After two weeks of vacationing, with plenty of walks and visits to the beach, it was time to finish off our time up at my mother’s family home near Sundsvall (on the Baltic coast, pretty much right in the middle of Sweden length-wise) with a visit to this region’s boxer special. We had taken our vacation later than usual to be able to attend this show for once, since its generally one of the smaller breed-specific shows. We were also quite interested in seeing what the judge, a well-known Swedish boxer judge, would have to say about Ringo.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t very keen on him. We got our 1 for quality, but placed last of five in the open class. In his summarizing comments about each dog, he said Ringo was a nice enough fellow, but not elegant enough. The full critique was:
Typical, masculine head, but which ought to be a little drier and have less cheek. Dark eyes, good lip-line. Good bite. Powerful neck, excellent back, good chest. Adequate angulation. Moves well.
That said, it wasn’t all bad. It was a lovely day, which got a little too hot and lovely after a while, and Ringo behaved himself very well. He ran well together with the other dogs, and for the individual evaluation the very experienced judge saw right off (after his “hello” had Ringo trying to bounce up to say hello properly) that Ringo would get riled up if he got too close and personal. So, he asked me to show Ringo’s teeth, and then he did a quick check of his body while I held him. Very smooth and easy, and Ringo then ran just fine on his own too. He’s also really getting how to stand well. For a long while, he either moved around too much or just stood there looking kind of uninspired and lazy. Now he actually stretches out pretty nicely and looks alert.
Next week we have the boxer championships, and then I am not sure we will do any more shows this year. There’s a couple that have Monday as the last sign-up day, the last boxer special for the year and an all-breed show, but they are a few hours away. And until (if) he gets into the working dog class, there’s really only two things he could get at a show that he hasn’t gotten before, and that’s a CK at a boxer special and a Best of Breed, since his acting up at the show in June lost him the CK there and a good chance at Best of Breed. But looking at our results this year, it seems unlikely that he will manage either of those things. I think he’s ever so handsome, but clearly he doesn’t have a broad enough appeal with judges. Those who really like his type, they like him, but he doesn’t have the “wow” factor to persuade a judge who is on the fence to take a second look.