First Place in Limit - Bitch, Judge: Mr Graham Pickering (Picer)
Thank you to The Scottish Border Terrier Club for asking me to judge the Joint Show. It’s been a long time coming as I was invited to judge in 2019 and COVID 19 got in the way! I would like to thank the exhibitors who managed to attend the show after the problems caused by Storm Lilian at Driffield. I also appreciate that the absentees were higher as a result of many people having prior appointments on the day that the show was rearranged. The City of Birmingham Society where very accommodating, we had a lovely ring with plenty of space.
However, I had a super entry, and I had lots to choose from in the dogs that were able to show under me. Thank you to everyone – I really appreciate being asked to give an opinion on other people’s dogs, it’s a real honour. I would also give a special note of thanks to my steward Bill Shorthose who single handedly managed the ring and made sure everyone was in the right place at the right time. Particularly with the challenges of a partnership show and the clashes that this can cause across two rings. Thank you to all the exhibitors who managed to negotiate two shows with good heart.
When judging, I look for dogs with good heads, plenty of strength under the eye, very little stop and a good strong jaw – essentially a’ Head like that of an Otter’. I also like to see straight fronts, correct shoulder placements and tidy small feet. I found these characteristics in all of my top winners. Generally, mouths were good, although there were a couple of dogs with a tooth out of place. Movement was ok in generally, but as breed we do need to keep an eye on front movement as there were some dogs who did not move as well as they should walking towards me. All the males were entire. I was very pleased with all my placings and when choosing my top winners, I had some difficult decisions to make and so were some dogs that were very unlucky on the day.
Lovely class of border terriers, with plenty of quality for me to judge. Again, as in other classes I had some hard decisions to make
A smart looking blue and tan girl that caught my eye from the ring side and having gone over her, she didn’t disappoint. She is appealing to look at and is without any exaggeration. She has a excellent otter head of correct proportions, well filled under the eye and a strong jaw, good scissor bite and clean white teeth. She has a lovely reach of neck which flows into smooth shoulders, a straight front, nice tidy feet with thick pad and is correct for bone. She is pleasing in profile and is balanced throughout. She has good muscle, correct bend of stifle and good rear angulation which allows her to cover the ground with ease. I considered her for top honours but was unsettled in the bitch challenge. Pleased to award her RBCC.