Page 25 - ShowSight Presents - The Keeshond

Robin Stark bought her first Keeshond pup in 1962. She was a road warrior for many years and is respon-
sible for approximately 150 Keeshond champions and performance event win- ners. She celebrated her Golden Anni- versary in the breed by judging Best of Breed and Intersex at the 2012 National Specialty—a significant honor.
Robin has served on KCA’s origi- nal Ethics Committee, the AKC Stan- dard Revision Committee, the AKC Keeshond Video Committee and the KCA Illustrated Standard Com- mittee. She has won several DWAA awards as editor/co-publisher of “The Rottweiler Quarterly.”
HOW TO JUDGE THE KEESHOND
The Keeshond is a very difficult breed to judge. Sometimes even, for many—if not all—of us breeder/judges. If y’all promise to read this whole arti- cle, maybe I can help you learn how to judge the breed with much more con- fidence; just read the article until the very last word and I promise to all judg- es of any breed I’ll give you some excel- lent advice I have learned over the years through first-person experience—in three different instances. Deal?
Over the last several years, The Keeshond Club of America (KCA) has refined and nearly perfected mentor- ing aids to wade through some of the foggiest aspects of the Standard of our beloved Kees. But sometimes we have tunnel vision. Indeed, I am one of those few who insist on teaching judges about the dreaded “T” word—the sentence that discusses trimming. Ugh, what a bonehead I am to keep beating this dead horse. Nonetheless, I shall merrily beat said beast until, and if, the Kees- hond Standard is revised to exclude same and I sure hope we don’t or we’ll lose all beginners and have no breeders left to carry on this delightful breed.
There is no correct method to groom the dog when one uses scissors on any of the body, ears, tail, trousers, etc. It is to be severely penalized.
When the dogs enter the ring, ask them to go around and look for the oh- so-rare, unique gait laterally. Pause for a moment and look at the line-up. They should all be square appearing, have sloping toplines and the distinctive Keeshond silhouette and be within a 2" difference on height from 17"-19" on males; 16"-19" on females. Incidentally, should you be a little size challenged, know that the metal folding chairs at nearly every dog show is exactly 17-1/2" from the ground to the seat; while 99% of tables are 29".
HANDY TIP TO KNOW #1
Also, pause and ask yourself, “Which of these dogs looks most like what the Breed Standard is describing?” In other words, which of these dogs has cor- rect breed type. You may see several dogs that do not resemble one another at all. We seem to be a gaggle of folk who think this type or that type or his dogs or her dogs or “Teddy Bear” type (I hate that!) are the way to go. I firmly believe this is why our handsome breed is so disrespected. Just who’s right? The Standard!
HANDY TIP TO KNOW #2
Three top professional Terrier han- dlers many moons ago suddenly had a Non-Sporting breed and were duk- ing it out in the breed ring. Another respected pro—most famously known for Working Dogs—asked the three guys, “Which one of these three dogs is the best?” The three Terrier guys each extolled the virtues of his dog and slammed the other two dogs for their most obvious fault; it was interesting and, oddly, non-combative. The Work- ing Dog guy thanked them very much and whipped out a Xerox of that breed’s standard from his shirt pocket. He said,
“Thanks, I guess I’ll just let this do the talking for me.” When in doubt, refer to the standard; go ahead, look it up. We’ll all respect you in refreshing your mem- ory. When in doubt, no matter who says what, the determining arbiter is the standard in all breeds you judge!
I tend to use the “General Appear- ance” paragraph while mentoring both novice and experienced judges alike and in doing a breed seminar. It’s an exceptionally well-written and concise paragraph and has only had very minor edited comments when the AKC Stan- dard was revised in 1990. It’s easier to do in writing as I can just bold face the key words, so here goes:
“The Keeshond (pronounced kayz- hawnd) is a natural, handsome dog of well-balanced, short-coupled body, attracting attention not only by his col- oration, alert carriage and intelligent expression, but also by his stand-off coat, his richly plumed tail well curled over his back, his foxlike expression and his small pointed ears. His coat is very thick around the neck, fore part of the shoulders and chest, forming a lion- like ruff—more profuse in the male. His rump and hind legs, down to the hocks are also thickly coated, forming the characteristic trousers. His head, ears and lower legs are covered with thick, short hair.”
LET’S GO OVER THESE ONE AT A TIME
Pronunciation of the breed name is a minor thing but most of us are exhaust- ed trying to teach the universe that the breed name is Dutch; that “Kees” is a nickname for Cornelius and “hawnd” means dog. We’re not talking breed his- tory here; just, please, don’t call them Keesh-Hounds or variations thereof and we’ll all be happier that you at least know the breed name.
Dutch is a very difficult language to pronounce and if I had it my way, I’d
306 • SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, AUGUST 2017
JUDGING THE
KEESHOND
by ROBIN STARK, KCA Judge’s Education Committee