First Place in Junior - Bitch, Judge: Mr. Ian Higham (Comberdown)
What a privilege it was to judge my breed again at the Scottish Kennel Club. I am very grateful for the invite.
I would really like to thank all of those who exhibited their dogs under me and for putting trust in my opinion and my integrity. I would also like to thank my very capable stewards Kate Scott and Lindsay O’Neill, who were very confident, efficient and jovial on the day.
My general findings were that the breed is showing a good in-depth quality. Movement is still a bit erratic here and there as one would expect, but I saw plenty of good borders on the day. However, I did notice that thickness of skin was not as evident as in the past and I honestly only found a few really good thick pelts. I found one dog had a very slight deformity near the very end of its tail. I had one or two level bites and one that obviously had recently had a tooth come out and its owner, very honestly, informed me of what had happened. None of these dogs were penalised in any way re mouths. Some exhibits were tallish but spannable, however, there were some that were two heavy in chest and had a rounder shape rib rather than the correct ‘v’ or heart shape.
As usual I was looking for borders that fulfilled the type points as laid out in our standard, combined with correct physical construction to be able to cover the ground well as they would have had to when our standard was written all those years ago.
A lovely young bitch with correct blue and tan harsh coat. She moved correctly from every angle and has drive. She has a good top line and correct tail set. She is a racy type and is narrow right through and very easy to span with ribs of correct shape and well laid back with strong loin. She has a very nice head with correctly placed ears and dark eye. Good teeth with correct bite. Lovely neck line which flowed into what felt like correctly angulated shoulders, giving her good extension to her forelegs. She is ok for bone and stood on good tight feet with correct thick hard pads. She showed herself off with enthusiasm right to the final challenge and left me in no doubt that I should award her Bitch CC and Best Of Breed today.