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Comments about the symposium
GARY NOTLEY,
UK
“Following last year's symposium in Sweden and the heated discussions re UK/American type, I was worried that this year in the USA it might be me on the receiving end. Nothing could have been further from the truth. On Saturday I was invited to attend the Judges ring mentoring, which was expertly supervised by Dana Weber, who coached us on and discussed the American breed standard and the dogs we were watching. It was good to be able to go over the principle winners of the day - a big thank you to the owners.
In the evening was the symposium and after a delicious buffet we listened to the principal Speakers of the evening. The highlight for me was Marie Merchants presentation on the UK and US breed standards. It is interesting that the differences in the breed standards are very minor, yet as we were about to find out later our interpretations varied greatly.
Following Marie's presentation we were divided into groups with a panelist to dicuss and place photos of 6 dogs in order of preference based on a specific point. Our group were given fronts and body. . Our group could not agree, dividing into two groups based on UK/US type (somethings never change!!).
I thought the event was well organised and my only criticism was the choice of hotel. It would have been nice to have had a bar where we could have retired to for the discussions to continue over a beer or two.........”
CLEMENCIA SAAVEDRA (Wallylama Springers),
URUGUAY, South America
“The trip to Santa Rosa was very long but I would do it again! There I met a lot of nice American breeders with different type of Springers and people from other countries that were there to judge and were panelists of the symposium. We were all there sharing the same hobby even though we didn’t always agree in every aspect but that was the interesting thing: hear different opinions from different breeders and discuss those points in a friendly and objective way.
On Saturday we had the ring mentoring, Dayna Weber was in charge and did a great job. She gave us a pen and a notebook to take notes of what we thought it was important and relevant during the ring mentoring. We had a great experience because we were able to judge from outside the ring and discuss about each dog. It was a good exercise to keep in mind the ESS standard.
This unique experience to share with breeders from different countries was important to discuss the standard, specially because the look of the English type is so different to the American type and finally we got to the conclusion that it is the same dog. There was a joke that a panelist said that I will never forget: the American standard was written by a lawyer and the English one was written by a breeder....
I think that time was not enough to discuss every aspect, specially health and anatomical problems . The tendency to breed more attractive dogs might be going against the breed interests and the sad thing is that sometimes all round judges place incorrect dogs in first place giving people a wrong idea of the breed standard. The judges have to judge in the ring for the standard and not for a color or a look. A typical and well balanced dog should be recognized regardless of the distribution of the colors.
Congratulations to all the people involved with the organization of this year’s symposium. We were all distracted by that tasty chocolate fountain, delicious buffet and the beautiful tables with those floral arrangements with a Springer in the middle. It was a very nice setting.
We should have this kind of event more often and not only for breeders and ESS judges but it would be important to extend it to group and all round judges too. I’m already getting ready for next’s year symposium!! “
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