Jackview Miss Dior

Thank you to the Committee of the City of Birmingham Canine Association for inviting me to judge at their Championship Show. It was an honour to judge Borders Terriers on the day. I would like to thank especially the Border Terrier exhibitors for giving me such a super entry and for their graciousness and sporting manner. The venue was airy and the ring was roomy. I realised afterwards that the carpet could be rather slippery and I think that this may have provided somewhat of a challenge at times. I had many lovely dogs to go over and sometimes making decisions was like splitting hairs. Finally thank you to my stalwart stewards who were super organized and kept me on the straight and narrow.

Many thanks to the committee for inviting me to judge what turned out to be the last Joint Ch Show. I had a wonderful day, & I was very ably and efficiently aided by my two stewards Tracey Anscombe and Peter Armstrong & I send my thanks out to them again (shows can’t run without good stewards). My main down side to a lot of the Borders I went over was the front movement (I’m not immune to this either)! This needs watching and careful breeding to try and improve on this fault - not easy I know, but something to aim for. Again very few Borders with a good thick pelt which we used to have. Top lines have much improved generally and good to see that most of the exhibits were in good fit/hard condition.

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who entered under me and gave me the pleasure of going over their dogs. I would also like to thank the committee for its hospitality and the lovely gift. I would also like to thank my excellent stewards Sharon and Peter who kept everything in order and the ring running smoothly. Sadly there were many absentees but the show clashed with a number of other open shows with breed specialists judging around the country. I thoroughly enjoyed my day however being my first club show. All males were entire and mouths were generally scissor bites with only one or two close bites and untidy teeth, a lot of dirty teeth but this is cosmetic and was not penalised. No kinked tails found and I was pleasantly surprised at the number of short tails, some however lacking thickness at the base. Coats as usual ranged from dogs in their undercoats to fully blown, some dogs would benefit from a good tidy up to enhance the presentation such as tails, ears, feet and underlines. Some dogs movement was hard to assess due to them not settling in classes. Please don’t string dogs up on excessively tight leads one dog was not enjoying his experience for it both on the table and on the move. Movement was generally ok but some lacked reach and drive with a couple moving wide or really close.