The Pains of Permit Judges

By Sandy Weaver

Recently, I was being mentored outside the ring. It was a Working breed with a good entry and a permit (aka provisional) judge. The person mentoring me thought the judge was doing a good job and I could see what she was looking for. It was a good learning experience – this is a breed I’ll apply for within the next year – and the judge looked like she was confident and having a good time.

That night, at a large dinner gathering, several people who showed the breed in question that day had strong opinions about the judge, none of them good. One person was so offended by the choices made that they said they’ll never show to the judge again. These are people who have been in the breed for many years, so I was interested to hear what they thought she got wrong. What I heard seemed to be a difference of focus – the judge’s focus was structure with breed type and theirs sounded more like a head piece with something to hold it up.

Reminding them that she was ‘permit’ in their breed, I asked them whether they would be willing to share constructive thoughts to help her understand the breed from their point of view. Nope – big red slash through her name – she’s on the “do not show to” list.

Ouch! As someone who is permit in multiple breeds, this was a frightening moment for me. It’s already dicey enough trying to understand the fine points of type in breeds with which I haven’t spent decades up close and personal. I hoped this one- strike-rule wasn’t a prevalent attitude and wanted to know how exhibitors felt about showing to permit judges.

I did what any nosy person would do – I asked the question of dog show people on social media. Nearly 150 comments later, the jury was in and the verdict was a resounding thumbs-up for permit judges.

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=164616

Posted by Alex on Jun 26 2019. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.