JUDGING THE SILKY TERRIER by Florence A. Males, Weeblu Silky Terriers
color, outline and balance. When viewed from the side on the table, you can see size and substance of bone, proportions, and the length of coat. I’m big on proper size, (no more than 10 inches at the withers) as its part of type and, as stated in the standard, “of refined bone structure, but of sufficient substance to suggest the ability to hunt and kill domestic rodents”, for which most Silkys are very good. So, not as fine as the York- shire Terrier or as heavy as the Aus- tralian Terrier. If being shown on the grass, you get a false sense regarding the length of coat. It should follow the body outline. “It should not approach floor length” and should be “well groomed but not SCULPTURED,” in other words, the coat should look as natural as possible. The dogs with the proper silk texture have to be careful in their groom- ing. Silk is strong; therefore it does not break easily. So, it can be so long that careful trimming is required, but again, to look natural. As for head hair (the Silky having the Yorkshire Terrier in its immediate background), it should not resemble the glamorous Yorkie by having excessive head and facial hair. They should have fairly clean muzzles, ears, feet and short hair on the docked tail with dark hair on the tip as in the Australian Terrier. Going to the front of the dog, I cup my hands behind the ears and jaws. This gives me a chance to view head shape, eyes, nose and shape of ears. When viewing the eyes, pay close attention to shape as a dog with thick dark eye rims can appear to have eyes that look round when at a distance. You then check for a strong and well aligned, scissors bite. This is where our first serious fault comes in, “An undershot or overshot bite is a serious fault”.
A ssuming you’ve read the Silky Terrier Standard and under- standing that the Silky originat- ed, (breeding of the Australian Terrier to the Yorkshire Terrier in the late 1800s) in Australia, I’ll try to give an overview of what I look for when judging the Silky. Foremost in my mind when they come into the ring, I want the proper temperament. I pre- fer to have all entries go around before being tabled, even single classes. This not only gives the dog a chance to be- come familiar with the ring, but does
a lot for me as a judge. A Silky Terrier should go around with the air of a Ter- rier, alert and aware of his surround- ings. The Silky standard states, “… shyness or excessive nervousness to be faulted, the manor is quick, friend- ly, responsive”. This is not always “showmanship”, but “temperament”. The term, “he won because he is so showy”, may only be that the dog is true to its standard. Temperament in any breed is of major importance and all should be specific to their breed. At this time, I can also assess the size,
66 • T op N otch T oys , D ecember 2019
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