First Place in Junior - Dog, Judge: Mr Graham Pickering (Picer)
Thank you to Driffield Agricultural Society for inviting me to judge Border Terriers at their Championship Show. I had a good entry of 169 from 162 dogs and had a large number of quality exhibits to go over. It was a shame that the weather, being extremely windy, meant that because of health and safety reasons I had to judge indoors. This meant that at first the ring was not as spacious as I would have liked and the noise from the wind in the marquee at times disturbed some of the younger exhibits. In addition, the length of the grass and the unevenness of the surface were problematic for some of the exhibitors.
I was extremely pleased with my final line ups and there were many classes where deserving dogs went unplaced due to the quality of the entry. Overall coats, were very good and temperament was excellent. However, I did find two examples of the odd tooth out of place and a number of dogs which could have been tidier particularly around feet and tail.
In my winners I was looking for a correct size Border with a harsh double coat, well muscled, correct bone and looking like it could do a good days work. I found those qualities in my winners.
A nice all round blue and tan Border Terrier, not over done, in good condition and put down well. Typical head and keen masculine expression, with correct scissor bite and ear placement. Nice shoulder placement and rib, easily spanned. Excellent double coat with ticking just coming through. Good bend of stifle and nicely balanced which added to the overall pleasing appearance of a dog that can do the job. Covered the ground with ease ? moved well.