Top 20 Competition Scoring Systems – What’s The Fairest of Them All?

By Cheslie Pickett

For many breeds, The Top Twenty Competition is a much anticipated, exciting, evening event held in conjunction with a National Specialty, wherein the top ranked dogs of a particular breed are show cased, and of course judged by three judges to crown an eventual Top Twenty winner. As a papillon breeder and fancier, I have only attended and participated in four Top Twenty competitions, as the newly implemented event has only been held at our National Specialty for four years, unlike many other breeds, such as Doberman Pinschers, where the event has taken place annually since the early 1970s. Even though a new event to my own personal breed, there has been much debate on how to properly score this event in the fairest manner. Each year, the papillon Top 20 committee has tried a different scoring technique. I have even heard of invited dog’s owners refusing to participate in the event, as they do not feel as though it is judged in a fair way. With the fall National Specialty season around the corner, perhaps now is a good time to analyze the way Top 20 Competitions are judged and scored.

It is logical that most breed clubs starting a Top 20 Competition adopt a scoring technique from another breed, which has an established Top 20 Competition.  In one scoring technique that many breed clubs use, the score sheet consists of the breed’s standard, which each area of the standard given a point scale. For instance, each dog’s head will be judged on a point scale of 20, as will its body, movement, coat, and so on and so forth.  This scoring technique would obviously end with the three judges total scores for each dog and the scores would be divided by three.  The dog with the highest score would be the eventual winner of the Top 20 competition. This scoring technique can be extremely time consuming – as the judge is analyzing and judging each piece and part of each dog. When the standard is parsed in a way to allow for several categories of scores for each dog, it may also lend to fault judging or a mediocre dog rising to the top of the competition.  The points given to each part of the dog can also be controversial as there may be a difference of opinion among the fanciers as to how much weight is given to each item.  In this system, the judges are in the end judging pieces and parts, instead of judging the overall dog.

In another and simpler scoring technique, each judge ranks the dogs participating in the Top 20 event in First through Tenth place. Points are given to each placing, such as 100 points to First Place, 90 points to Second Place, and so on and so forth.  The total points for each entry is calculated as the sum of the points earned by the placements on all three judge’s cards. The dog with the highest total points is the Top 20 winner. This seems simple and fair enough, however it can lead to a skewed scoring and a dog consistently placing in the middle of the placements could be the overall winner. For example, a dog that receives three Fourth Placements receives 210 points and a dog that receives two First Placements and one Ninth Placement receives 120 points. Should a dog that receives two First placements from two of the three judges, not be scored the winner?  In my personal opinion, I believe that this scoring system is fair and may be the best system to use for Top 20 competition judging with the following additions.

By adopting some scoring techniques used in horse shows, I believe that Top 20 competitions could be scored extremely fair – for instance, the total point score for each entry is the sum of the points earned by the placings over all three judge’s cards. The winner must have at least one first place, so the highest scoring dog with at least one first placement will be the Top 20 Winner. If a dog has two or more first placings, then the dog is automatically the Top 20 Winner.

In the event of a tie, there are various tie breakers used, which can be of debate, but is truly a matter of personal opinion. Some clubs use a “call judge” to break the tie. The “call judge” is usually the breeder judge. Some clubs use the “overall appearance” score as the tiebreaker.

In my personal experiences of participating in Top 20 events under various methods of scoring, the eventual Top 20 Competition winner has been very worthy of  the coveted win. However, I believe that the fairest method of scoring is outlined above.

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Posted by chesliepickett on Sep 12 2013. Filed under The Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.