Judging

[sarah25]

hi i would love to start judging our lovely breed i have been showing golden rets with my mom for about 6 years and cockers for about 6 months an have also started to handle irish setters for people.
i no wht i am looking for in these 3 breeds.i have been going 2 seminars an also going to 1 soon.
but i am only 15 do u think i should wait till i am a bit older i would really like 2 start juding as soon as pos but i no it takes time.do u have 2 b a steward for a bit.
im also scared in case no 1 cms under me  
has any body got a few more tips for me or if u no of some books websites tht would be a great help for me thanks   i have been going over a few dogs now at ringcraft an i feel that i could go over a dog an notice a prob if there woz 1

sarah

[Georgie]

No idea if THIS will be any help. Probably not, but oh well.

Good luck

[Dunton4]

Hi Sarah,

By chance, yesterday I was leafing through a book at Pets at Home called "Good Judgement" by Peggy Grayson.  It was a handbook for judges and I thought it looked very interesting (even though I will never be a dog judge!)  Don't know how you get into judging, though.  Maybe some of the COLiners who judge would be able to give you advice?

Sue and Tilly

[chelsea]

It might be a good idea to get hold of the 'Breed standard' as this might help!
You should be able to buy it off the KC website.

Chelsea.

[*-Nikki-*]

Hi Sarah,
As Chelsea has mentioned about the breed standard, it is situated in the front of the cocker year books   and can be seen online (KC website - cost nothing to view and print off ).
Not sure what seminars you have done …but new judges are advised to do a breed, rules n regs, stewarding, and conformation and movement before they start their judging .
So far I have done the stewarding and conformation + movement - passed both and I am going to do the regs + regs this summer and the breed seminar later on this year . I have also stewarded at open shows and judged JHA and YKC classes several times .  The more experience you have the better .
HTH Nicola  

[Jane S]

I think you probably need a lot more experience of owning & showing Cockers before you move up to the next stage of judging them. As well as the formal education side of studying the breed & attending the recommended seminars, you will need practical experience of showing good Cockers over a number of years. Once you have established a reputation of owning & showing good dogs, you'll find that you will start receiving invitations to judge but this takes time - it's not something you can rush into. My advice would be to view judging as something for the future, once you have a few more years under your belt of learning everything there is to know about your chosen breeds. Once you've got this experience, then you can think about judging

Jane

[looby lou]

Hi Sarah,
I agree with the others about years of experience. I have only been showing for 2 years and i have had  loads of support from people with 30 plus years of showing. I went on a seminar and although it was very enjoyable it was also incredibly hard to place the dogs in the correct order - in fact I failed miserably   . It was a fantastic day and the learning curve was huge. Spotting a really excellent, outstanding dog is easy and spotting major faults is easy , but as for the rest - well I really admire the judges, they have an excellent eye and good judgement which can only come with years of experience.
Stay with us non judges on the end of the lead and enjoy the fun and friendship that goes with it - you have time on your side and will no doubt be giving out cc's before your my age

[sashal]

As Jane has said there is no substitute for experience and you have plenty of time before you need to start thinking about judging. I have only been showing for 10 years and I only started judging my main breed properly a couple of years ago. I have also judged a few match nights.

I have been very lucky in spending a lot of time with the most experienced of breeders in GWP and learnt a lot. Been to more seminars than I can count and also judged JH quite a number of times. Basically what I'm saying is get talking to lots of breeders, ask them if you can go over their dogs and get their opinions on their dogs. Match nights are excellent experience and eventually you may be lucky enough to get asked to judge one. There is also no better way to learn about a breed than to live with both the good and the not so good examples of them and if you can't see the faults in your own dogs then it isn't the right time to be judging other peoples.

I've only owned Cockers  for 3 years and I am still learning lots. Jane has been kind enough to let me pick her brains on a few occasions over email  

Good Luck  

Alex