Critique with interesting informations.
After the WDK-Clubshow I found a long text called “A “Critique” from England.”, written by Chris MacLeod (Kennel Brachan) and Liz Thornton ( Kennel Mochras). This text is phantastic because he shows us some really important things in showing, breeding and FCI-standard. So I asked Chris and Liz, if we may put their text into our blog. Thanks to both of them for their approval!
The first thing the text shows us is that good judges can give us an important view from outside on the status of the breed in our country:
We see our hound – the most beautiful one, of course – at first, and than we see the hounds in our country. Our eyes get trained to it and than we may believe, that hounds have to be like they are in our country. Maybe we call it a “modern type of wolfhound”, when we feel that something goes wrong but that most of the hounds have the same look. Someone from outside can tell us, that this “type” is not the perfect one and should be changed to come back to the standard.
The best way for the club to transport this aim is to create a clubcompetion, for example “best chest”, “best paws”, etc.
The second point is that in translation the meaning of a description can and sometimes will get lost. Some words cannot be translated in the right way, we have to know what it means in the original language. For example it is impossible to translate the English word “sound, soundness” into the German language, and we have to learn, what “sound” means. Translation can only be some kind of crutch and the best method to verify it is to ask the judge or a nativespeaker what it means. Translation of the original meaning will need more words than those few words, written in the judge’s report.
The third point is that the standard can only be the standard in the original language with understanding the original spirit and the spirit of the time it was written in! So forget the translations of standards, read it in original language!
And now, please enjoy this text and keep it in your mind for every show you will visit in future!
A “Critique” from England.
Hello to everyone and a big thank you for inviting Liz and myself to judge your Wolfhound Club Show in it’s beautiful, romantic new venue on Saturday June 12th 2010. Everyone was very kind to us and made us so welcome, we had a wonderful time. Special thanks to all the committee and all the volunteers and helpers who made sure that we were fed and water adequately and then ferried around in various vehicles to different destinations, and if anyone is looking for a hotel in Prague, fairly near the airport, we strongly recommend the Hermes where we spent our last night. A newly opened and beautifully furnished hotel with a great family team of staff and also very reasonably priced. Our Czechoslovakian friends even rang the Monday morning to see if we’d had a comfortable night and were OK.
At the show we were especially grateful to have 2 English student interpreters Adam and Martin who had studied the anatomy, physiology and breed standard of the Irish Wolfhound prior to translating for us on the day. Although, they did an excellent job, Liz and I still had worries about the dictation process and verbal translation back into written Czechoslovakian and we were both fully aware of the difficulty of that process and that some of the actual meaning of our critiques got lost in translation.
For example, “ Well furnished head.” Was very difficult to translate and became good eyebrows and beard. “Long level planes to head” was not translatable at all.
We were aware that our fairly long and comprehensive critiques were shortened considerably and the eventual meaning not quite as we’d intended. Also we found that we both developed a system for repeating the same phraseology and wording that the guys could understand and translate back into Czechoslovakian, and were aware that the critiques were becoming rather repetitive.
We were also aware that the critiques may have become more negative than intended, for example; “carrying tail a little gaily” may have became “carried tail high,” phrases such as “erratic movement” were difficult to translate and may have become unsound, “not in hard enough condition” may have become poor condition. I was describing a sweet feminine head, which Adam originally understood as “cute,” definitely not a word I would use to describe an Irish Wolfhound’s head [although we changed the wording in the end]. Please don’t think we are being critical of the translators they did a great job, but it proved time consuming and difficult and so it was impossible to provide the extensive critiques that we would both normally write, so please accept our apologies.
I must say that some of the exhibitors in my ring were helping to translate my comments and were very understanding of the points I was making about their hounds.
Before the show began we were treated to an exhibition of Irish dancing which was much appreciated by the audience.
The showground, over looked by a grand castle, was in a large park and there were trade stands selling various doggy things and also some very colourful chairs.
The show was sponsored by Fitmin, producers of dried dog food and they were very generous with their prizes. Anubis, another sponsor, also provided some very nice packs for each exhibitor. Certainly the winners went away with trophies, prizes, diplomas, ribbons, cards and lots of dog food.
