First Place in Open - Dog, Judge: Mr. Ian Higham (Comberdown)
I had been looking forward immensely to judging my first breed club open show in the UK. I sincerely thank the officers and membership for inviting me and most importantly, I would thank those exhibitors who attended and valued my integrity and opinion enough to give me the opportunity of going over their dogs.
I was looking for Borders that had all the good breed type points as laid out in our standard, combined with the correct physical construction to be able to cover the rough hilly ground of the region from which the breed originated. I thoroughly went through the entry to find these attributes, and judged with these thoughts in mind right down to my 4th placings.
I am pleased to be able to say that I had no dirty oily coats, or smelly dogs and that every dog had clean white teeth. This is all down to good housekeeping (or dog keeping) and I must commend you all on these points.
However, I was very disappointed to find that three exhibitors presented me with dogs, which had kinked bumpy tails.
I only found one tooth problem and that was a set of badly twisted lower incisors, which were slightly obstructing a scissor bite, but unfortunately, I was further disappointed to find dogs with weak muzzles and no strength to the underjaw. A Border needs to be able to force home an attack on its advesary and to do so must use his//her strong jaws and big teeth. This part of the borders anatomy is of immense importance to its function. I would consider this a fault, which would seriously interfere with a terrier’s ability to work.
I found a variety of movement problems. Some had stilted rear movement, with feet in underneath the dog and lacking propulsion. One dog that crabbed. Dogs with fronts toeing in, some more so than others, and some with wide front movement, or flicking one, or other foot.
Ultimately, there were some very good examples of our breed, that possessed all, or most, of the qualities I was searching for. Some of these did not get top awards on the day, but nevertheless had enough breed type and quality of movement to forge ahead and have a promising future I am sure.
Four-year-old grizzle and tan dog. Lovely masculine border head with broad skull. Strong muzzle and good teeth with scissor bite. Correct front angulation with well laid back shoulder blade. From the front he is narrow and he has straight legs with enough bone. He was prepared and trimmed up to perfection with a tight pin wire coat just coming in nicely. Just the right amount of hair left on his tail, legs and feet to make everything fit together entirely. He has a flat top line and his tail is set high, coming straight of the end of his back and he carries it just right. He was fit and well toned and he had a good bend of stifle. With such construction, it was no surprise to see him move effortlessly, with exuberance and drive. He was so eye-catching here today. He carries his ribs well back. He has a deep enough chest and was spannable with strong loin and I found two good handfuls of thick pelt. BEST DOG AND BEST IN SHOW.