Q&A Australian Cattle Dogs Supreme Champion Tagetarl Fire In The Sky, ticks all the boxes. He not only closely aligns to the standard and moves with athleticism and power but his virtues have also been acknowledged by a vast number of both Aus- tralian and International judges, having won thirty-five Group Firsts, two Best in Shows and eight Best in Show Second. This dog also represented the state as the overall all-breeds winner at the national Top Dog finals. He is the sire of several generations of Champions including BIS winners and he comes from a line of producing dogs behind him. So for us he is the complete package. ACDs are not considered a ‘glamour’ breed so to be able to compete with success on an all-breeds platform is an achievement for any ACD and we take our hats off to all those dogs and the breeders behind them who have been able to achieve this. 10. How does the breed in North America compare to other parts of the world? By comparison, the breed is in reasonable shape. Having never judged in the US (we hope to one day), we can only speak for what we’ve seen in photos and videos. There are many quality examples in the US, but as with every-
where else, there are also many that are not correct type. However, on the whole the type in the States seems to be a little more consistent than we have witnessed in Europe. In Australia as the country of origin there is understand- ably greater consistency, but the concern here is that so many of the old knowledgeable breeders are now gone and very few of the younger generation of breeders have had the benefit of these old time mentors. Luckily for us we began at a time when there were still many ‘oldies’ willing to share their knowledge. Firsthand knowledge where we could mention an old dog by name and they could say, “Yes I knew that dog well… he was… and he produced…” and they could tell us the virtues and faults that someone looking at an old photo can’t know. Greater exposure of the ACD to judges and the public with hopefully improve quality across the breed. The world in no longer isolated, we are all now just a click away from exciting new possibilities. I remember the time when we had to take photo, wait for it to be devel- oped then post it off and await a reply. Now we can walk outside, take a video and send.
supreme Champion tagetarl fire in the sky
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