|
Retrievers
‘under the glass’
IN NOVEMBER The National Gundog Association held the second
of its Judges’ Development Seminars at The Canine Academy,
Tollerton, Notts, with Joyce Ryder.
The focus for this seminar was four of the retriever breeds.
There were 21 candidates, the minimum criteria for attendance
being to already award CCs in at least three breeds. As with
the previous Judges’ Development Seminar, held last February,
the assessment of candidates was ongoing throughout the two
days.
The two breeds covered on the first day were Golden Retrievers
and Curly Coated Retrievers.
The morning session started with Golden Retrievers and the Tutors
for this session were Mrs V Foss, Mrs M Hathaway, Mrs V Jones
and Mrs M Wood. Together with Mrs L Kipps, Mrs Foss introduced
the extended breed standard with an impressive Power Point presentation.
This was followed with all the tutors, joining designated groups
of candidates, to lead discussion and question sessions. Also
included was a practical session as owners of Golden Retrievers
provided nine dogs for “hands on”. The morning finished
with candidates completing a written task to be assessed by
the tutors.
The afternoon session focused on the Curly Coated Retriever
and the Tutor for this was Mrs A Nichols. She commenced with
a knowledgeable presentation on the breed standard using the
dogs themselves to “illustrate” her talk. Once again
the candidates had the opportunity for discussion and a “hands
on” session. To conclude this session Mrs Nichols provided
an excellent collection of photographs showing Curly Coated
Retrievers and the candidates were given an assessment task
using the photographs.
The second day started with Flatcoated Retrievers and the two
Tutors were Mrs B Phillips and Mrs J Bird. Mrs Phillips having
attended the previous NGA Seminar was able to use this experience
to present a lively and thought provoking session for the candidates.
Again both tutors, using their own knowledge and experience,
were able to give a comprehensive overview of their breed. Once
again owners had given generously of their time to bring dogs
in order that the candidates were able to have a practical “hands
on” session. For the Flatcoated Retriever session the candidates
were given an assessment task to be complete in the week following
the tutorial, when they had the time to reflect on the session.
Then these were to be sent to the tutors for assessing.
Lively
The
final breed was the Labrador Retriever and the Tutors for
this breed were Mrs C Coode and Mrs Venturi Rose. Although
this was the last afternoon of two very full days there was
no danger of candidates “switching off”. Mrs Coode
in her own inimitable style presented a lively and thought
provoking talk on the Labrador Retriever and the breed standard.
The talk was again brought to life with the presence of the
dogs themselves and there was the opportunity to watch them
move and to go over them. The candidates had two written tasks
to complete within the session and this brought the two days
to a conclusion.
Verbal comments from the candidates to NGA have been extremely
positive. The exit questionnaires which the have completed
will be used to inform the planning of the National Gundog
Association’s next seminar planned for February 2003,
when the focus will be spaniel breeds.
|
