The judging system in Norway
Dogs and bitches judged seperately, first all the dogs, then all the bitches. Although if there are pups there – they will be judged before starting on the adult dogs.
Puppy-classes – 4-6 months and 6-9 months. All pups are given a written critique and then placed (1-5). Winner of the youngest puppydog class compete with the older puppydog winner for best male. Then the same with the bitches – and the best male and best bitch compete for BOB and BOS puppy.
Adult (official classes)
Junior class (9-18 months). First judged separately and compared to the breedstandard.
The judge award 1. prize (red ribbon) to an Excellent to as many dogs he/she wants, and this is a “ticket” to go into the competition class.
2. prize (blue ribbon) is still a good repr. of the breed.
3. prize (yellow) – not a bad repr. of the breed, but acceptable.
0. prize – disqualifying faults like temperament, og not typical of the breed. Or dogs that are not entire – no matter what the reason is (doesn’t matter if a vet.certificate is shown or anything). A dog given 3 times 0.prize because of temperament or lack of testicle(s) will be banned from any more shows.
K.I.P. – cannot be judged – fault that is obvious at the day, one that is lame, or to happy/afraid to be handled (but not aggressive).
Junior competitionclass – Junior competition class – all Juniors with 1. prize (red) compete.
4 is placed, and the judge can give the HP (“prize of Honour”) to as many, few or none he/she wants, even to the ones not placed among the placed ones. This is awarded to dogs that are especially promising for their age.
OR the judge can give the CK ("certificate quality") - to dogs that are so promising that the judge feel they are of champion quality in the country they are shown.
The CK is the “ticket” for the dog to compete in the Best male/female class, and might give the dog the CC later on.
Youngster class (15-24 months). Same judging metod as the Junior class, with the HP or the CK for the ones that are worth it in Youngster competitionclass..
Open class (over 15 months, but not Norwegian champions). Judged the same way as the Junior and Youngsters, except that HP cannot be awarded. The placing and awarding of the CKs are done in Open competitionclass.
This is the class where foreign champions usually are entered.
Champion class – for Norwegian Champions. One could enter a champion from another country here as well, but people usually don’t as then you aren’t competing for the CC.
Same way of doing things as the other classes, the ones of champion quality are awarded CK.
Veteran class (over 7 years old). The same way all over again. But the judge can here again award the HP - to lovely veterans, but not quite of champion quality.
The champion quality ones are given the CK.
Best male (bitch) class. All dogs with CK compete for best male (bitch). The one placed highest from Junior, Youngster, Open or Veteran will automatically get the CC.
At International shows – the CACIB can be awarded to the best dog that aren’t already an Int. champion, and not to dogs shown in Veteran or Junior class (due to FCI rules). The definition of the CACIB is a dog of such quality that it could be a champion in the breeds homeland.
Best male compete with the best bitch for BOB and BOS.
Best veteran male compete with the best veteran bitch for BOB/BOS veteran.
And at clubshows we often also have competition of BOB/BOS Junior and Youngster as well.
Other info about shows in Norway
All shows are judged as above.
The dogs in each class is always judged in the order they are in the show catalog (random order within the classes here in Norway, alphabetical in Sweden).
All dogs are given a written critique that usually say something short about head, expression, neck, shoulder/front/body, hind/tail, movement, temperament.
The owner, the breedclub and the KennelClub all get a copy of the critique.
The critique is always written in the language the judge speaks – it’s not allowed to translate it directly to the critique form, as the owner should see it in the original language.
There are usually 3 persons working in the ring – the judge, the ringsteward and a secretary that is writing the critiques the judge give.
There might be judges pupils or ringsteward pupils as well, but usually not when there are too many entries.
A judge is usually not given more than 80-90 dogs to judge during one day, and a “normal pace” is about 20 dogs pr hour (3 minutes pr dog). Some judges might judge 100-120 dogs on a day, but that’s never recommended.
Difference for shows in Sweden are quite few now since we here in Norway changed our rules 1/1 2007.
In Denmark they do it almost the same way – but they do the champion class before the junior class, and their younger classes have a little different age limits (9-18 months and 15-24 months), and they have two classes for older dogs (7-10 years, and 10 and above).