Page 194 - Showsight March 2013

JUDGING WHEATENS
By Richard Urquart When AJ asked if I
would write this
article for Show-
Sight Magazine
he said he had
no instructions
other than, “I want you to talk about what
you think every judge should know when
they walk into a ring full of Soft Coated
Wheaten Terriers.”
My first thought was that not many
judges get to see a ring full of the breed.
I have been actively breeding and show-
ing since 1984 and outside of the National
and Regional Specialties and a few areas in
California and on the East Coast, very sel-
dom are there full rings of our wonderful
breed—at least in the classes.
My second thought was that I would
obviously need to reference the standard,
I didn’t want to repeat the classic, “How
to judge X breed” article going over the
standard in a detailed fashion and opin-
ing on the meaning of what “well-boned”
or describing a “tail set on high” as they
might apply to the SCWT. (See the
National’s Judges Education CD found
on scwtca.org for a very detailed overview
of the standard complete with all of the
appropriate pictures.)
I decided to take you into a ring full
of SCWTs (or least one with a few good
ones) and tell you what I look for when
judging. When I breed I want to improve
(or at least not hurt) the dogs I am breed-
ing, so in choosing breeding stock I will
be very critical of individual traits. But
in this article I hope to convey how I use
the standard as a judge of the Soft Coated
Wheaten Terrier, a judge who happens to
be a breeder and exhibitor. I do admit that
on occasion a breeder bias may influence
how I weigh the individual traits of an
entry, but I consciously try to ignore
them when judging.
So, I walk into a ring full (or maybe not
so full) of SCWTs—where to begin? How
about with the entire standard!? It is very
easy for a judge to memorize the charac-
teristics outlined in the standard, to break
down into sections and then subsections
those characteristics, letting those be the
stand alone deciding factors, good or bad.
It is a lot more difficult to see all of the
individual characteristics (good and bad)
as a whole and evaluate the overall quality
of the dog.
For me, there are a two descriptions of
SCWTs in the very first section of the breed
standard (General Appearance) that for me
form the basic frame in which I begin to
observe and evaluate my entries. As I view
each of the dogs, watch them move and
examine them individually, I want to see
and feel a “medium-sized, hardy, well-bal-
anced sporting terriers, square in outline”
that present “the overall appearance of an
alert and happy animal, graceful, strong
and well coordinated.”
With those two descriptions I can gen-
erally evaluate the overall quality of the
dogs in the first moments after they enter
the ring—during the initial lineup as they
stand and during the first go around. To be
more descriptive: what I am hopefully see-
ing and beginning to sketch in my frame
is the essence of the breed: the coat, the
silhouette, the head and the attitude. I,
like most judges, stand back and look at
the entire lineup. Immediately, assuming
the individual entries have been trimmed
to “show a terrier outline” meaning a
“square”, “sporting terrier outline”, I should
be able to see clearly the balance, length of
leg and proportions of each entry. A sport-
ing terrier outline for a SCWT is square,
if the length of the dog as measured from
the chest to the rump (or for the pedantic:
the prosternum to the ischium) is equal
to the height of the dog as measured from
the top of the withers to the ground. The
exhibit is not a well-balanced sporting ter-
rier if the length of the leg from the floor to
the elbow and the elbow to the top of the
withers is not equal and length of the neck
to the length of the head to the length of
the back. No tape measure is required—I
know it when I see it. However, I am also
aware that until I see the dogs move and
put my hands on each, what I am seeing
may also be misleading.
There are other qualities that begin
to stand out as I walk the line and look
at each exhibit, and they take their place
in my framework. Are the “legs straight”
and parallel, and do the stifles appear well
bent? Does the dog have some width in the
rear as it stands? I get a better feel for this
when I have the dog free stack after the
down and back and I walk around the rear
of the dog. Does the head seem to be well
balanced and in proportion to the body?
Are the ears “small to medium in size”
and do they appear to break even with
“...I want to see and feel a ‘medium-sized, hardy, well-balanced
sporting terriers, square in outline’ that present
‘THE ovErAll AppEArANcE of AN AlErT AND HAppy
ANImAl, GrAcEfUl, STroNG AND WEll coorDINATED.’”
194 • ShowSight Magazine, March 2013