Page 44 - ShowSight Presents The Bullmastiff

BULLMASTIFF AT A GLANCE
Ideal Dog Head
Essential Breed Characteristics
• Nearly Square/body compact
• Back level
• Slight arch over loin
• Powerful
• Moderate matching angles
• Reach and drive indicate maximum use of dog’s moderate angulation
• Ribs well sprung
• Head as pictured
• Fearless and confident
Heavily weigh these deviations:
• Long back/long loin
• Rectangular
• Be wary of dyed masks/enhanced pigment on muzzles and ears
• Short legs
• Overangulated rear
• Straight/stuffy shoulders
• Snipey/long muzzle
• Wry bite/grossly undershot/overshot • Cow hocks/splayed feet
• Showmanship should not override breed correctedness
BIO
Helene Nietsch is a more than 40-year veteran breeder of Bullmastiffs under the “Banstock” prefix. She has bred or owned more than 20 Registry of Merit Bullmas- tiffs as top-producing dogs and bitches (including 2008/2009’s top-producing sire of the year), more than 100 champions, multiple national specialty winners, and a best in show Bullmastiff in each of the four decades she has been breeding. She co-bred the first multiple best in show Bullmastiff in the 1970s and the top-winning Bullmas- tiff in the history of the breed, Ch. Bandog’s Crawdaddy Gumbo, who was also #2 dog all breeds in the mid-1980’s. She is on the
board of the American Bullmastiff Asso- ciation and serves as Chairman of Judges Education and Co-chair of Breeder Edu- cation as well as AKC Gazette Bullmastiff columnist for 15 years. She is currently president of Newtown Kennel Club and Coordinator for Connecticut Dog Judges. She has judged the American Bullmastiff National Specialty in 2000 and 2011, the Bullmastiff World Cup in Hungary, specialties in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Spain and South Africa and is approved to judge all working and hound, several sporting and non-sporting breeds, best in show, junior showmanship and miscellaneous breeds.
SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2014 • 197