Competitive Classes in CFA: Championship

January 27, 2026

Proofreading Breeding Cats

Teresa Keiger

This article is part of a mini-series explaining the classes that cats and kittens compete in at a CFA cat show.

Last month, we learned about the Kitten class, where kittens aged four to eight months old often begin their show career. But where do they go when they become eight months old?

The two classes for adult cats in CFA are Championship and Premiership (and Premiership will be our topic for next time). Championship is the class for intact, unaltered cats aged eight months old or older. The purpose of this class is to evaluate the cat against its breed’s standard, to ensure that it does meet all the breed’s requirements. Males are also checked to be certain that both testicles are descended.

Why are these evaluations important? The cats in Championship will more than likely end up in a breeder’s breeding program. As breeding cats, it is important that they possess all the attributes of their breed, and none of the disqualifying attributes as documented in their breed standard. It is not enough that the pedigree documents their heritage. Just as a sire or dam may pass on their good qualities, they can also pass on their bad qualities. In short: the Championship class can impact a cat’s contributions to their owner’s breeding program.

A complete definition of the Championship class is available at CFA show rule 2.09, but here is a synopsis of the four classes within the Championship class:

1. Novice Class: for unregistered intact cats who have a pedigree which would allow the cat to be registered in CFA, but has not as of yet been registered. If the cat’s owner wishes to continue to show them, then he/she will have to register the cat with CFA.
2. Open Class: where most cats in Championship begin. At least two different judges in six different rings must examine the cat and find it without a disqualifying feature or withholding an award on it. I sometimes think of this as “proofreading” the cat. After the cat has completed its six qualifying rings, its owner then submits a champion claim form listing the judges and show(s), and pays a fee for confirmation. CFA then awards the cat its champion title. (note: four qualifying rings are required for cats living outside of Regions 1-9).
   See Article XXVII of the CFA Show Rules for complete information.
3. Champion Class: Many cats will continue to compete as champions as they work towards their grand champion title. In order to earn its grand champion title, a champion must defeat 200 other champions. This might be in class judging when a cat takes best champion of its breed or division, and also in a judge’s final when receiving a longhair, shorthair, or allbreed champion award. (note: the number of cats to defeat varies outside of Regions 1-9, based on the number of cats in the scoring area. See Show Rule 28.04).Champions can also earn points for other titles and awards at the same time (regional or breed awards, for example). I often explain that champions are running two different races: one for their grand title, and one for breed or regional/national awards.
4. Grand Champion Class: the cat has defeated the requisite number of champions and earned the title of grand champion. The cat might retire into the breeder’s breeding program, or may continue to show, working towards end-of-season awards at the breed, regional, or national level.

This is a brief overview of how cats earn titles. Cat Talk will have a separate article about how breed scoring is done soon.

Why is Earning These Titles Important?

A titled cat is a cat which has been evaluated by several expert judges who have judged it as a deserving example of its breed, with no disqualifying faults. A cat’s title will follow it everywhere, including pedigrees. If someone sees a multi generation pedigree with several champions, grand champions, breed winners, and regional/national winners in its ancestry, they know that the breeder has a legitimate breeding program that they have spent time building. They know that the cat they are looking at really is the breed that the breeder claims it to be. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be an occasional untitled cat in a pedigree. Not every cat is a show cat (yet still may have valuable ancestry), or perhaps the breeder wasn’t able to show the cat for other reasons.

Additional Information About the Championship Class

As the cats in this class are intact, they can naturally also exhibit the behaviors that hormones trigger. It is not unusual for females to be in season and display mating behaviors in the judging ring, such as treading. Sometimes males decide to announce their availability (or mark their territory) by spraying their cage. Judges understand these behaviors and will not penalize the cat. However, some hormonal influences can cause a cat to be aggressive, making him a danger to both the judge and exhibitor. An aggressive cat should not be shown, and CFA show rules state that if a cat is disqualified for biting judges three times, then the cat can no longer be shown.

Hormones can also influence a cat’s desire to eat. This and other factors can cause a cat’s body and coat to fall out of condition. Should the desire to breed overwhelm the cat’s physique and temperament, it is better that the exhibitor stop showing the cat, and begin preparing him/her for breeding.

The Championship class is like a preview of the future of any breed, as these are the cats which will be producing the cats of tomorrow. The decisions that both judges and breeders make about these cats will influences how CFA’s variety of breeds will progress.