Very Highly Commended in Open - Bitch, Judge: Mrs Trak Fryer (Irton)
A very great thank you to the exhibitors for giving me such a superb entry, I hope that I did it justice. My thanks must also go to my Stewards who worked very hard to keep the classes moving well.
This was a very challenging entry with some very big classes filled with quality dogs all the way through, there were no easy decisions. I tried to pull out all the dogs that I felt were in contention to give those exhibits a closer look. This meant that those out of coat or condition paid the penalty. particularly in the upper classes many super quality dogs had to go out without a place – I just didn’t have enough cards.
On the plus side all the exhibits were good tempered and happy in the ring. Most dogs came with a good coat on and a decent pelt. There were plenty of good heads and neat well balanced Borders, the key to the Standard. The Breed Standard asks for a dog that can run, requiring heart and lung room, and that can go to ground, requiring a good rib carried back without exaggerated angulations, a rather challenging blueprint to fit into a fairly small package.
There were quite a number with rather heavy or thin ears, round eyes and I was surprised to find quite a number of “winter noses”; I did not necessarily penalise these if the rest was OK. There were a number of heads with weak jaws framed by sticky out ears, a worrying trend. There were some heavy bitches well beyond spannable.
The biggest problem is movement with the forward angulations mostly at fault, this has been a problem in the breed for some time but there are now a significant number with tied in fronts waving their forelegs about, a new variant!
A well made dog will just cover the ground without any fuss or flipping – a joy to see. In order to do this they also need a reasonable build of muscle and it is a constant concern of mine that so many that come into the show ring do not have this.
This was an absolutely belting class, I could have placed another stack of these bitches, there were dogs here that in the past I have awarded top honours that today had to go well down the line so some hard decisions had to be made. Difficult to split the first three all of whom had great virtues so it came down to splitting hairs and personal preference for style and type.