Utility Group

Utility Group is the name of a breed group of dogs, used by kennel clubs to classify a defined collection of dog breeds. How Utility Group is defined varies among kennel clubs, and different kennel clubs may not include the same breeds in their Utility Group. Some kennel clubs do not use the Utility Group classification. Utility Group is not a term used by the international kennel club association, the Fédération Cynologique Internationale, which more finely divides its breed groupings by dog type and breed history.

There are two different kennel club definitions of Utility Group. In one, dogs which do not fit elsewhere are placed in the Utility Group, and in the other, certain breeds of working dogs are designated as part of the Utility Group.

The Kennel Club (UK) places in the Utility Group dog breeds that do not quite fit in other groups, such as the Shih Tzu, which other kennel clubs place in the Toy Group, but the Kennel Club does not, as it considers them to be too large. Other dogs are placed in the Kennel Club's Utility Group because the working purpose for which they were originally bred "has now become redundant", such as the function of the Dalmatian to run alongside horse-drawn coaches. The Kennel Club defines "Utility" as meaning fitness for a purpose, taken to mean fitness for a purpose not covered by other Groups. Therefore, there is little relationship between the breeds in this Group.

The New Zealand Kennel Club and the Australian National Kennel Council each recognize a Utility Group, with a different emphasis. In Australia and New Zealand, the Utility Group includes large breeds of , large Spitz types, as well as guard, rescue, and messenger dogs.

Other major kennel clubs in the English-speaking world that do not use the Utility Group category include the American Kennel Club and the Canadian Kennel Club. How the Utility Group breeds are placed by those kennel clubs and by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale are detailed in the section on Utility Group breeds.

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