Judgereport / Dommer rapport

  Judgereport from 15 RR-Specialty Belgium 28. May 2007.

I would like to thank the club for inviting me to judge your Specialty this year.

The show was well organized and the handlers treated their dogs very nice. The audience was very interested and it was a pleasure for me to give an open critique for those dogs that I placed.

I was taken well care of by represents from the club.

The male classes were rather different in type and quality. Some were very big and unfortunately also out of ridgeback (hound) type. A male needs up to 5 years (female 3-5 years) to normally fully mature and develop. This means that there is a need to be careful to place a junior/intermediate male specimen of 69-71 or female of 66-68 cm size. 

The major problem among ridgebacks is a straight front, no harmony in angulations front & rear and too large in size, short movements and no hook action. This is a common problem throughout the world of ridgebacks.

There was one male - Kuona Fahari Jiunga Saba - from junior class that looked very promising and should have a nice future if he keeps on developing the way he has.

My # 1 in open class – Djambo of Mwanadongo - was a well build, strong and handsome dog with very nice movements. He performed well in the ring and I gave him res CAC (2.best male). Ikimba Waitimu won the champion class and also became best male with CAC. He was a beautiful, well build dog, handsome head, strong topline, well angulated and moved excellent. It was a pleasure for me to later place him as BOB even though he had strong competition from the best female.

The female classes were overall much stronger in quality than the male classes even though also here there were some very tall and heavy specimens. 

My best open female Ukukhanya Midsummernight’s Dream literal outran the other females from the younger classes but Vizara Jodi Jinga - who won the champion class - made her hard competition all the way till the end. They both had excellent qualities overall and was both really excellent movers. My final motivation for given CAC and best female to Ukukhanya Midsummernight’s Dream was due to her excellent movements with beautiful hook action which you seldom see. She also seemed like she could be running for days.

I saw a lot of dogs with excellent shoulder layback and strong topline. The heads was also very nice constructed with good length of muzzle. These qualities you must try to preserve and strengthen in your breeding. Some of your dogs had too broad head with short muzzle, which is a common problem in several countries. Size is a major problem that the breeders must take more notice of – there are a lot of too tall dogs now. A ridgeback is a hound dog made to hunt and stay on the track for days

Many of your dogs need better harmony in angulations (equal angulations front and rear), which in turn will give better movements also. With the correct turn of stifle behind the dog will be moving with long good steps (covering the ground as we say) otherwise the dog will be moving with short steps and just kicking up behind.

I whish the club and the owners good luck in the future.

Best regards
John Sigve Berg
Judge
Norway