The rings were nicely set out, large and spacious, but the ground a little uneven, although everyone seemed to cope with that. Liz had joked the previous evening about who was going to have the tree in their ring, but she was extremely grateful that she did because it was so hot. We both ensured that hounds and exhibitors were in the shade under the trees whilst waiting to be judged, but actually most hounds seemed to cope very well with the heat.
Overall we were impressed with your stock, especially the youngsters coming through, both the junior dog and bitch classes were very strong and had a lot of quality in depth, although the winners could not compete for the CAC.
One of our concerns was regarding some shy temperaments. We tried to be fair and forgive, but at the end of the day no Wolfhound should ever back off a small female judge who is in no way threatening.
Some people were obviously inexperienced handlers and unused to the show ring and their hounds could have been better ring trained but we were both aware that many were coursing hounds and not used to the show ring.
The coursers especially were very fit and in very hard muscular condition, but some were far too thin and would not have had the endurance required for coursing, speed yes, but endurance no. Both Liz and I have bred coursing champions and coursed our hounds over the years and are used to the practice of “fining down” the hounds for coursing and “fattening up” for the show ring, but not to the extent that you can feel the bones in their spinal column and their ribs protruding.
Some hounds moved well in profile but were rather erratic coming and going, a little close behind and loose in front. I saw several who were rather flat in forefeet.
In the youngsters Liz and I both found a lot of level bites, acceptable and not a fault we know, and neither Liz or I are “mouth judges” and we both believe that other attributes such as type, conformation, soundness of temperament, movement, are all of greater importance, but level bites can all too quickly become undershot bites in the future. Although we are also both aware that narrow underjaws have been a prevailing problem, so breeding for a wider underjaw may originally produce a more level bite than we may normally wish to see, but will balance out eventually. This seemed to tie in with a shorter muzzles.
The problem that concerned us both most, was lack of layback of shoulders coupled with a short upright upper arm, causing lack of width and depth of fore chest. This was a fairly prevalent fault throughout the entry. There were of course some hounds who had a wonderful layback of sloping shoulder with length and angulation of upper arm giving depth and breadth to fore chest, but they were in the minority. Our best in show winner excelled in this department.
There were lots of excellent harsh, wiry coats (again difficult to translate), some really lovely long well covered tails, although some were carried gaily, a few with short tails, but no kinks in tails.
Mostly kind, dark, expressive eyes, most of the wheaten and creams had excellent dark pigmentation. But also what fantastic greyhound like, small, rose shaped ears the hounds had, we saw very few large flat ears. And for both of us, it was the hard, muscular condition that your hounds were presented in that really impressed us.
The best veteran Mary Kay Ionhain Norman was of lovely type, still an easy and active mover and at 9 years olds she still courses regularly and is in hard muscular condition. She was a real credit to her owners and just did not want to stop running around the ring.
Liz’s best dog Imperium Manowar WR was a 21 month old tall black masculine houndy male of impressive type {very much like the Saringa hounds of Jenny Dove] who had a lot of presence and his best is yet to come when he matures. It was close competition for Best in Show but we both felt the junior bitch winner Annie Ailean absolutely excelled in type, she was very much like the old fashioned Sulhamstead stock and she reminded Liz of Ch Seplecur Megan as a youngster.
Neither of us have ever put up a 9 month old puppy for such high honours before, but despite not being handled as efficiently as she may have been she moved so soundly and truly coming and going, and really reached out with great extension in front and drove off her hocks with such power that she gave the impression that she could hunt all day. Her movement was so active and effortless, als she exuded quality. We thought she was outstanding.
Best Brace were a well matched pair of greys, identical for type and moving well together.
Best Head was Cerberus Flintstone who had a strong, masculine, impressive, well furnished head with a far away kind expression.
Best Coat was Belis Imagination Savinka a wheaten with a crisp, harsh, wiry, close coat.
Best Mover was our Best in Show winner who just absolutely excelled in all ways on the move and never put a foot wrong, so powerful and strong, showing excellent type and exuding quality.
The Best Stud Dog had progeny from 3 litters here today and had clearly stamped his type.
It was a very long hot day for all of us, but the exhibitors seemed very sporting and accepting of our decisions, and we thoroughly enjoyed our judging appointment in your beautiful country.
Thank you for the beautiful gifts of glass with the engraved wolfhound head, they are stunning, and thank you again for inviting us as your guests.
Chris MacLeod and Liz Thornton
(Brachan) (Mochras)
