Our Dogs – Policy on Judges’ Reports
Our Dogs – Writing Judges’ Reports
Thank you for clicking on the link and we hope that you find the following thoughts and ideas helpful in composing your judges reports. We are proud of the fact that Our Dogs does not edit judges’ reports more than is absolutely necessary (unless they are clearly libellous!) and we are also very pleased to publish judges’ thoughts on the breed as a whole before the actual report. In addition we are unique in being prepared to accept reports from first to third place so that more exhibitors can have an assessment of their dogs. We greatly appreciate the fact that judges take time and trouble to submit reports. Although it is a Kennel Club requirement, we know that it takes dedication and commitment to write a useful and helpful report from which exhibitors will benefit. We are very pleased to accept judging reports in any format but more and more of them are arriving at Our Dogs either as e-mails or files attached to e-mails. You will no doubt know how easy it is to go to the catalogue printers’ websites and just copy and paste the results into your preferred word processor (or direct into an e-mail) so that you can just add your personal comments to the owners and dogs names. This is excellent as it enables us to process speedily and get them into the newspaper and on to the Internet more quickly. However, when the reports arrive, even by email, they come in lots of different forms so one of the things that we have to do in the Our Dogs office is to go through them and make sure they conform to our house ‘style’. Doing this makes them all look tidy and reduces the space required. It would speed things up greatly if they arrived in the format that we could use to print them directly. Here is a recent report in the style we use:
Bearded Collie: A very enjoyable day, a good entry with a reassuring depth of quality. All exhibits were clean and well presented and on the whole temperaments appeared good. I did find a few with level mouths, whilst not a major concern it does need watching when breeding on. One thing that did disappoint was the very poor conditioning on some exhibits. Beardies are a working breed and as such should be shown in good hard condition. Many were excessively overweight, flabby and devoid of any kind of muscle tone. Several exhibits that had great appeal when stacked were let down by poor conditioning and were unable to move as their construction suggested they should. I know much emphasis is put on a big glamorous coat these days and letting your dog run freely does put this at risk, but there has to be a sensible balance. Lean and supple the Standard says and that is what I look for. It was great to see my two Veteran winners again, I have given both CC's in the past and it was lovely to see them both again, looking so good and in such fabulous condition. Thank-you
VD (4 1) 1 Christie Ch Brenriga's Give'n'Take For Ruartha JW Have liked him in the past and he remains a favourite. So well made and balanced. Very elegant outline. Super head, good pigment and very appealing expression. In good hard condition and well handled. Moved out well, but just lacked the suppleness of the younger ones to day. 2 Dumbrell and Lindsay Ch Bethlyntee Bannock Sh Ch Lovely brown boy of great appeal. Good angles, very good in ribs. Liked his head and expression. In excellent condition for his 11 years and moved very soundly and true. 3 Kedzierski Brodarty Midsummer Sunrise. PD (3 1) 1 Bodingtons Braddabrook Voyager For Kitesover Very exciting youngster with much to offer. Good outline, well constructed and free of exaggerations. Lovely head an expression and very much everything as it should be at this age. Quite amazing on the move for his age, powered around the ring with big easy strides. Definitely one to watch. Best Puppy 2 Cornthwaite Braddabrook Firstfooter Litter brother to 1st and very similar in many departments. Balanced angles, correct shape of ribcage, but lacked the length of his brother. Pleasing expression. Moved soundly but lacked the drive and panache of 1st. 3 Harrison Hisnhers Diamond Geezer At Anfranjo
You will see that the class name just uses initial letters in block capitals (P, MP, and J instead of Puppy, Minor Puppy, and Junior etc) which is followed by the number of dogs and the number of absentees entered in brackets i.e. (4 1).
The next number is the placing followed by the owners’ name first and then the name of the dog before the actual report. It is helpful if the names of the owners and the dogs are in this style (which is called Title Case rather than in CAPITAL LETTERS).
The two main catalogue printers, Higham Press and Fosse Data put the owners’ names in capital letters but this would unnecessarily take up a great deal of space in the newspaper so we have to change them to Title Case. If you use Microsoft Word then there is a button on the title bar that enables you to change the type style from CAPITAL to Title Case very easily. It is under the drop-down menu ‘Format’ and you need the link to ‘Change case’. The easiest way to do it is to change the case to ‘All Cap’s and then click on ‘Title Case’
What is understandably frustrating for us is when judges spend a lot of time typing up their reports on their computer and then print it off and send it to us in the post. You will be surprised how many people do this when it is very easy just to copy and paste the text into an e-mail which can then be sent direct to showreports@ourdogs.co.uk.Thank you for taking the time to read this short article
