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NORTHERN FREE STATE BULL TERRIER CLUB
Championship Show  - 16 September 2007

JUDGE - MR JAMES MOLLENTZE (Elmojama Bull Terriers)

As a founder member of the NFSBTC, it was a great privilege and honor for me to judge the Championship show of this club that are very close to my heart and I want to thank the chairman and committee for this appointment.  My wife Marie and me enjoyed the day very much and for her to be helping the secretary at the table under the red tent that she knows so well, brought back a lot of pleasant memories. We are happy to see that this is still the Best club in the Country.

I also want to thank all the exhibitors that entered under me for their support and wish I could place them all first but unfortunately this is not possible.  

I am not going to give a report on each dog judged but would like to point out a few overall points that we must attend to in future breeding.

Yes, we have some very good dogs in our country and yes, they have very good virtues but most of these good points are on different dogs. We have the ingredients, we must just get it together on one dog. Our top dogs have their faults but with intelligent breeding we can and I believe will eliminate these faults.

There are however still a lot of long backs and upright shoulders in our breed. Primarily short upper arms in some of our dogs cause this.

Look at the dogs with the ultra short backs like my BOB winner Ch Carradice Free Spirit, which are sometimes criticized by some people and use these dogs if you have a long backed bitch, and if the dog complements your bitch in conformation and blood line. 

Poor hindquarters are also still very prominent in our breed. We still lack good bent in stifle and strength of thigh and second thigh. I awarded my BOB winner best mover because of his beautiful reach in front due to good layback of shoulder caused by a long upper arm and very good drive in the hindquarters due to ample bent in stifle. This keeps his top line level on the move and does not show the stilted movement of some of the other animals with bad hindquarters and upright shoulders and short upper arm. 

I did not have a lot of out mouths and ingrown canines under me and must say that it seems to be something that is getting better due to the fact the it was widely talked about and brought under peoples attention. This does not say that we can now ignore this phenomenon and should still be very hard on ingrown canines from a breeding point of view. Again my BOB was awarded best head because he has a super head long strong and deep with a broad enough under jaw to accommodate all the teeth and therefore he has a perfect scissor bite.

My CC dog is a very well made upstanding red dog with a very good top line straight front good layback of shoulder and good movement coming and going. A strong well filled head with fair teeth. I feel he can be a worthy champion.

My CC bitch is a strong upstanding red bitch with a very strong well-filled head and good teeth. Moves very well in front but lack hind movement due to fairly straight stifles. This breaks her top line. Tail placement is also a bit high.

With these faults she is still a worthy champion and can be an asset to any breeder if used to the correct male.

Thanks again for a lovely weekend
James Mollentze