Page 49 - ShowSight Presents The Golden Retriever
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fairly wide-set eyes and intelligent expression,
skull neither domed nor flat, but slightly arched and a deep, clean muzzle without excess lip.
NT: The Golden head must show retriever character, mean- ing good depth and width of jaw (slightly wider at stop than tip, as the standard requires) for gripping game; moderate stop (not a “slow down”, but an actual stop); broad skull with slight arch; ear of proper size and place- ment; and that irreplaceable Golden eye with soft expres- sion. These are key elements of the Golden head. Are they in a poor state now? In some parts of the country, more than others, the heads have shown great improve- ment. A narrow head without stop is less common than a decade ago, with the caution that we need to be wary
of overcorrection.
10. It seems that many dogs being shown today are moved at a fast pace. How do you assess adequate reach & drive versus effortless/efficient movement?
BA: At times, the way people exhibit is bizarre, to say the least. However, this is a man-made issue. I do not reward pulling dogs around the ring. (Some exhibitors are more in tune to themselves.) When necessary, I will make them move again and then they usually settle down. Question your own movement! Breeders can make improvements, yes. There is a problem with straight fronts and short upper arms—they cannot reach or drive.
PD: When it comes to movement my biggest peeve is how fast the handlers race their charges around the ring. It is unattractive, unnecessary and doesn’t do the dog justice. We still see a vast number of exhibits with either short upper arms or steep shoulders which causes them to lift their fronts higher in an effort to move them out of the way of their better angulated rears. Moving rapidly does not hide this structural fault!
LH: Effortless and efficient movement comes from the basics: proportion and balance. You can’t have a short upper arm and no forechest with an over angulated rear and expect a dog to move properly. Running fast is a habit of our show culture with many breeds. What most don’t understand
is that it accentuates the poor front. If you understand movement you know that you reach with proper angles, but swing with a pendulum type movement with a straight front. Yes, we need better fronts. It’s definitely a major drag on the breed and in time I think that we will improve those. This is not just a Golden problem. Its universal in so many of the breeds and groups. The problem is finding the places to go to fix it along with the long and low issues and being patient in achieving results.
GK: Correct movement is balanced reach and drive. On a loose lead this is beautiful. The racing around the ring on
a tight lead many times can disguise incorrect movement. The toplines should not bounce and roll as we see in some. Balance with effortless/efficient movement should be observed at a reasonable pace. As in many breeds, Golden breeders should keep trying to improve shoulder layback, with good return of upper arm, balanced with proper rear angulation. This is still in need of improvement.
KL: Fronts in the breed are so disappointing, but surely Goldens are not the only breed suffering this. Breeders must learn about correct front assembly with long, sloping shoulder blades and upper arms and correct placement on the ribcage and be very conscious of them when breeding. The front is the anchor, it bears the majority of the weight of the dog. Excess reach and drive is a myth. I’ve already written on that subject. A dog moving correctly will take long steps with its feet in contact with the ground, not flailing in the air. The action will be smooth, effortless, with no roll. When I first got into Goldens, they never rolled. Even our dogs in the puppy class were firm and supple. This roll we see all too often is the product of poor structure, which results in poor connection of tendons and ligaments, which results in looseness everywhere. There is no such thing as the “Golden Roll” that I have heard this from new judges and it makes me cringe.
DM: Assessing reach and drive is the bread and butter of a Sporting Dog judge. In movement I think a drag on the breed is bowed front legs with toed-in feet plus short upper arms and long hocks.
CGM: Handlers are definitely moving Goldens too fast, often at breakneck speeds with the dog well out in front at the end of a tight, strung up lead. It is written in the stan- dard that dogs “be shown on a loose lead to reflect true gait” and a judge should always request for the handler
to be move his dog at a moderate speed. When reach-
ing in the front, the front foot should reach as far as the muzzle. The back foot should slide in to replace where the front foot left and feet should be kept close to the ground. There should be no over-kicking in the rear, or lifting in the front. The strung up lead forces the dog’s neck back into the shoulder and completely destroys fluid movement. This is the only way to see how the dog truly moves. And yes, straight fronts and short upper arms are an issue and getting worse. Very frequently you will even see advertising that depicts dogs over-reaching in front and kicking up in the rear.
BP: Fast doesn’t equal correct. Feet lifting off the ground or way out front but from the elbow, doesn’t equal correct. When you see a Golden moving effortlessly and effi- ciently they will have correct reach and drive. A dog that is well balance (correct length of leg to body and front assembly to rear), will have proper reach and drive, not have to race and won’t look as if they are working hard to achieve it. Straighter fronts and short upper arms are definitely and issue.
JP: I often ask exhibitors to slow down and remind classes that its not a race as they go around the ring. Correct foot timing gets lost in the rush to speed around the ring. In dogs without balanced angulation front and rear, you often see dogs sidewinding to avoid legs hitting each other as the dog moves. Far more movement faults are created from moving dogs too fast than too slowly. Since Far too many dogs have fronts that either contain shoul- der blades that do not lay back properly on the ribcage or have short, upright upperarms, or both. While acknowl- edging the difficulty in breeding correct fronts (hard to
WITH BARBARA ALDERMAN, PLUIS DAVERN, LINDA HURLEBAUS, GLORIA KERR, KATHY LORENTZEN, DR. DANA MASSEY, CONNIE GERSTNER MILLER, BARBARA PEPPER, JEFFREY PEPPER, MARCIA SCHLEHR & NANCY TALBOTT
