Keswick Show Girl

I would first like to thank the committee for the invitation to judge, and to them and my stewards, Frank Nicholls and Paul Cheeseman for looking after me so well on the day, and lastly to all those who exhibited and accepted my decisions so graciously. It was a long, exhausting but very enjoyable day for me. I absolutely loved my best dog, best bitch and best puppy, they were all lovely and narrow, well balanced with small tight feet, sound movement and not overdone in any way. I would take any of them home in a heartbeat.

Thanks to the Club for the opportunity to go over so many quality dogs, and to the exhibitors for bringing them along. I was pleased to find , overall, a better standard of movement than I had expected, particularly in front; likewise coats, in general, were of good quality and quantity. I was, however, disappointed that so many seemed to have small teeth; mostly technically correct with only a couple with missing teeth. One male was not entire.

My thanks go to the Officers and Committee of the Northern Border Terrier Club for inviting me to judge this show and for their kind hospitality during the event. I notice that the last time I judged this show was as long ago as twenty five years ago in 1986! The entry of 226 from 207 exhibits was satisfactory but of course there were several absentees which brought the actual number of dogs present down to just over 140. That enabled us to finish judging in good time. Thanks to my very efficient Steward Mrs Rushby. My general comments on the breed continue in similar terms to my previous remarks on the subject. But in the main I thought that heads and expressions were, by and large, pretty good. Coats were of course variable in the stage at which they presented but again, by and large they were of quite good texture. I had no bad mouths and only a couple of kinky tails. And tails were, overall, not too bad for shape and length Size is of course variable but again the majority were spannable but some dogs (and bitches) were far too big and too heavy in bone. My biggest problem was with fronts and exhibit after exhibit appeared with fronts which were far from correct. We have a multitude of different front problems and somehow we must tackle this issue and breeders and judges have to pay more attention to this problem. I believe that we are beginning to find the breed accepting bad fronts as the norm. Horseshoe fronts, wide fronts, swinging front legs, flicking front feet and dogs which single track in an excessive way in front ? all of these things need to be penalised to a greater or lesser extent. Best in Show and the Dog CC went to Orangebox Firecracker (Mr M & Mrs T Anscombe). He has a very typical head, skull and expression with a good muzzle and not over exaggerated. Good neck and shoulder and correct topline and tailset. Correct compact feet. He is balanced and well proportioned being neither too short nor too long and he moved soundly both in front and behind. In the final challenge for the CC he scored for showmanship and went on to be Best of Breed. The Bitch CC and Res Best in Show went to Ch Southash Blue Betty Boo Gameway JW (Mrs P Clark), another with a most typical head and expression. She has a very good coat of the right texture and pelt of the right thickness and she moved very well behind. Enough bone, she presents a good outline going around the ring and exudes quality. Best Puppy was Olderhill Afortunado (Mrs S Wilson). He has a good head and skull, again without being in any way overdone, good neck and topline, good front and moved better there than behind, correct pelt, good tailset and tail and well balanced throughout.

My thanks to the Committee for their hospitality, and to the stewards, Anita Harrison and Kevin Green who kept everything running smoothly. I always read the Standard before judging and decide where my priorities will lie. This time, I decided that for an essentially working terrier, narrow, lithe bodies are a must, not forgetting those features which distinguish a Border Terrier. Indeed most Borders are narrow when compared with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, for instance, but far too many in this entry were too broad in the chest to be able to follow a fox to ground. When the chest is wider than my hand, it is far too wide. Going to ground is but one part of a working terrier’s life - he has to cover rough ground so needs sufficient length of leg, and a flexible loin to enable him to gallop, getting his hind quarters under his body. Following a horse is no walk in the park, it requires stamina - lung capacity which comes from sufficient length of ribcage. One word in the Standard always causes me trouble – “but” in the sentence “Head like that of an otter, but moderately broad in skull..” I found lots of otter shaped heads, a few with too much stop, few with too short a muzzle, so on the whole heads pleased me.