We sure had a busy weekend. First a kennelclub show on Saturday and then the boxerspecial on Sunday. The common denominator for both was hot weather and a very well-behaved Ringo.
On Saturday, he made one attempt to jump on me while I ran him, but I only had to pull the leash down once and stand on it for him to stop entirely and finish the run very politely. He also didn’t pose very well on Saturday, but not because he was acting up. Instead, he was trying to get to the shade under the judges table. Poor thing was so warm. Fortunately, we had a lovely judge who took into account that the heat was really getting to the dogs. She also quite liked Ringo, despite having a preference for English dogs, and ended up giving him a 1 for quality and placing him first (out of two dogs) in the class, with an HP. She thought they were both quite promising, but not quite developed enough yet, which she said isn’t uncommon for boxers as they often develop slowly. Her critique was as follows:
Good sex characteristics. Adequate bone and body. Good proportions. Well-formed head. Somewhat large ears. Adequately domed ribcage and forechest. Good backlegs. Nice brindling. Nice dark eyes. Moves well. Nice temperament.
On Sunday it was the big boxerspecial for our region. Ringo was, of course, very excited to see all the boxers there (he’s definitely got a preference for boxers over other breeds), and for a while I thought he’d be a handful in the ring again. However, when the time came for us, he actually behaved even better than on Saturday. Partly this was due to the judge, as most German judges tend to do, letting the handlers show off the teeth instead of her getting up close and personal with the dogs. So, other than pulling a bit in the run, Ringo behaved very well for the group evaluation. Then, when it came to the individual evaluation, he actually stood quite nicely for a long time. Pretty much no squirming at all, and a nice, alert expression. I think we’re actually at the stage now where I can start working on how he stands as opposed to just getting him to stand still.
Of course, none of that matter this time. The judge really didn’t care for him, and sent us out with a 2. That was pretty disappointing, but looking at the overall results, she was pretty tough. She sent out a few champions without a CK, meaning she didn’t think they were champion quality. I also think some of her critique (as far as I have managed to make sense of the German, that is) makes very little sense when compared to other critiques. Ringo has always been said to have well-angled hind legs, for example, and now they were suddenly not good enough. Ah well, that’s how it goes. :) And until I get a good translation done, here’s the German:
Mittelgros, goldgestromt. Kräftiger Oberkopf. Noch passender Fang. Wenig Kinn. Quadratisches Gebäude. Oberarm sollte länger sein und schräger liegen. Sollte vorne und hinten besser gewinkelt sein.