Achnagairn The Baroness

What an absolute honour and a privilege to be invited to judge this show, my thanks to the Officers and Committee of the Border Terrier Club, and my two excellent stewards for the day, Judy and Marina. My sincere thanks also, to ALL the exhibitors for making it truly memorable, with 196 dogs, 233 entries. Some very close decisions had to be made! On the down side, I found some very short muzzles and small teeth, and quite a number of filthy teeth!! Temperaments were generally good, there were 2 kinked tails and 1 suspect mouth, a lack of muscle tone and condition in some exhibits, which is essential for a terrier to do it’s job. That said, it was an absolute joy to see so many super dogs.

It was an honour to be invited to judge this, our parent club’s show. My thanks to the committee who ran such a lovely event with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. My judge’s gift is much appreciated and will be a treasured momento of the day. My superstar stewards, Janice Johnson and Liz Barrett, worked hard and unobtrusively whilst keeping the classes moving smoothly over a long day – well done ladies. Many thanks of course to the exhibitors who made the journey on a major bank holiday weekend giving a large and quality entry of 190 dogs making 229 entries plus 10 NFC. I had some lovely sound and typical Borders to go over and, had I had them, I would have had no qualms in awarding 4 dog tickets and 5 bitch tickets. Unfortunately there are always downsides in a big entry and today size was an issue with some overly large exhibits who were not spannable and very heavily built. There were a number of youngsters which were obviously unused to having their mouths examined and more practice in a calm atmosphere would help to make them comfortable and avoid stress for them and their handlers. Ears need watching as some were quite large and spoiled the head. Sadly, as in the past I must complain about long tails. Tails are an integral aspect of the overall picture of a typical Border outline and long is simply wrong. Our breed standard is spartan compared to many others but for tails the description is clear and begins with, “Moderately short; fairly thick at base, then tapering.” Hopefully the issue will be addressed before the untypical becomes the norm. On a positive note … Feet were overall small and thickly padded although some would benefit from trimming and shorter nails. There was a good number of lovely otter-like heads of correct proportions with well placed dark eyes and a keen expression. As is usual these days coat presentation was generally good and today there were plenty of dense coats of correct texture and thick skins. Do I think the quality shown in this entry bodes well for the breed? Yes.