All Ireland German Shepherd Dog Association Champ Show ‘09 - Page 3

Yes Paul,

That's just it...  the Clubs cannot be "blamed" for a system that may be faulty... however, more often than not it is individual Clubs who have to accept the abuse afterwards... and, after all, is the S.V. system the totally correct method? I'm not sure there is currently a system of grading that we can deem completely perfect.

However, I must defend Herr. Sprenger in this instance... My husband and I both spent a good deal of time with him during his visit to Ireland, as his hosts, and he simply had no knowledge of the Rules and Regulations of our governing bodies here (i.e. IKC/ FCI) so it was left to us to fill him in, as best we could, on the various expectations of a visiting S.V. Judge... unfortunately with so little time to spare we were not able to dictate everything to him (and as well, our very knowledgeable steward on the day did her very best to assist Herr. Sprenger regarding expecations, rules and regulations, etc.) Herr. Sprenger was a very concientious man... he did not come in arrogantly and decide to do things whichever way he pleased... and I truly believe he did the job on the day to the best of his ability, given the circumstances. While some judges may come into the country and act as if they think our rules are backwards and make a joke of us, Herr. Sprenger was very polite, conscientious and knowledgeable, both on a judging level as well as on a personal level and despite what some others may think, we would HIGHLY recommend him to anyone looking for a very fair and honest judge (he did, after all, gather a very fair entry for our show and the comments we have had since have been extremely positive). On the other side, at a recent show a visiting English judge used the FCI system as it was meant to be used and downgraded dogs from Excellent to Very Good if they showed weakness (i.e. in temperament); there was one such dog that was quite aggressive and she gave him an SG grading because of this. Although our system isn't perfect, judges do have options when grading under this system. As well, we cannot expect all S.V. judges coming in from countries such as Germany to be extremely familiar with or aware of the grading system of the IKC/ FCI. This does not take away from their knowledge and expertise of the breed... which is why we continue to bring in S.V. judges even though they are not grading according to S.V./ W.U.S.V rules.

Regards,

Becky

Hello Greg,

Thank you for your kind comments and I'm glad that you enjoyed the day out. The days leading up to our show were very hectic and stressful, so we're glad all of our pain and suffering paid off (lol). I couldn't believe the weather we got... what a lucky break after the last two absolutely terrible weeks. A little Aloe Vera will help your sunburn :)

Cheers,

Becky