Second Place in Junior - Dog, Judge: Mr W R Irving
It was an honour to be invited to judge the Southern Border Terrier Club’s Championship Show for the second time, the last time having been exactly twenty years ago in 1993. The entry on this occasion was 215 from 203 dogs of which 14 were entered NFC. My thanks go to the Show Manager, Officers and Committee of the Club for their hospitality and organisation and to the exhibitors for their entries and for the sporting way in which they accepted my decisions. Special thanks to Wendy and Andrew Mooney and Bev Marsh for stewarding so efficiently and for organising the collecting ring which allowed us to finish in good time.
As usual there were more bitches than dogs entered. It was encouraging to see some good quality entries through the various classes and not just at the senior end, I thought that by and large heads and expressions were good with not many narrow long skulls there. My feeling was that while there were still plenty of dogs with poor fronts of one kind or another present, there were more good fronted exhibits around from which to find winners than the last time I judged. Coats were mixed and at times I had to forgive some lack of coat. As always there was a good deal of variation in size as always, but in the end I felt I was able to find winners of good enough size with enough scope and lines. I felt that tails were mixed and at times, in looking for overall quality, I had to reward dogs with tails that I felt were less than perfect in shape, length or carriage. By and large the dogs behaved pretty well and were presented clean. I was keen to see the dogs moving around the ring and not ‘stacked’. That is surely the most revealing in conformation terms.
DCC and BOB was Jenkins’ Badgerbeck Uncle Fester. RDCC was Stockleys’ Ch Foxfactor Pied Piper. BCC and RBIS was May and Whisker’s Thistlestone Jenny Wren. RBCC was Higham’s Comberdown Thistle. BP was Hall and Ellis’ Brackenfell Bok To Bach and BPB was Clark’s Gameway Fortune Cookie. BV was Stockleys’ Foxfactor Hornblower
I was disappointed that this dog just did not put all in and didn’t seem to be in the best of moods today. He has a very good head and expression with correct skull and muzzle strength. He has just the right amount of bone and good tight feet, very good in coat and OK in outline when he stands up. He is sound in front and behind. He is correct for size and has a very typical tail which sadly he just wouldn’t get up today on the move, and all of that spoiled his apparent scope and outline.