First Place in Junior - Dog, Judge: Mrs Jayne Alpe
Thank you to the committee for inviting me to judge, I thoroughly enjoyed my day. My two stewards were very efficient and experienced; they managed to keep my ring running smoothly. I found the quality in the dogs overall to be higher than last time I judged, with in both sexes a slight improvement in movement. Although there are still some that are not driving from behind and covering the ground, and some with short, choppy, odd front movement, sometimes coupled with too narrow fronts and lack of muscle tone. Maybe more road walking would help in some cases to build up muscle, but in others is down to a problem with shoulder construction and pasterns. I found no incorrect mouths, there were a couple with broken teeth, hopefully indicative that we still work some of our show dogs. But there was a shortage of those lovely strong big teeth that the breed is known for and small teeth are on the increase. What also did disturb me was that large heavy ears seem to be creeping into the breed, which affects that lovely typical expression. In a lot of classes places could alter on another day, in fact in some classes I was spoilt for choice and would have liked more than one red card. I was delighted with my top winners who all fitted my criteria very well, every one of them displaying correct Border type coupled with sound and true movement.
Grizzle dog with good reach of neck and layback of ribs, racy and easily spanned, moved true and kept topline on the move. Strong head, dark eye with good bite.