legends · 4 min read ·
Judging Sheet, Class 7
A dog show judge scores a dog that is not a breed, and the shadow on the grass is not its own.
**Northern Kennel Club · Open Show · Ring 3 · Class 7 (Any Variety, Not Yet Named)**
**Judge:** Mrs. Hester Vance · **Date:** 18 Oct · **Entries:** 1
**Entry 14:** Owner: Ruth Ashdown · Dog: "Mellow," black and tan, 4 years · Breed: *unknown, see note*
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**Judge's sheet (Ring 3, 11:20)**
- **Criterion · Max · Score · Comment**
- Head and expression · 20 · 14 · Alert, but turns to the handler, not the judge
- Body and balance · 20 · 17 · Good back, deep chest
- Movement · 20 · 12 · Gait is correct, but dog keeps stopping to look behind it
- Coat and condition · 15 · 13 · Clean, well brushed
- Temperament · 15 · 15 · Calm. Does not bark. Does not react to the room
- Presence · 10 · 3 · Dog's shadow falls across the ring in the wrong direction
**Total:** 74 / 100 · **Placement:** *Not placed. Entry is the only entry.*
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**Judge's notes (free text)**
The dog is a fine specimen, though I cannot place its breed from the standard. The skull has the length of a sighthound, but the ears are set like a terrier's, and the tail carries the curl of a spitz. Its colouring is a classic black and tan, but with a pale mark on the chest in the shape of a small hand.
Handler kept her face turned toward the dog throughout. When I asked her to look at me, she said, "I'm looking at what's been following him." I did not ask who "him" referred to.
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**Steward's note (Ring 3, 11:34)**
Judge asked for the entry to be re-checked against the club register. Register lists Mellow as a female, born 2022, bred by the handler. The handler says the dog was whelped in the back bedroom of the family home, and that she was the only one present. She says she named it after her mother's old dog, which was called Mellow, and which died in that same bedroom the year before.
The dog has not been seen in the register since 2022. The entry was confirmed this morning by the handler's signature.
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**Judge's notes (continued)**
Movement re-examined on the lead. The dog moves without a sound, which is unusual for a dog of this size. At the end of each circuit it stops at the same point, a little to the left of the centre of the ring, and lifts its head toward the empty spectator stand, as if someone there has just said its name.
I asked the handler if there was someone in the stand. She said: "Only the one who taught her to walk backward through the door."
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**Breed club objection (Northern Terrier & Sighthound Society, 20 Oct)**
We object to the placement of Entry 14 at Northern Kennel Club Ring 3. The dog presented does not match any recognised breed. The skull and tail are not consistent with any standard. The pale hand mark on the chest is not a breed trait.
We also note that the handler has been seen in the car park at night with the dog, sitting in the rear seat of a parked car, both facing the windscreen, both very still.
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**Judge's addendum (Hester Vance, 21 Oct)**
I was asked to explain my decision not to place the entry. I did not place it because the entry was not a dog. I think I knew that in the ring. The movement was too smooth. The breathing was too slow. When I looked at it directly, the shadow on the grass was not its shadow, but the shadow of a much larger animal, standing behind it, with its head lowered, the way a dog stands over a puppy it's guarding.
I've judged for thirty-one years. I've never had a dog look back at me like that. It looked at me as if I were the one being assessed, and found wanting.
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**Final show record (Northern Kennel Club, 25 Oct)**
Class 7: Entry 14, Mellow, withdrawn by owner. Reason: owner has withdrawn the dog from all shows, pending investigation of its breed status.
*Note from the show secretary: the handler has asked the club to record that she has finished her own class. She says she won the Best in Show, and that the dog she showed was not hers to enter. She says the owner is the one who stayed behind, and that she is looking forward to seeing the dog again, when it comes to the door and asks to be let in.*