THE SECOND year of the Judges’ Development Programme organised by the National Terrier Club, got off to a good start on November 7 and 8 at the Canine Academy near Nottingham, writes Ronnie Irving.

This was the third two-day workshop session to be held by the Club in line with the Kennel Club’s plan to help in the development of judges on a group by group basis.

To date, 11 terrier breeds have been included and the sessions have been considered by those attending to have been very successful.

Breeds

The breeds dealt with over the two days on this occasion were the Airedale, covered by Judy Averis and Michael Sarjeant, the Kerry Blue by Ron Ramsay, the Skye by Sue McCourt and the Dandie Dinmont by Frances Chapman-King.

Eligibility

There were 17 candidates attending, all of whom already have to have previously been approved for at least three terrier breeds at championship level before being invited to participate. A number of these are already established Group Judges. Many of the candidates attending had previously been approved to award CCs to some of the breeds concerned. A panel of established terrier specialists has been appointed to assess new candidates and provide its views to the KC Judges’ Sub Committee. These views will be used when the candidates come up for approval to award CCs to the breeds concerned. The Judges’ Sub Committee has confirmed that it will in future pay particular attention to the views of such group society Judges’ Development Panels in arriving at its decisions.

So far, the National Terrier Club (in its second scheme year) and the National Working and Pastoral Breeds Dog Society (in its first scheme year) are the two group societies which have launched their programmes of workshops. The National Gundog Association, the Hound Association and the UK Toydog Society have also indicated that they are making good progress towards adopting the scheme with some dates already fixed for 2002.

The National Terrier Club is to run a further two day session on January 16 and 17, 2002 with the breeds to be covered to include Scottish, Sealyham, Bedlington and Border Terrier. It is hoped that a short session on the Cesky Terrier will also be included on the Scottie/Sealyham day.