complete as possible.
The USCA Rulebook includes additional information and USCA-approved variances.
Best of Luck in Your Training and Trials.
Nathaniel Roque
USCA Director of Judges