First Place in Puppy - Bitch, Judge: Mrs Kathy Wilkinson (Otterkin)
An excellent entry awaited me at the City of Birmingham show, not only in numbers, but also in the depth of quality. In many classes, I found myself wishing for more than 5 places to award and sadly, dogs left the ring which I really liked and would have been happy to place on another day. In more than a couple of classes, it was very hard to decide on the 1st 5 in order and many went down the line because of coat texture and thickness, although on another day, in better coat, they would have fared better. As I have not been to many shows this year, it was good to view some dogs for the first time, including my Best of Breed, who I was pleased to ?find?, only to later discover she has already been found on a number of occasions, although not at this level!
I apologise for the lateness of this critique. Besides flying out to an appointment to judge in Italy only a couple of days after the show, we have had some personal and medical issues to deal with regarding the welfare of my elderly mother in law. As I write this, we have still not finalised arrangements for her, but hope to do so soon, so I hope you will understand that sometimes, dog shows do not come first.
On the way to the showground, my car made some terrifying noises when I touched the brake pedal and so, that will explain to anyone wondering, why I had to stop judging for a second or two to find my car keys for the AA man, who kindly fixed it at the hotel car park for us and saved us a long trip home on the back of a low loader.
An eventful weekend, made wonderful by the number of top class Border Terriers present at the show.
Many thanks must go to the very experienced and helpful ring stewards, Mr and Mrs Wright, who had the dogs present and ready for inspection at the start of every class and so enabled me to finish in plenty time for the Terrier Group. Good ring management was important with an entry of 185 dogs, making 193 entries (plus one or two whose entries had not been received and less a couple of NFC). This was the highest number in the Terrier Group today and I would like to thank all the exhibitors for allowing me the pleasure of going over their dogs. The absentee rate of dogs entered was 23.5%.
Another class where I found I was comparing all the others to this one, as she stood away even in this good class. Beautiful blue and tan with correct ticking throughout the coat. Fabulous otter head with the darkest of eyes. Lovely straight, narrow front. Moved so well both coming and going, for one so young. She has the star quality, while being an honest, workmanlike bitch. She has all the necessary essentials for a working terrier, with a good narrow front, lovely shaped rib, carried well back and was easily spanned. She has a good topline and excellent length of body. She is just at the right stage of development for a 10 month bitch and if I could have found a way of sneaking her out of the door and onwards to Durham, I would have done. She is not overdone in any way, has all the essentials and is very eye catching. Lovely neck into well laid shoulders. Had to concentrate hard during the remainder of the show, to get her out of my mind. In the line up, found myself drawn to her with my eye and my heart. The type to give you goose bumps. Had a stiff talk to myself when I realised I was drawn to her in the bitch line up You’re not giving it to a puppy, are you?? ? something I have never done in all my years of judging the breed. Then I realised that if I allowed myself to be swayed by anything other than choosing which was the best one, I would not be doing myself or the breed a service and so, drum roll, awarded her Bitch CC, Best of Breed and Best Puppy In Breed. Pleased to see her go on to Terrier Group 4 and Terrier Puppy Group 2 in hot competition.