step into or beyond the print left by the front foot. Clean movement, com- ing and going, is very important, but most important is side gait, which is smooth, efficient and ground covering.” The Brittany is an athlete and shouldn’t take little bitty steps, it should gait free- ly. While most handlers will try to do as a judge has asked, sometimes it’s just impossible. Those dogs that are well conditioned will move out! Exhibitors: start out walking a couple of steps and then bring the dog into a trot. As you approach the judge, slow down so that you can bring the dog to a natural free standing position and if possible try to show the judge both sides of your dog . COLOR That leads into my next item, the piebald pattern. One spot in the wrong place can throw off the eye. Judges please try to view both sides of the dog. Sometimes the view from the oppo- site side give you a truer picture of the dog. The same applies to a dog that you think may be a little long in the body. It could be the markings and not the dog itself. There is sometimes confusion about the Tri-Color Britt. The standard says, “Tricolors are allowed but not pre- ferred. A tri-color is a liver and white dog with classic orange markings on eyebrows, muzzle and cheeks, inside the ears and under the tail, freckles on the lower legs are orange. Anything exceeding the limits of these markings shall be severely penalized.” I emphasize “orange” because we are beginning to see both orange and liver freckles on the lower legs. We are seeing some really nice Tri’s these days. Our standard is specific if there are two equal dogs in all ways and one is Tri and the other is not, the Tri is a sec- ond-place dog. I get lots of arguments from breeders and exhibitors on this. I didn’t write the standard, I just teach
17½ inches at the withers. I get lots of teary phone calls about puppy being measured out by newbies. Then it’s my job to explain and refer them to the standard. We only have two disquali- fications: black in the nose or coat or under 17½ or over 20½ inches in height. JUDGE’S EDUCATION Unless judge’s education is held in conjunction with a judge’s institute, the American Brittany Club does not charge for judge’s education. We realize that judges spend lots of money passing AKC’s qualifications to judge and we are just thankful that they want to judge our wonderful breed. Visit the AKC or ABC website for additional information on coming to a Brittany seminar. We have wonderful programs like the Michigan Sporting Dog Association in June in Michigan and Monroe, Michigan is the site of our Summer Specialty this year where we will be having judge’s education, work- shop and a field demo! We will have mentors at all 4 shows, we have the MSDA Brittany judging on Friday, July 7th and then the concur- rent Western Michigan Brittany Club specialty. The ABC Summer Specialty is on Saturday, July 8th and WMBC has a second specialty on Sunday, July 9th with the Ann Arbor Kennel Club. We also offer judge’s ed every year at our national specialty in Ft. Smith, AR in November. Join us and learn all about our dual dog!
what it says and since I’m also on the standards committee I say this, when you breed two dogs that you know pro- duce Tri together, you have a choice. If you choose to do the mating and keep a Tri, you know that you are fighting an uphill battle. We have some really nice Tri champions out there today, so it can be done. When Tri’s were first allowed in our standard we had a huge problem with mismarked Tri’s. Dorothy MacDon- ald wrote an article for the AKC Gazette and the American Brittany Magazine , talking about the Tri. She said that if the dog is mismarked you write in your book mismarked Tri and excuse it from the ring. Most judges put it in last place hoping to preserve the points. MEASURING UP From the standard, “17½ to 20½ inches, measured from the ground to the highest point of the shoulders. Any Brittany measuring under 17½ inches or over 20½ inches shall be disqualified from dog show competition.” Please don’t walk up and measure on your leg! If you changed your shoes, you changed your measurement. We have wickets for measuring. In our JE seminars and workshops we have you measure a dog so we know you can. Your objective is to be measuring a dog in, not out. Questions come up all the time about six-month-old puppies. Some breeds give some leeway there, we don’t. If you are exhibiting a puppy at six months, they must be at least
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