JUDGING THE IRISH TERRIER A DISCUSSION OF SOME IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE BREED STANDARD
by RONALD HOH
Y ou walk into the Best in Breed show ring where 20-25 handsome Irish Ter- riers stand before you with carefully groomed coats, beautiful level top lines and erect tails. All of them demonstrate the self-confidence in per- sonalities that the breed demands. They pose majestically when noticing each other and show strong interest and anticipation as the judging occurs. What parameters do you use in deciding the winning dogs and bitches? The Official Standard of the Irish Ter- rier provides judges with a blueprint of an ideal Irish Terrier and additional information in this area may be found elsewhere, including The Irish Ter- rier Club of America 1997 Handbook, Centennial Edition . This article, however, will focus on certain conformation and tempera- ment features that are major elements of the Breed Standard and key compo- nents of breed type—the total of all characteristics by which a dog is rec- ognized as a member of its breed. The areas discussed herein include overall appearance, temperament and expres- sion, size, headpiece and eyes, neck and shoulders and movement. I. OVERALL APPEARANCE The Irish Terrier Breed Standard relating to “Overall Appearance” stress- es the importance of such an element and specifically provides that: “The overall appearance of the Irish Terrier is important. In confor- mation, he must be more than the sum of his parts. He must be all-of-a-piece; a balanced vital picture of symmetry, proportion and harmony; ...convey character; ...be active, lithe and wiry in movement, with great animation; sturdy and strong in substance and bone structure, but at the same time free of clumsiness, for speed, power and endurance are most essential. He must be neither ‘cobby’ nor ‘clod- dy,’ but should be built on lines of speed, with graceful, racing outline.”
COMMENT The Breed Standard in the area of “Overall Appearance” immediately contains one of only two uses in that Standard of the term “important,” and then makes repeated reference to the importance of very similar terms: “bal- ance,” “symmetry,” “harmony,” “grace- ful” and “free from clumsiness.” The general impression must therefore be one of balance and moderation, with symmetrical lines and no exaggerated features. The breed should also be nei- ther cloddy (thick, low set, comparative heavy), nor cobby (Significantly short bodied or compact); but instead should be formed on lines of speed, with a graceful racy outline. As a judge first looks at the Irish in the ring, his/her eye should focus upon those with the best balance and symmetry, whose profiles are upright with heads held relatively high and not severely forward, with deep muscular chests and no noticeable prosternum, arched necks seemingly flowing into well laid back shoulders and strong straight toplines. The tail should be set rather high on the back, generally straight, with plenty of “dog behind the tail.” In marked contrast to the breed stan- dards for many other terrier breeds, the Irish Terrier Standard contains no specific indication of the preferred length of the dog between the withers and the tail set, nor any comparison of that length with the measurement between the withers and the ground. It only states that the “short back is not characteristic of the Irish Terrier and is extremely objectionable,” and indi- cates that the body “should be mod- erately long,” without any indication of what constitutes a “short back” or “moderately long.” Given those definitional absences, how should a judge make a determina- tion of whether the dog or bitch which he/she is examining does or does not have the “extremely objectionable” short back? It would seem that a judge, in making decisions in the above areas,
should return his/her emphasis to the repeated references in the Standard to “balance,” “proportion” and “symme- try,” and not penalize an Irish Terrier for having a “short back,” unless it is clear that such a back renders the dog not in balance, out of proportion, or asymmet- rical. So long as a possible “short back” does not inhibit the dog’s movement or impact any of the above standards, those elements generally should trump any objectionable nature of a perceived “short back.” Similarly, so long as the Irish Ter- rier has the elemental values of balance and related matters set forth above, he should not be judged to be “short backed” if it is nonetheless apparent that he is “built on lines of speed, with a graceful, racing outline,” where “rac- ing” should be defined as strong, pow- erful yet limber, without being too sturdy or heavy. Certainly, Irish Ter- riers should not have the short backs characteristic of Fox Terriers; at the same time, they should not be penal- ized in that area if the other above-cited elements contained in Breed Standard exist, in view of the relative ambiguity of the Standard in this area. Finally in this Overall Appearance area, the Breed Standard calls for an Irish
338 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , N OVEMBER 2018
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