It Had To Be You At Borderbridge

I had been looking forward immensely to judging my first UK championship show. I sincerely thank the Blackpool and District Canine Society for the invite and also thank my two friendly, competent and helpful stewards, Mandy and Robert Geary for keeping everything right. I would also give my deepest gratitude to those who exhibited under me for trusting my knowledge of the breed and my integrity to judge without fear or favour and further thank them for following my lead to stay in the outside ring through the numerous showers that were on and off all day. I feel privileged that you brought your dogs to me for my opinion. As usual I was looking for Borders that had all the good breed type points as laid out in our standard, combined with correct physical construction to be able to cover the ground well. I had no dirty or smelly dogs and only two or three of them could have done with having their teeth brushed so I can commend you all for that. I had only one dog that was slightly undershot and I found no tail deformities at all, which is excellent. I found a variety of movement problems. But it has to be said that in general, movement seemed to have improved since I last judged the breed. I noticed a few more Borders with lighter colouring to their noses since I last judged, but, as instructed by our standard, I treated this as not a serious fault. As often heard said, the term “on the day” always applies. I had to give my awards to the dogs that stood out on this day. So for those who may be a little disappointed, remember that on another occasion your dog could well have a better coat stage, move a little more positively or be more “on its toes.” Do not be disheartened and enjoy your showing and your dogs!

I thoroughly enjoyed my first judging experience at this level and thank the exhibitors for bringing their dogs of such good quality in front of me and accepting my decisions with good grace. In some of the classes there was only a hairs breadth between some exhibits and on another day the results would have been different. I like Borders that are narrow, strong and good movers. I do not consider coat to be a major factor except when differentiating between dogs of equal quality, As a Championship Show judge told me many years ago “bad coats can get better, many other faults cannot.” I would also like to thank my stewards for keeping me in order.

Thank you to the officers, committee and members for voting for me to judge their Championship show 2015. My stewards were just perfect, even the couple of birds flying around enjoyed the day. As you know it's all too easy to judge from the ringside but when you are in the ring judging dogs of varying sizes, heads, coats etc, I felt I did the best I could with the exhibits shown. All dogs were entire, mouths were correct and teeth were of good size and clean apart from one level bite which is acceptable. Movement needs to be improved front and rear, muscle tone was lacking in quite a few, presentation on some was dreadful, two dogs needed feeding up, but the main winners were of good standing.