First Place in Open - Dog, Judge: Mrs Beverley Jackson
I was incredibly honoured to be invited to award my first CC’s at Richmond. After much anticipation and excitement the long-awaited day arrived. I was thrilled with the size of my entry and wish to thank all exhibitors for giving me the honour of judging your dogs. I totally appreciate how difficult times are now and am humbled that you chose to exhibit. I was delighted with both of my line ups. I have always hated it when judges say oh I wish I had had more top awards, but I can honestly say that I truly now understand where they were coming from. I had some incredibly difficult classes with a lot of quality. This scenario continued when it came to choosing who the CC’s and Reserve’s should go to. There are, however, two distinct “types” of Borders developing, and often classes contained a mixture of both types. The chisled heads with high placed ears are not typical and we need to try to breed away from this as we are in danger of losing the otter head. I found no bad mouths ? just a few where teeth “placement” was peculiar, and some dirty teeth. Presentation on the whole has improved, although please leave the scissoring to other terriers. Our ring was a “bit of a ploughed field” but most exhibitors managed to find a level part and not fall over!
I was thrilled to be able to finally get my hands on this dog and boy did he not disappoint. He is in incredibly hard, fit condition and is a credit to his owners and his breeder. Excellent head with a gorgeous kind but typical expression. Lovely strong, clean white teeth. Excellent neck flowing into correct shoulders, correctly well placed ribs and the strongest of loins. Lovely topline which he kept on the move. Absolutely stunning movement which is a pleasure to watch, striding out in front and using his power to drive from behind. He is a wonderful example of the breed who should have gained his title long ago. I was more than delighted to award him his third CC and Best Opposite Sex.