Education to become a judge

"Class of 2010", students and teachers
Me judging an young afghan.

Two weeks ago I spent nearly a whole week at the wonderful place Öster Malma that is run by the Swedish Hunting Association. It was a very hectic and fun week and some 8 hours everyday we assessed dogs of all types of breeds and had to write qritiques as well as verbaly explaining our thoughts on each dog. Our teachers were 7 of Sweden's most experianced allround judges/judges. On a few occasions every week we also had the opportunity to examine dogs of breeds we all had applied for in our education and for me this means: italian greyhound, greyhound, whippet, irish wolfhound and saluki.

We were 17 happy trainees this week. The last day an examination took place and after some nervous waiting I was taken to a ring were I had to organise a "dog show" with three dogs I did not know about beforehand. A whippet, a saluki and a tibetan terrier were "my" breeds. I hade to go over the dogs write critiques give them a quality price and then explain to my three examiners my view on each dog. After a few hours of waiting I got the good news that I had passed!! Then I had some input from the teachers and was happy to hear that I done very well the whole week!

Now the practical side of the education starts and I will have to do three student assignments on each breed under experienced judges. Then it is time for two exmaninations in each breed. I will have to go over, grade and critique the same dogs as a judge at a dog show. Afterwards he/she will look through my decisions and decide if I have knowledge enough!

One can say that I know what I am going to do during the weekends this summer........