Midland Border Terrier Club

BREED NOTE DISCUSSIONS APRIL 2008

A) A further contribution to the discussion on the length of body on the Border Terrier

B) Clarification on the MBTC Championship show judges

Ronnie Irving writes:

“I am glad that Mrs Sharp agrees with me that some Border Terriers are too long in loin. But, at the risk of prolonging this discussion to the point of boredom, I must comment that she seems to have completely misunderstood either my original message or the American Border Terrier Standard or the proportions of a Fox Terrier – or maybe all three.

The American Border Terrier Standard states: “The proportions (of a Border Terrier) should be that the height at the withers is slightly greater than the distance from the withers to the tail.” That does not imply a square dog or a dog which has the shape of a Fox Terrier. The Fox Terrier Standard uses an entirely different measurement of length when it asks for the “height at withers and length of body from shoulder point to buttocks (to) appear approximately equal”. That is a square dog.

Of course the Border Terrier should not be a square dog. Neither I nor the American Standard ever said it should. But equally neither should it be a long dog – longer from the withers to the root of the tail than it is in height. The American Border Terrier Standard is not wrong. If Mrs Sharp doubts that statement, she need do no more than to take a ruler and
carefully measure the proportions of the top CC winners on the front of Alan Hedges’ book for the last six years.

If she does that she will find that in each case the dogs concerned were taller to the withers than they were from the withers to the tail.”

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A contribution to the debate on length of body in Border Terriers sent by Jane Atkin: “On the subject of length of body in Borders, having worked them I know the importance of being 'fairly long in the body. Essential for twisting and turning underground, in and out of bales, tree roots. I had one Border that was short in the body and he was forever getting stuck in different places. Who remembers the late Frank Wildman who, when he judged Borders, would bend them to assess the length of body?”

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There appears to be a ridiculous rumour circulating that the Midland Border Terrier Club is intending to have three judges at their Championship Show this year; it seems that someone has decided that the listing in the Kennel Gazette of BIS/R means that the Club is having a BIS judge and not a Referee (which is what usually happens) and has been circulating this rumour. What this listing actually means is BIS or Referee and I have been asked by the Midland Border Terrier Club to make it plain to everyone that there will be two judges at their Championship Show, one for dogs (Jean Jackson) and one for bitches (Trak Fryer); once the CCs and RCCs have been awarded they will both decide on BIS, RBIS and BP – only if they cannot agree will the Referee be asked to make the decision. In other words the show will proceed in exactly the same manner as last year (and previous years since the Club decided to have two rings and two judges). (After all on some entry forms under Sex you occasionally see D/B instead of D or B, the forward slash being used instead of the word or; and in the former case we do not assume that it means both sexes and the animal entered has to be a hermaphrodite!) Hopefully, this will now have cleared up this misconception and, in future, if anyone is confused about such matters perhaps contacting the Secretary of the Breed Club concerned would be the best course of action.