Scottish Terrier Breed Magazine - Showsight

Illustration 19: Six Scottish Terrier dog outlines measured per today’s standard. The withers placement is depicted with a black dot.

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Illustration 21: A mature Scottish Terrier champions measured under today’s standard. The white dot represents where, according to those measurements, the withers would be placed.

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Illustration 20: Six Scottish Terrier bitch outlines measured per today’s standard. The withers placement is depicted with a black dot.

Illustration 22: A young Scottish Terrier dog measured with today’s standard.

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Illustration 23: A young Scottish Terrier bitch measured with today’s standard.

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THE ART OF MEASURING, AS SIMPLE AS IT CAN BE I will now provide some basic mea- suring information before moving on to address proportions of our current stan- dard’s measurements. For the AKC approved judge, mea- suring and weighing knowledge is a must. AKC has a very clear policy for such activities, and all judges, who judge breeds that are weighed or mea- sured, must follow that policy to a “T”. In the show ring, judges can only mea- sure or weigh breeds where height or weight contains disqualifications. The Scottish Terrier standard contains no disqualifications. Therefore, the breed cannot be measured in the show ring. That doesn’t mean that, as breeders or owners, we can’t weigh or measure. For the beginning and, perhaps, for the experienced Scottie enthusiast, the next portion of my article pertains to the “art” of measuring our dogs. First of all, the height of dogs is measured from the highest point of the withers to the ground. (See Illus- tration 12) Typically, a wicket is used.

groomed, use their hands and see if these “old” rules of proportion apply. If the reader is a member of STCA, view the covers and flip through the pages of STCA’s news bulletin, The Bagpiper . One could also peruse the two fairly recent well-written Scottish Terrier books, Cindy Cooke’s The New Scottish Terrier and Muriel P. Lee’s The Official Book of the Scottish Terrier . Both of these books contain numerous quality photographs of winners from past to the nearly present. The correct proportion can easily be evaluated by eye or, if desired, by hand. By hand, simply place one’s thumb at the end of the dog’s nose and spread figures toward the occiput to get a beginning proportion. Keep the fingers spread at that distance and place them on the withers and then the point of shoulder. Remember 1 ¾ to two times the length of head. Again, it’s about relationships, not about numbers. Once the point of shoulder is touched, one, with hand spread, can see how much length remains, ¾ to 1 times the cur- rent thumb to little finger span.

Tapes and rulers can be used, but care must be taken to assure correct mea- surements. And, I might add, some standards do not differentiate between puppies and adults, some do. In some breeds, puppies must meet the same height limits as the adult. I’m including a diagram below to illustrate (Illustration 12) where these measureable parts are located. It is interesting to note that when the shoul- ders become “straighter” than the pre- ferred layback, the actual measurement becomes longer, and the dog becomes taller. Clever grooming can change the outline we see in the ring, but the good judge would be able to find that point and, certainly, notice the result of such poor shoulder placement when the animal moves. Earlier, I mentioned Point of Shoul- der (see illustration below). Hopefully, in the Scottish Terrier, the Point of Shoulder is not the most forward part of the dog’s front assembly. In some breeds, this Point is used in measur- ing the length of the dog, not so in the Scottish Terrier standard. The Scottie

228 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , J ULY 2018

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