Show report from judging
6/1/2008, Specialty RR Show Göteborg, Sweden
for SRRS klub magazin
06/01/2008 – Specialty RR Show Göteborg (Sweden)
photo: Vladimira Dubovan
Best Dog, BOS & Best Bitch, BISS-2008, Specialty Show Winner 2008
Ch. Stenänga Great G’s Chicory & MultiCh. Rex Ventors Helinn
Dear Ridgebacker friends!
I was asked to describe for you my feelings and impressions from judging your doggies at the Specialty Show 6.1.2008 in Goteborg. It was a great honour for me to accept the invitation to come to the Specialty Show of Rhodesian Ridgebacks in Sweden from the leaders of your Club. I have been watching and admiring the breeding of the breed in northern countries, and so I was looking forward to the show and prepared myself for it. For me as a judge it was a great feeling of responsibility. You have different rules of judging and a different way of working in a show ring than in other European countries.
As the judge, I was a bit uneasy at the task of judging, ranking the dogs and finally, at the end, choosing just one most beautiful ridgeback of the day. At the same time, as a breeder myself, I know the weak points in my stock and I look for “my thing“ in Ridgebacks. Also, and this is not a minor point, I stand in the show ring as a person who has fallen in love with the breed and I enjoy contact with every single ridgeback I judge. It is difficult to rank dogs who are all equally beautiful, simply because they are Rhodesian Ridgebacks!
I am the owner of five Ridgebacks and you all will know what I mean when I say they are our children. No judge in the world can evaluate what our children mean to us, how we see them everyday! When I watch my dogs happily and full of beauty run across meadows and woods, I feel sorry I cannot evaluate the dogs in their natural environment. Ridgebacks are the most beautiful exactly there!
But back to the Specialty show in Goteborg and to that what I promised to write for you, my impressions judging and my opinion of the Swedish Ridgebacks I saw and judged that day. This show took place in a hall with a nice big ring with carpets. Over a hundred Ridgebacks were registered, so I didn’t get the chance to judge Baby Class and Junior Class, but I watched the judging. There are almost never the ideal time conditions I would wish for. As always we were under time pressure and we finished judging quite late. But I tried to judge carefully and to write detailed reports as they are surely expected from a specialised judge at a special show. I judged in the ring for six and half hours without a break and it was very pleasant.
In my judging, I put stress on functionality of body form, chest build, balanced angles, type, movement, and temperament. I prefer the elegant type of Ridgeback with perfect movement. I like a lively temperament but it must always be balanced! I can forgive small faults, everyone has them. But faults of temperament and faults in body form which cause bad movement are serious. So if you had to run that day more than at other shows, please forgive me: nothing is nicer than watching and evaluating a ridgeback in movement!
You have many beautiful ridgebacks! Compared to the European average, your ridgebacks have nice chests. I mean really nice, deep and especially long! I saw many very high quality long formats of the body, with long, capacious strides, as an endurance hunting breed requires. You also have very good, strong skelet which is a good basic point for the breed. Your Ridgebacks are slightly taller, but elegant and very proportional. They are also slightly heavier and less muscular, meaning they have less well-shaped muscles than I would wish for. Nicely muscular Ridgebacks in a show ring are the exception these days. I have the feeling that Ridgebacks nowadays work less and runs fewer kilometres than previously. You can see this in the temperament and in body shapes as well.
In central Europe I very often see light eyes on Ridgebacks and serious deficits in head shape. The nose part of the Ridgeback has get shorter, the cheek bones have got wider, and the brain case has got rounder. These are faults it is necessary to discuss openly, so they can be worked on in breeding. I saw a just few of these heads at your show, but mostly the heads were well- proportioned, sometimes with the ears a little long.
In more cases I found incorrect bites. I found three cases of the disqualifying, non-standard level bite, even in a Class of Champions! Breeders and judges very often overlook this. The problem is that lately you can find more and more tight scissor bites in young Ridgebacks which develop into level bites in adults and even undershot in old Ridgebacks! The head of the Ridgeback develops over the first three years, so I think it is better if a young Ridgeback has a more delicate head and a slightly loose scissor bite. The lower jaw is the longest developing part of a dog (up to 7 years!). The problem of the level bite and the undershot goes hand in hand with the shortening of the muzzle and crossing ridgebacks with different jaw lengths. From experience of other breeders, I know that incorrect bites are hereditary and it is very difficult to breed them out. That is why I think judges should be stricter with incorrect bites and they should penalize them.
The top line, tail position, angle of rear and pelvic limbs have generally improved in the last 10 years in Europe. There might be more weaker chests than in the past, but at your show I noted very steep angles in chest limbs only in very few cases. I found in the hair of a few Ridgebacks more or less visible black hair, most often on the neck. This is an aesthetic problem only, but it spoils the general beauty and “purity“ of a Ridgeback. I personally penalize black hair. On the other hand, I was pleased that your country has not followed the fashion of overly red, almost Bordeaux, coats, as we see in Germany and other countries. I saw very nicely pigmented Ridgebacks of the light to medium wheaten colour I most admire.
To briefly summarize what I got the chance to judge that day at your show, to evaluate and compare with other European countries: your most valuable attribute is, first, the nice long body shape and well-shaped long chests. Because of this, you have very nicely moving Ridgebacks with good quality capacious strides and movement. Together with character this is a priority for me.
It is difficult to judge character at a show. Dog behaviour at a show is not the same as in a natural environment. It is learned behaviour and it reflects the work of the breeder and the psychological strength of the shower and the dog. I liked the culture of showing dogs in your country. I noticed that the dogs must have been prepared from early on for the show atmosphere. Not even a single dog was too scared, all showed their teeth and most of the dogs let me to examined and touched them without a problem. I did not have to point out unacceptable behaviour or disqualify any dogs for it. Even dominant dogs with aggressive tendencies were perfectly under control and showed off.
I enjoyed judging your dogs at Goteborg and I like cherish the memories. I was treated very nicely and attentively, I saw many excellent Ridgebacks, I met a lot of very pleasant people and found new friends. I felt really good about the entire experience and I would be very pleased to be invited again to judge Ridgebacks in your country. Thank you very much.
Monika Tušanová, 2/2008
za pomoc pri preklade do angličtiny ďakujem Petre a Davidovi Smoliarovím, majiteľom krásnej Extra Rozinky