WITH LINDY BARROW, SANDY CAMPBELL, BERGIT COADY KABEL, MELINDA LYON, GERRY MEISELS, LISA PACHECO, JAY RICHARDSON & MARJORIE UNDERWOOD
distinctive gait that is powerful, straight, free and mov- ing without effort. 4) The fourth traits are bone and substance. What you initially see as the class enters the ring may not be exactly what the eye observes. You know we have exceptional masterful and artful groom- ers. Now it is time to put the Westie on the table for examination. Educate and train your hands and your eyes to work together. When you examine the head- piece with your hands and fingers, dig down through all of the back combing and product. Do you feel broad and strong bone and skull? Is there a slight dome between the ears? Are the eyes wide apart? Is there a defined stop? Is the muzzle slightly shorter from the nose to the stop than from the stop to the occiput? Is the head in proportion to the neck and body? Check for a deep chest to the elbow, good substantial leg bone, level topline good substance to the body and a nice handful of tail to complete the picture. While the entry is on the table check for the quality of the coat. At last, check the overhang in front of the dog and hopefully find the same amount of dog behind the tail. 5) The Westie had to cope with the brutal weather and terrain conditions in Scotland, thus a double coat was necessary. In today’s world, our Scottish pals have better living situations, but that white harsh outer coat and a white soft undercoat are necessary and required. A soft coat is a serious fault. 5. Do you think the dogs you see in this breed are bet- ter now than they were when you first started judg- ing? Why or why not? LB: Unfortunately, not as many. I believe as with many breeds the fact the there are less breeders it has given less good dogs to breed. The gene pool has decreased. One advantage we have now is to be able to import semen from many countries. In general, the older breed- ers understood it takes time to breed a type and that you do not get it immediately from just breeding to the top winning dogs. In my opinion, breeders need to honestly evaluate the bitch they are breeding and look for a dog who has traits to complement her. This is where under- standing pedigrees is important…not just the winning names, but what they produced. SC: It has been somewhere around 30 years that I have been breeding, grooming and exhibiting Westies in conforma- tion, as well as in the other sports as of late, and I can’t say that they are any better, but there are trends and it seems the people calling the shots are the handlers, sell- ing the dog they are showing. BK: No, not at this point. Fifty years ago when I came to this country, There were several large kennels who produced good Best In Show winning Westies. You do not have kennels like that any more. ML: In many ways we have improved the breed, but I also think we’ve lost some important aspects. Fronts had a tendency to be more fiddle fronts and that has certainly
changed but while we have straightened the fronts, the front legs have moved forward so there is almost no forechest plus the upper arm is shortened. Rear angula- tion used to be very straight but that improved from 20 years ago. Sadly, I’ve seen this improvement slip back- wards of late. The one thing that we have lost is the bone and substance I used to see more so than today. GM: Yes, they are better because overall Westies have better balance and shorter backs than years ago. On the other hand, many of today’s Westies are over-groomed, shown with too short and too little quality of coat. LP: When I look around the breed ring at Montgomery it takes my breath away to see the magnificent consistent line up which I view as the culmination of breeding deci- sions, choices and hard work of breeders spanning many many years. The thought has occurred to me that maybe social media has had an impact on consistency as we are now able to view breeding stock from kennels around the world. Also because of social media we are fortunate to be able to study movement of various dog show exhibits. Taking all of this into account I do think we need to do a better job as breeders and judges in the area of move- ment. We need to pay more attention to front assembly, specifically better length of upper arm in relation to the shoulder blade. When choosing puppies from a litter more importance should be placed on a prominent pro- sternum which will aid in giving the proper overhang which at times the breed has seemed to have lost. Proper movement depends on this. If I sound like a broken record regarding the emphasis I am putting on fronts and movement it is because that is the area I think the breed as a whole needs improvement at this time. I should note also that choosing a puppy with a rear assembly that matches the front is essential to type and movement. JR: No, the breed has lost its size and hardiness. There is a lack of bone, heads and eyes. There is a lack of under- standing about what a proper coat is and I am not refer- ring to trimming—I mean the quality of the coat. 6. What do you think new judges misunderstand about the breed? LB: As with any coated breed, grooming can hide a multi- tude of faults. Understanding the correct structure and movement is important. Yet if a new judge does not get good examples to go over, it is obviously difficult to iden- tify correct dogs when you do get them. The Westie is an earth dog and must be able to dig. The ribs should be deep and well arched but not barreled. The dog should be able to squeeze into holes and rocks. The rear should be strong to push the dog forward. I am a strong believer in having a group of breeders doing breed seminars for judges. A place for judges to go over dogs and discuss and get answers to the breed standard. SC: Westies are not square, but slightly shorter from withers to base of tail than from withers to ground with correct
344 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , N OVEMBER 2017
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