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I have always
considered judging to be a privilege and over the years I have been
invited to many countries around the world to carry out this honour, as
an International CC and FCI judge I take this job very seriously.
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My next overseas appointment is in November, once again I will
return to Germany, this time in the northern area to judge Cockers
at the Spaniel Speciality Championship show, I love visiting Germany and
feel honoured that I have been invited back so many times, I am
looking forward to this with great interest.
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Sadly now days people are being “pushed” to judge far too soon, it takes
many years of consistently breeding and exhibiting good quality dogs to
be able to assess other peoples dogs correctly and fairly, you have to
have integrity, there is no point in giving out red cards and top
honours to dogs that are not worthy, when assessing friends dogs you
should be extra diligent, remember it is the “normal” folk that make up
the bigger part of your entry, you will want them to come again next
time, not just your friends !
A good dog must comply as near as possible to the breed standard both in
type and conformation, an unsound dog with obvious faults is no use to
the breed, and to continue to put these dogs into your breeding program
just because of who they belong to is a mistake you may live to regret!!
Now that our dogs are no longer docked
you should be extra careful on your selection of stud dogs, remember that
a full tail curling over the back looks dreadful and this fault can be
very difficult to breed out if you consistently use dogs carrying this
trait, a male with a slight lift to his tail is acceptable and is his way
of showing he is a "man", but a bitch with a tail flying high in the
air is most unacceptable.....
*****
I have chosen just a very small selection of photos from some of my
judging appointments here and abroad, I hope you enjoy them.
******
Here are some of the Cockers I judged
recently in Poland, my first time in this beautiful country and the
quality over all was extremely good, it was a lovely surprise to find some
stunning black/tan's and my BOB blue roan girl could easily give the girls
at home some strong competition for top honours.....I was so pleased when
she won an excellent Group and then thrilled to see my BOB Springer
spaniel come into 2nd place.
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| I hope you enjoy these photo's taken recently in
Germany , my Best Cocker dog and BOB being so like my own Chico, the
Best bitch was a stunning black/tan lady, but my heart went to the
superb chocolate girl, in American Cockers the baby was so lovely
and the BOB a stunning Buff Champion from the U.S.A |
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My first time
judging in Sweden was wonderful, such lovely dogs and my best puppy
the most stunning black and white that I tried so hard to buy, from
studying pedigrees after this show I found that the Greentree and
Love Cox lines were among some of the many that were very consistent in type. |
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I will always have a soft spot
for Sweden, I love the dogs and the exhibitors are always ready to
applaud other peoples wins. The atmosphere at the shows is so
friendly, not only have I judged there a few times but I have
visited several times just to watch, including the Winners show in
Stockholm, The Cocker Club Show and this year The World Show, here
are some pictures of my visit to judge The Cocker Club, a few years
later I returned to judge a record entry and found the most
outstanding gold bitch, you can see her on the right. You will also see my lovely Champion
Claramand Again And Again, "Jason" caused a stir by winning BIS two years running at
The Cocker Club, it broke our hearts when he had terrible side
effects from a tick bite that lead to his death so young...... |
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How could I forget my trip to
Serbia, what a laugh we all had, Bobana and Dusko made myself and two
friends Linda and Paula who went with me so very welcome into their
home, after the show we had an impromptu "show "in the garden so
that we could see their own dogs, it was lovely, we had a great
time, I hope to go back one day, and despite the long delay at the
Airport we found a wonderful Patisserie that kept us very
happy...while we talked about the show and the Serbian dogs.
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It was in Germany a long time ago that I judged
many Sables, sadly my photos did not work but I was sent these of two
of my best black /tans, the one standing was BOB. |
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It was my great pleasure to be
invited back to Germany many years later to judge at their famous
International show, I drew a record entry which sadly meant that 2
of my classes had to be judged by some one else, we had a marvellous
time and made many new friends, the quality of the bitches was
outstanding, there were several blacks I would have loved to own.
but the
light blue took my breath away. We always expect the males to come
out on top but not this time, the standard of presentation was first
class, it was a pleasure to judge and then to sit and watch the rest
of the show with so many different things going on there was never a
moment to spare. As you can see my top winners were superb and the
black and tan Veteran outstanding. |
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I have judged in England many
times up and down the country over the years and have always had
superb entries both in number and more important in quality, I have
had the pleasure of giving CC's and Reserve CC's to many excellent
examples of the breed that were sound in movement and of good breed
type. Here are just a few of them. I look forward to my next
appointment soon. |
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The Irish hospitality is renowned
and my time there most enjoyable, I have always loved going to the
Belfast show as an exhibitor , for many years we travelled across on
foot after suffering a 7 hour coach ride, that was hard work, now we
just take the car on the ferry , relax and enjoy good food and very
pleasant staff always so helpful, I can recommend this way of
travelling over to anyone not sure about going. |
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The journey to South Africa was
so long and when I arrived my luggage had gone missing, my hosts
were marvellous and so kind at both homes that I stayed in, my trip
was wonderful and one I will never forget, especially the Safari. My
luggage arrived the next day and all was well, the weather the first
day of judging was hot and everyone had a good day, the following
day was like a typhoon!! we had to hang on to everything to stop it blowing away and the
rain came down so hard it was a miracle we survived, but we did and
we all laughed about it later. |
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I have been twice to Norway, what
a beautiful place despite the weather
both times, here I found a lovely blue roan and tan, and a stunning
black
cocker amongst my winners, Americans of excellent quality and on my
second
visit a superb Springer and a lovely Welsh veteran, my hosts were
very kind
and took us to see some local places of interest including the
famous porcelain exhibition. |
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It is many years since I visited
Finland it was so hot I felt sorry for the dogs, but I found some
beauties, another superb black and white lady came out on top.
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RUSSIA
Sadly none of my photos taken in Russia were any good, my camera had
a fault and let light into the film, this was an amazing trip , we
walked around Moscow and saw all the wonderful sights, it was about
8 deg .below freezing so we were well wrapped up, on the evening we
went to see the Bolshoi ballet, it
was fabulous. I found the cockers had a long way to go but the
Americans were superb. |
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