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SOUTH AFRICAN BULL TERRIER CLUB
41st Annual Championship Show - 2006
12 May 2007

JUDGE - MR ANDRE STRYDOM (Sunduza Bull Terriers)

Another honour of extreme quality has been bestowed on me by the SABTC Committee, including its previous chairman, by inviting me to judge this most prestigious of Bull Terrier shows apart from the Annual Major Trophy Show. For this I thank the Committee, Club and all concerned especially those exhibitors who entered and showed under me, not fearing my extremely high standard and expectations when judging this very special breed I have been involved with for over 62 of my 67 years. I note that in the Chairman's Message he called me "an icon in and very active servant of Bull Terriers". I thank him for this, but I am not so sure about the icon part, although the rest is perfectly true.

I think it is well-known that I detest writing judging reports on individual dogs, because it is my arguable opinion that this is a largely meaningless exercise except for the person whose dog is being reported on. But on the other hand such a report can have exceptional value if it contains a general analysis of the judge's opinion on the status of the breed for what it is worth, based on his experience and knowledge inside the show ring as well as developments in our breeding kennels. This I will attempt to do, not only for the owners and breeders of the 29 Bull Terriers shown under me out of the 36 entered, but for all who genuinely want to know where I think we stand at present.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the general standard and quality of the dogs and bitches I judged. I firmly believe I can safely say that it was the best line-up of Bull Terriers I have ever judged in my long judging career since my first championship show judged in 1977 - 30 years ago. My previous best line-up of Bull Terriers was the Major Trophy Show of 2000, when Ch Booksale Harry Hotspur won the Supreme title and his litter sister, Ch Booksale Hermia of Sandawana, became Bitch of the Year. Without being unrealistic or in any way vindictive (because both were superb examples of our breed - so much so that I used Harry Hotspur at stud to my best bitch when Doulina and I restarted breeding after almost 15 years in virtual retirement) I believe I can safely say that both would have been beaten by both my Best of Breed and Reserve Best of Breed. Furthermore the general quality of those I had the great pleasure of judging was a cut above the general quality of the qualified competitors in the 2000 Major Trophy Show. Several other quality dogs and bitches were not entered under me at this show, but I doubt that they would have made any difference to the outcome, except for one I dearly would have liked to compare with the winners. She is Ch Dajamani Valnico of Bellators ROM, our Supreme Bull Terrier of 2005, who unfortunately had not yet fully regained her shape after her first litter and was not shown in any of the four shows over the new Bull Terrier weekend that promises to become a great new feature on our annual show calendar. I recently saw her at shows and she is back on top and in her prime.

Although my patriotic heart yearned to put our locally bred Bull Terriers over the imports, it wasn't possible this time, but I trust and hope the imports will make the marked contribution towards improving our local stock that we so badly need to bring us up to current world standards.  From my report you will see that teeth, toplines and colours were not much of a problem at this show, but subsequent shows have confirmed my suspicions that many animals carrying these weaknesses were not shown under me. Thank you for not subjecting me to judging a significant number of dogs with these problems, but subsequent shows have confirmed that we are far from being out of the woods as far as these problems are concerned. In fact several shows have shown that our rings are infested with tricoloureds and black brindles, while beautifully marked, preferred red brindles with black noses are in extremely short supply.
But our worst fault at present, and my ring was rife with it, is weak hind-quarters resulting in poor, close hind movement. We must remember that a fighting dog with weak hind-quarters cannot win a fight against a rival that is sound behind, which enables him to drive with power into his opponent and floor him for the coup de grace. Okay, we don't fight our dogs, but they will always be a fighting breed, no matter how hard we try to breed that trait out of them. And we should try at all times to retain that essential soundness that makes them for us, the finest breed of all.