Page 26 - Great Pyreneese
P. 26
great pyrenees Q&A “PleAse be AwARe thAt theRe ARe
A nuMbeR of doGs beinG shown thAt hAVe wAy
TOO MUCH TRIMMING BEING DONE.”
with RobeRt M. bRown, Vinny ChiAnese & JeAn PeRo
VC: As a matter of fact, there is a pet peeve. The Illustrated Standard clearly says, “The Great Pyrenees’ coat should be presented naturally, with only minor trimming allowed to tidy up the feet and face (removal of
whiskers and eyebrows is optional). Exhibitors should not be rewarded for presenting a dog with a scissored or shaped coat.” Yet, we constantly see dogs that are sculptured all over. The dilemma is that on some dogs they are trimmed to hide a serious fault such as top line or lack of leg or whatever. But some are really nice dogs that the owner/handler just can’t leave alone. So what to do? Of course if there is a better dog in the ring there is no problem but in some cases I have to reward the dog because the scissor can be removed from the owner/ handler, but the dog under the coat is correct and the other dog scissored or not is not correct. Please be aware that there are a number of dogs being shown that have way too much trimming being done.
JP: I have an issue with sculptured Great Pyrenees; we are a Working breed and we allow for trimming and cleaning up the feet. I see too many sculptured coats.
I have to judge these dogs as any other in the ring as we do not address the sculpting in our standard. Sculpting is not necessary.
11. And, for a bit of humor: what’s the funniest thing you’ve ever experienced at a dog show?
RMB: I don’t know how funny this incident was, but it
was a teaching moment that worked out for all concerned. In the early 70s I was showing a quality adult Great Pyrenees male that had a full gray mask. In a
class of five open dogs, as I entered the ring, the judge approached me and said, “He looks like a nice dog, too bad about the color.” At that point, I was convinced that I was fifth of five in that class, so I might as well educate the judge and said, “The color is acceptable.” To which the judge said, “No, it isn’t.” I requested that he check the standard. To his credit, he went to the judge’s table and read the breed standard. He sheepishly returned and admitted that I was right. I won the dog points and went BOW that day and I believe that a Working group judge learned more about Great Pyrenees.
VC: One story that comes to mind was back in the mid 80s. I was showing a Siberian Husky male that was right
at 23"—the standard DQ is 231⁄2". At the time in Texas every weekend there were five or six specials and other than me it was the likes of Roy Murry, Ron Buxton and Mike Kemp that were the regulars. So here we were in West Texas and the judge comes back to the center of the ring to have a look at the specials. He looks down the line and walks over to his steward and says get the wicket. Roy was right in front of me and he looked back and said, “It’s one of us.” Keep in mind that I’m 5'4"
and I’m sure the dog with any other handler would not have seemed as tall. Well, the judge never said another word and proceeds to go through the class. He exam- ined each dog, mine included, and moved us down and back and then around. He finished the last special as the wicket showed up. He called me out and they put
a table on the dirt floor with the legs folded. He asked me if the dog had ever been measured before. I said no and he then told me to put the dog on the flat table so it could be measured. He showed me the wicket had been set to 231⁄2" and proceeded to measure the dog. Well I knew what the outcome was going to be because I had measured him myself several times. He put the wicket down and both feet of the wicket hit the table and the dog did not move. He did it again and this time he put his index finger into where the wicket and the withers come together. The result was the same. He looked right at me and said, “I guess you win.” I never hesitated, jumped up and said, “Thank you” as I ran over the BOB position. He shook his head and then pointed to BOW and the BOS. Roy just shook his head and could not believe what had happened. Now I’m sure that he meant that the dog was in, but that was not what he said and everyone heard him.
JP: Many years ago, at a dog show in Louisiana, road closures made a 6-hour trip take 10 hours. It was hot, humid and miserable with grooming spaces that were way too
small and overall miserable conditions. I had a BBE
and Open Bitch entered and needed a major for my BBE. I took the BBE and Open Class, but do not remember the judge, as this was 20+ years ago. The judge moved all the winners class and could not make up his mind, finally came over to me and said, “I like both of your bitches, which one do you want to win?” My BBE bitch went home with the major.
