Becoming A Judge

[LizT]

I for one would not want to be Judged by someone who has just decided they want to "become a Judge" and just sit an exam in order to do so. I would expect them to have a degree of experience in the Dog Show world, to me this would include Showing (sucessfully), which would include titling at least two dogs they bred themselves and not just riding on the back of another breeders selection! As to the timeline...10 years is not a long time in which to hone your skills and experience. I have been showing my breed or five years now and still consider myself to be at the tip of the ice berg in terms of learning.

[LizT]

I am in my mid twenties and I take great offense at the notion that "old bitchy ladies" rule the show world.

That is why the world of dogs, and many other worlds are dwindling, because young people today don't want to listen and learn - they want to speak and know, and now.

Recently at a training night I had one of these "old bitchy ladies" teach me more about the conformation of my dogs in one hour, than I'd manage to teach myself in years. Not because my eyes can't pick the better dog, or because I can't read a standard, but because her eyes had been taught how to read a dog, and how to interpret a standard, by the "old bitchy ladies" (and camp gentlemen) of her generation.

It's a wealth of knowledge that is not available to you unless you stop "knowing", and start using your eyes and ears and a polite mannerism and humbleness ...

I couldn't show a dog down a dark lane, but I try. I have been laughed at, scorned, congratulated and ridiculed. I agree that unless you have been in those shoes for decades how can you earn the respect to be on the other side, or know the "tricks" of showing to see through them to judge the for the better dog.

Maybe the notion of breeding, and breeding champions, is that to breed you can't do it alone - therefore maybe you have had people teach you things along the way. You have learned how babies grow so you can amply judge different age groups. You have lived it (and hopefully learned it) through every litter, and every pup, until finally you learned how to pick the best pup out of 10 very similar other ones. Hopefully to breed you have been trusted with a main register dog, a dog who is not "mediocre" and have been shown how to choose a mate which compliments or counteracts faults - and should therefore not be breeding a litter of "mediocre" dogs destined for the tip yard or the pound.

Just my inexperienced opinions... but I am sure there are more reasons behind the rules then a bunch of old bitter twisteds with nothing better to do.

Where is that like button!!!

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[becks]

Also with your term bowling ball fronts on Dobermanns, I can not recall when i last judged a Dobermann in Australia with a front that I would describe as that ( and it is a new term I havent heard before). Also if you are going to comment on what is required in a breed, please get your wording correct. The Dobermann standard ( I assume you have read and understood it) says " Forechest well developed." I am not saying that well developed means overdone, but it is the wording that judges must judge by

Regards

Ian

I think the OP likes the american style dogs, so it is no surprise they think the euro style dogs which have well developed fronts and better angulation are extreme (which is what i take from their bowling ball comment) whereas I just see them as correct.