A Dog Show Critique in Barbados

Liz Cartledge and Tommy Bentley of B'dos. Kennel Club

Firstly, the critique should be about the dogs in the ring on the day of the show.

All dogs should be judged by their individual breed standards.

Of course, how they are presented to the judge can make a difference.

A dog given a Challenge Certificate signed by the judge means that on that day, the judge thought the dog judged worthy of the title Champion, according to the breed standard.

In my opinion, a good dog according to the breed standard, cannot appear to be poor even if handled by an inexperienced handler. Sometimes, here, I have seen a judge help a handler by allowing the dog to do a particular gaiting pattern again and may also in a stack, place the dog’s feet in a better position. I have no problem with that as handlers can learn a lot from judges who are willing to pass on knowledge.

A mediocre dog can be made to look good by a very good handler as the handler might be good enough to hide or minimise its faults and point to its virtures.

And a poor specimen, according to the breed standard, should still end up looking a poor specimen, regardless of the strength of the handler.

Most UK judges returning to Barbados after an absence of at least five years, have noticed the diminishing numbers of pedigree dogs coming to dog shows. And these judges will take guidance from The Barbados Kennel Club, who realise that all of the breed clubs in Barbados have departed from the show scene and are currently non functional. The clubs were The B’dos. Akita Club, The B’dos. German Shepherd Club and The B’dos. Boxer Club and those breeds used to be strong in entries in All Breeds Championship Shows.

The B’dos. German Shepherd Club and the B’dos. Boxer Club were also strong enough to have their own breed shows, just Boxers or German Shepherds or maybe Working Group shows.

All judges are individuals and have their favourite breeds and certain qualities they look for in the standards.

But it should still come back to breed type, conformation in structure which will show in movement, and a presence in the show ring.

Seeing that judges writing critiques may be diplomatic so as not to offend and/or discourage exhibitors, there can be creativity even in writing something like a critique. 🙂 🙂

Taking the most recent critique on this blog, which was done by a well respected UK and international dog judge who has been the guest of The Barbados Kennel Club on several occasions now, here are some individual examples:

“mouth could be better” my translation, the dog has a poor bite.

“clean coat, but not a lot of it” my translation, the dog is out of coat

“I’d like a little more of her, and a shade more bone” my translation, the dog is too small according to the breed standard.

“a little extra weight”, my translation the dog is too fat

“failed in expression” my translation the dog lacks breed type as judges look carefully for “expression” which is in the dog’s eyes, and position of its facial features according to the breed standard.

“failed in topline” my translation the dog’s topline should have remained level when gaiting and standing. Sometimes this can be corrected through exercise.

“rather lazy attitude” my translation, the dog showed lack of interest in gaiting around the show ring

“failed in feet”, my translation, the feet do not conform to the breed standard

The diplomatic reference to the temperature of the day was the part that amused me the most and these quotes are all from different dogs:

extremely hot for a heavy coated dog.
but today he was feeling the heat
Very hot and not moving at all well.
it was much too hot for this breed to perform today
Bit tired on the move but who could blame her in this heat.
bit reluctant to get his tail going in the heat

My translation, dogs lacked drive and condition to move around the show ring according to their respective breed standard.

Of course, it was hot, it is Barbados and we have a tropical climate.

The dogs which performed the best according to the judge’s placings, were dogs which were imported from overseas, the United Kingdom and they had the drive to gait around the show ring, even in the heat :).

The local dogs should be very accustomed to the heat, as we would say here, “they born and bred in it”.

Mrs. Liz Cartledge did indicate that she, in writing her critique, tried to encourage the exhibitors and the debate will always go on among dog exhibitors and the ones who follow dog shows, how far should a judge go in encouraging exhibitors as when dogs in all breeds are given Challenge Certificates and Reserve Challenge Certificates, it can result in some unworthy breed Champions being made up.

Although I agree with judges being diplomatic and trying to encourage exhibitors, I would hope though that even new exhibitors can do simple translations of diplomatic phrases so that they can better understand the conformation areas which could be improved in their respective breed.

I have noticed that these judges are spending an evening talking to and answering questions from exhibitors who come to the meeting. This is good. However, I do not recall any judge telling the exhibitors how dogs are conditioned in the UK and other parts of the world for the show ring and the preparation which should be done if they wish to have top show dogs.

I agree if the breed type is not there, there is nothing the exhibitor can do with that particular dog, but for all the dogs lacking drive, I am sure that some planned exercise of those dogs would reflect in better movement and more drive in the show ring regardless of our sunny climate :).

Tags: Dog shows in Barbados