The French System: Cotation, Confirmation & the European Circuit

An American hunter looks at his dog and asks a simple question: can it find birds and bring them back? A French breeder looks at the same dog and asks a far harder one: has this dog earned the right to pass its blood forward? That difference in temperament — the patient, almost bureaucratic French insistence on proof before breeding — is the engine that has kept the Griffon a true working breed for a hundred and twenty years. To understand it, you have to understand the strangest, most rigorous grading machine in the dog world: the French cotation.

Fair warning: this is the deep end of the pool. Most American owners will never confirm a dog in France or chase a CACIT across Europe. But every American owner benefits from understanding the system, because it is the template our own NAVHDA testing was modeled on, and it explains why a good Griffon is built the way it is. If you arrived here from the France history article, this is the machinery that story was pointing toward.

The Players: SCC, FCI, and the Club du Griffon Korthals

Three bodies govern a French Griffon’s life. The Club Français du Griffon Korthals is the breed parent club, organizing the selection events. The Société Centrale Canine (SCC) is France’s national kennel club — the equivalent of the AKC — which maintains the studbook (the LOF) and owns the cotation system. And the FCI sits above it all as the international federation that recognizes the breed standard and sanctions the cross-border circuit (Club du Griffon Korthals).

Step One: Confirmation — the License to Breed

In France a dog is not automatically considered purebred for breeding just because its parents were. It must pass confirmation (conformité au standard) — an examination by a breed expert certifying the adult dog conforms to the standard and carries no disqualifying faults. The Club Français is blunt about what it is: “a breeding authorization that can only be granted after examination by an expert,” designed to catch any transmissible genetic fault or deviation from the standard before the dog reproduces (Club Français Confirmation).

Until a dog is confirmed, it holds only a birth certificate, not a full pedigree définitif. After passing, the paperwork goes to the SCC within a year, the breed club validates it, and the SCC issues the definitive pedigree (FrenchEntrée). For an American owner, this is the relevant door: a US-bred Griffon imported to France for LOF registration must undergo confirmation under the “import” title (Club Français Confirmation).

Step Two: The TAN — Prove the Instinct Is There

The TAN (Test d’Aptitudes Naturelles, Natural Aptitude Test) is the French cousin of the NAVHDA Natural Ability test. Open to dogs aged 6 to 36 months, it evaluates three innate qualities: hunting instinct (the dog’s ardor in searching for game), pointing instinct, and equilibrium (behavioral balance) (Club Français TAN Regulations). Dogs already classified at official field trials are exempt — their ability is considered proven. The TAN is the gateway: it is required for cotation level 2 and underpins every level above it.

The Cotation: A Number That Says Everything

Here is the heart of it. The cotation is a grade from 1 to 6 that prints right on a dog’s pedigree and tells any breeder, at a glance, both the dog’s own quality and its value as a breeding animal. Each breed club maintains its own grille de sélection — selection grid — under SCC authority. The current Griffon Korthals grid was published in June 2025 (SCC Griffon Korthals Grille).

Source: SCC Griffon Korthals Selection Grid (June 2025); Club Français cotation instructions.

The Working Certificates: CACT, CACIT, BICP

The cotation’s working requirements are earned at field events with their own alphabet. A CACT (Certificat d’Aptitude au Championnat de Travail) is a national working certificate for a faultless, exceptional field performance. The CACIT is its international equivalent, awarded only at FCI-sanctioned events — and only one per event, with at least six dogs competing (FCI Field Trial Rules). The BICP (International Practical Hunting Certificate), FCI-recognized since 1995, is a practical-hunting test scored by category that feeds the cotation at level 3.

Stack enough of these and a dog can become an International Working Champion (C.I.T.) — requiring two CACITs (or one plus two reserves) under different national organizations and different judges, plus a conformation qualification (FCI Field Trial Rules).

The European Circuit

At the top sit two great annual contests. The Spring European Cup, created in 1985 by the FCI’s Continental Pointer commission, pits national teams against each other on spring game, endowed with CACT and CACIT and scored on a points ladder. The World Championship of Practical Hunting for Pointers, created in 1978, runs each autumn in a different country and demands both fieldwork and a mandatory water retrieve on a live duck in deep water; the dog standing first is crowned World Champion for the year (FCI Field Trial Rules).

Why a Montana Owner Should Care

You may never file a single form in French. But the cotation explains the dog under your hand. NAVHDA was built on this same German-French model of natural-ability-then-utility testing — the TAN maps to NAVHDA’s Natural Ability test, the French autumn trial with retrieve maps to NAVHDA’s Utility test (research synthesis; NAVHDA history). When you understand what the French are measuring and why they refuse to breed a dog that has not proven it, you understand exactly what your NAVHDA test is really for. The proof-before-breeding ethic is the same; only the flag is different.

That brings the heritage circle to a close. To bring it home, see our guide to choosing a North American registry, meet the American breed club that carries this tradition stateside, and — when you are ready to put your own dog on the line — the NAVHDA deep-dive in our Field Tests series.