EXHIBITING, SPECTATING & JUDGING: VERY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE by Cecilia Resnick
S o now I am a judge. If you asked me, when I first started exhibit- ing over 15 years ago if I would ever consider being a judge, I would have told you “No”. But times change and so do interests. One thing that has never changed is my love of animals. Early on, my pets included both Toy Fox Terriers and Lhasa Apsos. As a young woman, my love of animals, along with a desire for competition, led me to both breeding and showing quarter horses in Ari- zona. Everything about the show life was richly rewarding: constant trips to new towns and show sights, horse folks, the competition and, of course, the beautiful and majestic animals. A career and family pulled me away from this life for a while. But as the children grew and no longer needed constant attention, the pull back to the competitive life became strong. In the early 1990s, I had a full size Greyhound, “Twiggy”. She was sweet and loving and brought great joy to the family. Shortly thereafter
I made the decision to return to the show ring. I loved the temperament of the Greyhounds, however, and made the decision to start exhibit- ing Italian Greyhounds. I have met wonderful people over the years that helped get me started, and freely of- fered both their advice and critiques. When you exhibit you however, your focus is all about your dog and the direction given to you by the judge. Once the preparation is done, and your dog is clean and groomed, you do everything you can do cor- rectly present your dog. This in- cludes the first look you give to the judge, gaiting the dog at the proper speed for the breed, proper stack- ing of the dog on the table (for the smaller breeds), and making sure that the dog stays in the judge’s line of vision as you move around the ring. While you may be completely focused, it is important to remem- ber that you are not the dog, and the dog may have other things on its mind! As a result, you must also
maintain the dog’s attention and insure that all the requirements mentioned above are presented in a manner that allows a judge to see your dog as an exemplary example of the breed standard. What makes this perspective interesting, is that while most of your attention falls to your dog, you are trying to keep your eye on the judge to make sure that everything that happens in the span of just a few minutes that is commensurate with both what the judge is looking for and when the judge wants to see it. Really not a simple task! Outside the ring as a spectator, the perspective changes. Whether you are keeping track of your own breed or watching another competition, you are making judgments from a dis- tance, and at angles that you cannot realize within the ring. You are also likely making comparisons among the dogs, noticing both their strengths and weaknesses, and quite often con- versing with folks that have their own
52 • T op N otch T oys , J uly 2019
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