Hanway Livin On A Prayer

A few pointers that need addressing. Coat, the standard requires harsh and dense with a close undercoat, not a single one, as many exhibits carried today. Feet and nails, nails were unduly long, hair around the feet needed lots of attention. Also movement, it is not getting any better may be worse, rear movement was worse than front and appeared as if they were on stilts. On the positive side mouths seemed better, I found many with excellent strong teeth set correctly with a good bite

The first sentence of the Standard reads, General Appearance: Essentially a working terrier. Bearing this in mind, I was most impressed with the quality of the coats. The great majority had really tough outer coats, and nice loose pelts. Though some of the blue & tans were showing white hairs (ticking), which is the hallmark of the blue & tan, there were some black all over which is incorrect. Pads were on the whole good with well shaped feet. Ears should be neither too thin nor too thick, and should hang correctly. Not always the case today. There were several atypical heads, with a few over long noses, and several being overlarge. Only one suspect mouth. Some with narrow muzzles had rather crowded incisors. In the past I have been very critical of movement, for if a Border cannot move properly it is not put together properly. Today there was both good and bad movement. There were problems with front movement, where many exhibits were moving too close. Strange to say there were very few wide in the front. Previously, from the ringside, I had thought there were too many Borders with overlong tails. There were some today, but a lot of this was due to the tail not being groomed properly. Tails should not be scissored, but over long hairs at the end should be judiciously removed. In every class there were always two and generally three exhibits which shone out. In some case it was difficult to pick out the remaining places. ( I was slightly perturbed when picking up my documents from the secretary’s office, that though I had a “Judging Book”, I was not in fact a judge but an “Adjudicator”, or so my badge said. Have we taken leave of our senses?

I would like to express my thanks to the Officers and Committee of the Club for inviting me to judge their show, my second opportunity at a Breed Open Show. I was struck by the wonderful atmosphere in the hall with every result being greeted with spontaneous, enthusiastic applause. The exhibitors in Scotland certainly are a very sporting lot! I found no bad mouths but front movement in some exhibits left a lot to be desired. However my class winners did not disappoint me