Starting the Judging journey

So . . . . for better or worse, and only time will tell, I have been accepted onto the AMCUK Breed Specialist Judge ‘C’ List.

From observing and listening to friends who have already started on the judging journey this is as much a test of confidence in yourself and your own opinions as it is figuring out how you view an Alaskan Malamute presented to you against the breed standard.

Listening to Keith Givens at the AMCUK seminar as well as from some other respected judges already in the breed – the first thing to concentrate on is to remove everything that distracts you from concentrating on the dogs. Things like comfortable shoes so you’re not thinking about how much your feet are killing you, looking at the layout of the ring so you know that where you think you’re going to stand you can actually see the dogs move.

Hopefully when I get asked for my first appointment I’ll be brave enough and comfortable enough in myself to enjoy it!

 

Challenge Certificate Etiquette

In comparison with other breeds, Challenge certificates are still relatively new for Alaskan Malamutes. The level of interest in future judges is always high, particularly for the ever increasing number of shows offering CCs. When considering possible show entries for next year I was asked an interesting question and one that will apply to me the following year in 2013.

“Is it considered bad form to challenge for a ticket from a judge that has already awarded you one?”

I suppose the theory is a second ticket from a judge does not help you towards champion status, while you could be standing in the way of a third crucial ticket for another dog.

I think my thinking on this would be different if the two shows, both offering tickets from the same judge, were a month apart. But repeat judges for CC appointments  in Malamutes seem to be at least eighteen months apart, your competition and your dog can change alot in that time. New dogs come into the show scene, others will mature and move up the classes while others will mature out of the showring. Essentially the judge may be the same but the competition will be completely different.

In my humble opinion – if the judge considers the other dog on two tickets to be better than yours, then it should win. If it’s not better than your dog then by removing your dog from challenge you are lessening the achievement of their win.

So go for it and best of luck, although I will obviously be trying to beat you!! xx

 

Kings forest – at night – alone!!

So . . . finally the racing season is here, sadly no-one had told the weather man that it needed to cool down so our training had been sadly lacking! I’d managed to get them out on the springer irregularly and we’d only been out training twice so we weren’t exactly prepared.

Wayne was working so I decided go alone and brave a night rally in the forest, I knew sleeping in the van wouldn’t be an issue as I would just park in the middle of everyone else.

So Saturday morning dawned bright and frankly a bit warm . . . but off I went up to Thetford, found the rally site first time (!) and set up right in the middle of everyone else – obviously with our fantastic event pavillion by the side of the van.

And waited . . . and waited . . . one of the drawbacks of a night rally – waiting for night-time.

There was entertainment while we waited in the form of Martin forgetting to swerve the snub line and bursting a tyre – always funny watching five fully-grown men crawling around underneath a car on the side of the forest trail.

All too soon it was dark and time to run. I’d decided to run Ghost and Tia and although we didn’t set off very well, the start straight took an age, once round the first corner after that although they weren’t running fast we only stopped once for the whole of the rest of the course. Thinking about it – I think I’d rather have a steady continuous pace that’s maybe too slow than running faster with frequent stops.

We weren’t fast, 31 minutes for 3 miles – not fast at all . . . . ! But a night run is always fun, and many thanks to the helpful marshall who turned on his headlight to help me find the turn in the pitch black!

Sleeping in the van with three dogs is warmer than I had expected and there was an early morning trip over the front seats to open another window that nearly resulting in a plunge into the footwell. Still the extra hour of sleep was nice and still meant I was up early and ready to run again.

Sadly the weather wasn’t in agreement with this plan and by 830am it was already nearly 15 degrees C. Despite the course being shortened I decided this was still too warm, so warning the teams around me in the running order I went out to disqualify myself. Running Ghost and Sasha we turned the wrong way off the main course and onto the shorter Junior route.

What a great decision – we had a fantastic run! Short and sweet, nice twists and turns. I’m really glad I did it, I’m not sure Sasha would have run all the way round the longer course with such a thick undercoat, but at only just over a mile she coped admirably with the shorter distance and the pair of them ran all the way. Once again, as the night before, not fast but only stopping once around the route. Pretty good I think.

The first race of the season done . . . hopefully the start of another good season. I’d like to think we can run all three together at some point this winter – time will tell.

Best of Breed at Barking Canine Open show

Our ringcraft club held their annual Open show today at a beautiful new venue, Five Lakes Golf club, out in the wilds of the Essex countryside. It was a beautiful day, I’m not sure I saw a cloud all day long, but not too warm. Loads of room for the dogs to move in the huge ring – fantastic.

The Siberians were in first and had a good entry in all classes. Congratulations to Mark Squires with Sapphire who won the Open class and then Best of Breed. And Angie Johns with the beautiful Koko who took Best Puppy – I am going to steal that baby girl one day!

The Malamutes had a great entry for an Open show with 17. Demi and Tracey took the Post Graduate class and then my own gorgeous Ghost won the Open Dog/Bitch class and then took Best of Breed.

We weren’t placed in the group level, but I had some lovely positive comments afterwards.

Congratulations to Angie who won Puppy Group 2.

We now all have to hope that Martin did the business with the camera!

Afterwards I went up to my mum and dads to photograph Ghost with her trophy from the LKA last year – before we have to give it back. Photos to come . . . . . now – X-factor!

AMCUK Championship show

We had a lovely weekend away at Stoneleigh park for the AMCUK Championship show, despite Tony attempting to eat all my flapjack before we even started setting up on Friday afternoon!

As usual the day is long and hectic and I never really find time to chat to anyone with the girls in three consecutive classes. Both Ghost and Sasha were shortlisted in their classes but none of our ladies were to the judges taste.

However – I’ve now seen the photos from Alan and Ghost looks fantastic on the move, really powering across the ring.

We finished Saturday with a meal out with Sue and John and a relaxing Sunday morning before coming home. A lovely weekend away.

New website

So here I am on a Friday night, supposed to be finishing something else, but engrossed in building up this new website. After a few false starts getting this theme sorted out now I’m up and running, I just hope my photos will be good enough quality as this template needs lots of them!

I’d like to get it up and running this weekend but will hopefully be finishing off the latest Worker magazine for AMWA. Hmmm – tough call, I want to do both!