Breeding

United Kingdom

Issuing club: The Royal Kennel Club (formerly, and still partly styled, The Kennel Club)

Nothing breed-specific is required.

Eye testing under the BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme Recommended · Both parents
An Assured Breeder Scheme RECOMMENDATION, not a requirement.

BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme examiner. Not the same scheme as ECVO, and not interchangeable with it.

Who may do it: Find an eye panellist — BVA/KC/ISDS Eye Scheme · British Veterinary Association, with The Royal Kennel Club and the International Sheep Dog Society
Bile acid testing of puppies Recommended · Every puppy
An Assured Breeder Scheme RECOMMENDATION. Screens for portosystemic shunt - the same concern the Netherlands makes mandatory.

Veterinary bile acid test.

Your choice — No panel or approved-provider list exists. The liver shunt test is an ordinary bile-acid blood test rather than a recognised screening scheme, so any veterinarian may do it. Breed clubs recommend it; the Kennel Club does not list it.

Dogs registered elsewhere

Outside the FCI system, so a UK result carries no automatic standing with an FCI club and the reverse is equally true.

Read this first

The organisation now brands itself The Royal Kennel Club, domain royalkennelclub.com, while "The Kennel Club" still appears in its own section links and in the unrenamed BVA/KC/ISDS scheme title.
It does not currently offer a breed-specific DNA testing package for this breed.
The Assured Breeder Scheme question is now SETTLED from the Kennel Club Breed Health Conservation Plan (January 2022): "There are currently no requirements for this breed within the Kennel Club (KC)'s Assured Breeders Scheme (ABS)." Nor are there any Breed Club breeding recommendations listed. The UK requires nothing at either level.
NO RECOGNISED DNA TEST for this breed: "results from these will not be accepted by the Kennel Club until the test has been formally recognised". A third distinct mechanism landing where Luxembourg and Germany land - it is not the lab, the format or the sample type, the KC simply recognises no DNA test for the Cairn, so no provider is accepted.
Contrast with Flanders, which mandates four DNA tests for the same breed and names the exact variants.

Source: Kennel Club Breed Health Conservation Plan, January 2022, plus the RKC breed page Checked: 2026-08-08

Where to look a dog up

Official registers run by national kennel clubs. Every link here was opened and confirmed.

Health Test Results FinderOpen to all
The Royal Kennel Club (formerly The Kennel Club; rebranded 25 Nov 2025) · English
Health results
Search by registered name or stud book number; the name must match the registration certificate exactly. The old thekennelclub.org.uk address redirects here.
Inbreeding Coefficient CalculatorOpen to all
The Royal Kennel Club · English
Inbreeding coefficient
Calculates a coefficient for one registered dog or for the hypothetical puppies of two named mates, over full pedigree depth. Formerly branded Mate Select; that name no longer resolves.

Requirements are shown in the language they were published in. Translating a regulation risks changing it. This reports what clubs published, with the date each source was read. It is not approval to breed — confirm with the club before you rely on it. (Checked: 8 August 2026)

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