Double Standard

Tomorrow is my very first judging assignment. I’m judging puppy sweepstakes for the Alberta Sporting Hound Association – I love puppies! I will admit I’m a little apprehensive – I’ve been studying hound standards and reasearching online but today I had to stop. I’ve been giving myself heart palpitations whenever I start reviewing so I put the binder away and will just have to trust my gut. I have 29 (32) years of looking at show dogs and at some point I just have to trust my eye.

There are a couple breeds that are very unfamiliar to me in as far as body shape and the Dachshund tops the list. It’s an interesting little dog and has the most detailed standard which is very helpful. It includes leg angles, measurements and some pretty finite requirements of the breed – don’t even get me started on their three coat types.

Some standards are very sparse, the Greyhound and the Saluki leave a lot of room for interpretation however these breeds have changed little in thousands of years – a remarkable feat what with humans and our penchant for screwing things up.

I will say that because of researching illustrated and ellaborated standards I now want a Scottish Deerhound. They sound lovely. They look like big fuzzy charcoal greyhounds.



Anyway, I’m sure I’ll be fine, I just have to trust myself and I know I have a good eye for a dog … but I’ve never had to say yes or no to a stranger’s baby puppy! I just hope there are no classes with 5 dogs - that means one dog gets nothing. But I get to pet lots of puppies!