Breed Showing - An Explanation Part 2

‘Group’ & ‘In Show’ Wins

Written by Linda Shove

This article was taken from 'French Letters' Issue No. 4 July 1999

---

Best of Breed (BOB)

Reserve Best of Breed (RBOB)

Best Baby Puppy of Breed (BBPOB)

Best Puppy of Breed (BPOB)

Best Junior of Breed (BJOB)

Best Intermediate of Breed (BIOB)

Best New Zealand Bred of Breed (BNZOB)

Best Open of Breed (BOpOB)

 

As the Best of Breed must have come from one of these age classes, he/she will automatically be Best of that Age Class of Breed. (e.g. if the BOB is 2½ years old and therefore an Intermediate, he/she will also be Best Intermediate of Breed)

Once the judge has finished all the breeds of his particular Group (in our case the Working Dog Group) he will ask all the Best of Breed winners to come back into the ring. There are 26 breeds in the Working Dog Group in N.Z. (other countries may allocate breeds to Groups slightly differently) and of those 26, most shows would have about 12-14 working dog breeds entered. These would usually include German Shepherd Dog (GSD), Old English Sheepdog (OES), 4 Collie breeds (Rough Coat, Smooth Coat, Border and Bearded), Australian Cattle Dog, Shetland Sheepdog, Welsh Corgi (Pembroke) plus a few of the rarer breeds including Briards, Belgian Shepherd breeds, Puli, Australian Shepherd etc.

The judge will look at all his BOB winners again and (usually) ask to see each one moving again before finally selecting the one he thinks is the best to be Best of Group winner. This dog leaves the ring and is replaced by the Reserve Best of Breed winner of its own breed so that the judge can then select the Reserve Best of Group winner. (The Reserve Best of Breed winner comes into the line-up because, in theory, the second best of the winning breed may still be better than the Best of any other breeds.)

Once again, the Best of Group and Reserve Best of Group have obviously come from one of the age classes so that they automatically claim the award of Best Open (or whatever age) of Group.

Next the judge will call for all the Best Baby Puppy of Breed winners to line up in the ring so that he can select the Best Baby Puppy of Group. This is repeated for all the other age classes, excluding the 1 or 2 which have been won automatically by the Best of Group and Reserve Best of Group winners.

While all of this judging of the Working Dog Group has been going on, the other six Groups will also have been judged so that eventually there are seven Best of Group winners (one from each of the 7 Groups) who all come into the ring together for the judging of the climax of any show - the ‘Best In Show’ followed by ‘Reserve Best in Show’. This is carried out in exactly the same manner as for Best of Group judging. It is followed by bringing in all the Best Baby Puppy in Group winners to judge Best Baby Puppy in Show. Then the other age class Group winners are judged against each other in the same way so that eventually there is a

Best in Show

Reserve Best in Show

Best Baby Puppy in Show

Best Puppy in Show

Best Junior in Show

Best Intermediate in Show

Best NZ Bred in Show

Best Open in Show.

 

Chai wins Reserve in Show at the Canterbury Working Dog Assn Championship Show 2010