.Report for the Nederland’s Bulldog Club
It was a great honour and a surprise for John and I to be asked to Judge your Family Day Show , as we are not Championship Show Judges , there are very few opportunities for us to Judge in Europe and we were thrilled and excited to be coming to do such an interesting appointment .
Both of us have a lot of experience, John has had bulldogs for 30 + years and has made up 3 English Champions and several dogs of his breeding achieved championship status abroad ,not least Ch Bonifacio Fergie De Sandean who also got his obedience title too in France !!
Myself I have been very involved in health issues of bulldogs and recently published a book about breeding bulldogs .On Arrival at the Airport Fritz was waiting and told us things about the countryside as we drove to the SchildKamp Center .
We found your country enchanting both of us had been to Amsterdam before but were totally unprepared for the lovely part that you hold your shows in so much so we would like to spend more time in this lovely place !,we spent a lovely day in Leardam…and thoroughly relaxed in the very warm weather we were lucky to experience.The hotel was very comfortable and the food excellent we tried many dishes we had not eaten before .
It was an especially nice break for me as I had just spent 3 weeks rearing 5 orphan puppies and the first day I slept 12 hours in one time !
We were impressed by the lovely venue and appearance of the Show rings , beautifully laid out and decorated, the surface underfoot was particularly nice for the dogs as it was not in the least slippery. The organisation was very professional and we were helped as the procedure is different to our way in the UK , we decided we would find judging in reverse order confusing so we did it ‘UK way ‘.Our hostess the owner of the very famous Bagera looked after us so well ,all day keeping us fed and watered !
We were very impressed by the dogs particularly that the majority had tails that were mobile and healthy, movement was good, and the temperament was second to none, size wise we found more dogs standard weight than oversize , I found that the layback in most dogs was correct and overall you have dogs to be proud of with much to offer the breed, both puppy classes had real quality dogs in the making and I should think many will go on to be great show dogs .
I myself had never used the critique sheets before and I worked on the assumption that every dog there excelled in one breed point at least, I looked and complimented the best parts of each exhibit. The sportsmanship of the exhibitors was wonderful with genuine applause for the winning dogs .
We had a great entry 88 dogs between us , John was rather overwhelmed as his first class had 23 bitch puppies in it ! He worked methodically and made notes so he didn’t forget the points he liked on each one , arriving at quite popular decisions ,we had some very impressive upsweeps, and the dogs were very clean and well cared for a credit to their owners .We thank you all very much for the privilege of going over your dogs and accepting our decisions in good humour.
Most of our friends in the UK were amused to think that we had to decide the winning dog and reserve best in show , saying we would not agree… but there was no problem we both liked the same dog and we both agreed on the bitch going for breed type in that final decision.
Once again we would like to thank you all for your entry your hospitality and a wonderful first European Judging appointment we will never forget .
Vicky Collins-Nattrass and Dr John Nattrass
