Decoding the Letters in a Griffon’s Name: A Guide to Title Acronyms

You are reading a puppy listing, or a pedigree, or a stud-dog ad, and the dog’s name has turned into a runway of capital letters: GCH CH Kennel’s Famous Dog MH, or VC Wyo Plainsman Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I. To a newcomer it looks like a secret handshake. It is not. Every one of those letters is a title — a thing the dog actually did, in front of a judge, often more than once — and once you know the five organizations that hand them out, the whole string reads as plainly as a résumé.

This is a decoder. We will walk the common acronyms you will see on a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon’s name — from NAVHDA, AKC conformation, AKC hunt tests, AKC field trials, the UKC, and NSTRA — and tell you, in plain English, what each one means and how hard it was to earn. We are not cataloguing every title the AKC offers (agility, obedience, rally, tracking and the rest are real, but they are not what a bird-dog person is squinting at). We are decoding the titles you will actually meet on a hunting Griffon.

First, the one rule that unlocks everything: prefix vs. suffix

Here is the single most useful thing to know before you decode anything. Titles come in two positions, and the position tells you how the title was won.

• Prefix titles (before the name) are almost always championships — competitive titles earned by beating other dogs. CH, GCH, FC, VC all sit in front.
• Suffix titles (after the name) are almost always pass/fail tests — earned by meeting a written standard, regardless of how any other dog did. JH, SH, MH, and the NAVHDA test results all sit behind.

So in GCH CH Famous Dog MH, the dog is a Grand Champion and Champion in the show ring (prefixes, competitive) and a Master Hunter in the field (suffix, pass/fail). The position is not decoration — it is information. The reason this distinction exists at all is the deepest idea in the whole testing world, and it has its own article: field trials vs. hunt tests.

NAVHDA — the versatile-dog system built for this breed

If a Griffon carries only one set of letters, it is most likely these. NAVHDA (the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) is the testing system architected for Continental breeds like ours, and its results read a little differently from everyone else’s: each test is a pass with a Prize level (I, II, or III) plus a numeric score, and they all stack up behind the dog’s name — except the top championship, which moves to the front.

You will usually see the Prize as a Roman numeral after the test, like NA I (Natural Ability, Prize I — the highest) or UT II. So VC Kenobi NA I, UPT III, UT I reads: a Versatile Champion who earned a Prize I in Natural Ability, a Prize III in the prep test, and a Prize I in Utility. That is a complete, top-of-the-ladder versatile dog. The full rung-by-rung walk lives in our NAVHDA deep-dive.

AKC Conformation — the show ring (prefixes)

These are the “beauty” titles — the bench show, judging structure and breed type against the written standard. They are competitive (you earn points by beating other dogs), so they sit in front of the name.

How the show ring actually works — points, majors, the stack and the gait — is covered in AKC conformation: showing your Griffon.

AKC Hunt Tests — pass/fail in the field (suffixes)

Now the field titles most American Griffon owners pursue. AKC pointing-breed hunt tests are pass/fail against a standard — your dog is not racing other dogs, it just has to do the job at the required level enough times to title. Because they are not competitive, they go after the name. Each level needs multiple qualifying runs (“legs”).

The leg counts, the five-point scoring floor, and exactly what each level demands are laid out in AKC hunt tests for pointing breeds.

AKC Field Trials — fully competitive (prefixes)

Field trials are the other AKC field game, and they are a different animal entirely: dogs compete against each other for placements, and points scale to the number of starters. Because these are championships won by beating the field, the titles are prefixes.

UKC — the working-dog registry’s own ladder

The UKC runs a parallel set of titles with its own abbreviations, built around a walking, hunt-like format that fits the Griffon well. Its pointing-dog program blends the test and the trial, so you will see both pass/fail entry titles and competitive championships.

That stack — TAN and the Water Retrieve up through GUN, CHF and GRCHF — is exactly the ladder our own foundation dam, Whiskeytown’s Pepper TAN WRT, is climbing. The two suffix titles she already carries — her UKC TAN (Natural Ability) and WRT (Water Retrieve) — sit after her name precisely because they are pass/fail tests, and she is running for her GUN title this fall (2026) — with her AKC Junior Hunter in the same season. The whole program, rung by rung, is mapped out in the UKC pointing dog program.

NSTRA — the walking trial that feels like a hunt

NSTRA (the National Shoot To Retrieve Association) is a competitive walking trial where handlers shoot their own birds over their own dogs — the most hunt-like competitive game a Griffon can play. Its titling is points-based, and there is one wrinkle worth knowing.

How a NSTRA brace is scored, why backing is mandatory, and what the title run feels like are in NSTRA explained.

Putting it together: read a real name

With the decoder in hand, a fearsome-looking name becomes simple. Take DC GCH Kennel’s Good Dog MH: a Dual Champion (both a show Champion and a Field Champion — the rare double), also a Grand Champion in the ring, and a Master Hunter in the field. Looks, competitive field wins, and finished hunt-test manners, all in one dog. Or VC Kennel’s River NA I, UT I: a NAVHDA Versatile Champion who aced both the Natural Ability and Utility tests — a top versatile hunter with nothing left to prove in the system built for the breed.

And remember the one rule that does most of the work: letters in front of the name were won by beating other dogs; letters behind it were earned by passing a standard. Once you see that, you can read almost any Griffon’s résumé at a glance.