I attended a recent dog show where there was a dog noticeably off in the front to the point that the exhibitors could plainly see. While I do not know the exact protical I do know that bestowing the dog winners dog is not correct protical, frankly I do not care that my dog did not win but I have lost repect for this paticular judge. I feel like these things should not be swept under the rug never to be braught up again because of who it is. I guess I'm just P.O'ed and need to vent!! You know who you are and the other exhibitor also know, so I guess that will have to do,

What a nasty thing to post, when you enter a dog show you are paying for one persons opinion on your dog, I don't always agree with what the judge puts up either and i've seen many dogs aquire their championships that should never have gotten one but that's how it is, there must have been something about this dog that the judge liked to put him up. Learn to just take the loss and don't sweat it, nothing you can do to change it so no sense getting made about it.

I can't even count the number of limping dogs that I have seen put up. It really distresses me, because I think that good movement and soundness is getting hard to find. I think that many people do not know what good movement is in a labrador, and so many judges put up unsound dogs, that I just have to believe they don't see it. Very sad.

You see it every day in the ring. Know a dog could be off that day but the judge is judging that day so it always makes me wonder when we all say, look the dog is limping and the judge puts it up. So I understand PO'd.

I think they see it. I think , that they think the rest of the dogs in the ring are of such poor quality or LACK breed type, they forgive the dog that isn't quite on his best footing on that day. One day of limping does not make a dog unsound, any number of things could cause that, including laying in a crate all day waiting for his ring time.
Untill you have been in the center of the ring , doing the judges job, YOU know not of what you speak !

Also remember we can be very hyper-critical as owners and competitors and judges ONLY have 2 minutes per dog to review and pick what they feel is best. With plenty of time on our hands and trying to use our mental mind control to make OUR dogs win, it's very easy to say that the dog that's our competitor has a limp or a bad tail, because we've zoned in on the one fault we can really see and I think we magnify it. In truth, even with an off gait, the dog had other qualities that made it win.

My male has is recovering from a foot injury and has bare skin on a couple of feet. I almost held him out of a show this weekend because all I saw was the neon-sign pointing at his less than perfect feet. He got WD. Go figure. I don't think the judge even noticed the bare spots.

But it's still a crap shoot. I recently saw two dogs put up for WB and WD and had no problems with the picks, but the BOB was picked from the specials, and that bitch was so UNLIKE WB and WD, it really made you question what the judge was preferring that day.

breeder you are wrong. It is NOT a disqualification. It is an excusal. Big difference.

My boy was immediately excused once because of a limp. He had a tear in his pad, and I agree that he should have been excused. His limp became more obvious at the show than it was at home.
No dog that is limping should win anything in my opinion and if a judge can't see that instantly, he/she isn't qualified to judge. Yes they should be excused.

agree 110%

The rules specifically require a judge to excuse a dog from the ring if it is lame (that means limping) and to mark their judges book "excused - lame" and initial the entry. I have seen judges excuse. I have also seen judges re-gait a slightly limping dog, whisper something to the handler, and send the dog around to the back of the line without excusing it. Why? Because right or wrong, the judge did not want to break the major by excusing the dog and incidentally did not want the handler embarrassed by having their dog excused. What was whispered was, "Sir, your dog is lame. I want you to move around to the back of the line, take it easy and don't push him. Just let him be comfortable." I know this because it was my dog. I appreciated the courtesy at the time and I did know that I should have been excused but was not because of a kindness extended to me.

Just wondering - what is a generic dog? And what's wrong with it being well-trained?? Do you mean it was moderate and not overdone or are you just upset about the handler?

LOL - not moderate at all. The generic dogs I've seen, including at the present, tend to be taller than usual dog you'd see win in the classes. They have little to no forechest and straight upper arm that allows them to move in an un-Labrador way, but it's impressive - prancing around the ring with the head high up in the air.

I didn't even show, so I really don't care, except that sending an inferior specimen to the group ring just perpetuates the selection of un-typey Labs with the right handler at the end of the lead.

Kudos to you for saying it! I agree it IS total CRAP!
I won't even show my special because of this very reason.
It's crap and it's a darn shame!

Just an interesting observation - I was watching BOB at the Mid Jersey show on Friday and was astonished to see the first special limping on the go-round. Then the next special went, and that one was lame too. Then the next. Lame again! The next one took a different route and gaited fine. Then I realized all of the dogs were perfectly sound - the ring was uneven in such a way that if they went over a certain part of the ring, which happened to be where most of them would do the go-round, the dogs gaited just as if they were lame in the front. I don't know what it looked like from the center of the ring - I bet the judge was well aware of the terrain and how it was affecting the gait.

Nancy you are not the only one that saw that. We were sitting there with our mouths gaping open, until we realized what you did.
Having been in that ring myself, I believe it was a combination of the terrible slope, the mud, the straw and the uneven turf.

I was limping, in the bitch ring, because I landed in a hole and almost went down. When I came out of the ring, one of my friends told me I needed corrective shoeing.