As more shows are scheduled to happen in the months ahead, judges are preparing to return to the ring, too. Obviously, there will be many changes and new procedures to follow. How will judges adapt to the “new normal?” What are their thoughts, concerns, and expectations? This month’s panel of judges shares how they are preparing for their upcoming assignments. Understand what they are feeling and why. You may have had the same opinions, too.
There is no better way to raise our collective hackles than to use the word “doodle” in a sentence. With fair warning, I’ll be doing exactly that. Sorry. Someone has to do it. Labradoodles and goldendoodles are everywhere with no end in sight. We can either curse them or learn something from them. Personally, I chose to do both.
A few weeks ago, a guy I know called, more or less out of the blue, to ask if I might be free for lunch that week. I said, “It’s possible.” and added, since the guy is a CPA, “What do you have in mind?” He said he wanted to talk with me about getting a hunting dog because he knew I’d bred, trained and hunted with both retrievers and pointing breeds for more years than I care to admit. He then added the magic words, “I’m buying.” That sealed the deal for two reasons: First, it would be a violation of the journalists’ credo to turn down a free lunch. Secondly, I’ve known this particular CPA for a number of years and I can count the number of times I’ve seen him pick up a check for any meal on the fingers of one hand. To describe him as “frugal” would require a complete redefinition of the word. So, it was with both some amusement and a considerable amount of bemusement that I headed into the lunch meeting, knowing as I did that over the years, he had seemed perfectly content to hunt over other people’s dogs thus sparing himself the expense of actually keeping one.
Following a trail certainly applies to breeds in FCI Group 6 – Scenthounds, Leash (scent) Hounds and Related Breeds – that possess a great passion for game and rely on their keen noses and sense of detection.
In Europe, different names are used for scent hounds, such as chien courant (France), Bracke (Germany, Austria), Laufhund (Switzerland) and brak (Netherlands).
Various old European hound breeds share the same history as old French hounds or other breeds that have vanished: they became extinct or merged into one of today’s breeds.
Oh, how I remember Jimmy Trullinger sitting with me during Best In Show at Westminster when a dog with a missing piece of this anatomy (the ear) was awarded the highest prize. Yikes! He was most upset and equally verbal in his dissatisfaction of that selection. The old guard was never timid when they felt strongly about something.
As the hazy summer days fold into the promise of a cooler fall, I cannot be the only person wondering, “What happens next?” Although many amusement parks remain closed or have limited capacity, we continually get to ride the roller coaster in our daily lives. Are numbers for COVID-19 going up in my state? Will the dog show I entered be canceled once again? Can I go into the vet’s office to help with my newborn puppies? Are our lives ever going to be the same?
They are frozen in time and sometimes deceptively real. Perpetuated in stone or bronze, looking over water, streets, parks or squares, dog statues can be found all over the world.
“Take a deep breath. Inhale through your nose. Feel the air as it flows over the back of your throat, into your lungs. As it fills your belly, slowly, very slowly, exhale through the nose. Now, do it four more times, making sure to slow down the breath. Inhale through the nose to one, two, three, four. Hold for a count of two. Exhale to a count of four. Be aware. Notice how that feels.” The intoxicating voice of the Yin Yoga teacher, with his very proper British accent, pours like cream from my computer on Zoom. I want to do nothing more than listen and comply.
Quite often when one participates in, or overhears, a conversation concerning the pedigreed dog the word ‘correct’ is seemingly used with great abandon. It has now apparently become one of those elements in our language which we employ with considerable frequency but yet do we oftentimes really consider what we mean when we use it and, as a result, is it always applied in proper context? Are we always aware of how it should be defined? Do we ever qualify it with a follow-up; correct in what sense, for what purpose? Has it now, perhaps, become so loosely and cursorily thrown in so as to lose its potency and intended meaning? Are we compromising a certain connotation here when we use it too casually?
Within the judging community, knowing when to stop is for the most part related to either health or age. One’s inherent ability to pass judgment, given the subjective nature of the process, is seldom an issue unless, that is, a judge’s procedure is called into question and subsequently found to be flawed. At the same time,
