John Cormack and I were both delighted to be asked to judge in Florida just after Christmas. I was assigned to do the Boxers at the Greater Daytona Dog Fancier’s Association on Saturday 4 January and John was judging the North East Florida Boxer Club that same evening. Philip Greenway was also due to be with us, doing a load of Terrier breeds on the Saturday and then the Boxers on Sunday at the Jacksonville show, but unfortunately family illness prevented him from making the trip at the last minute and we were all extremely sad when his wife, Barbara, died a month later. She was such a respected lady in UK dog circles.

We left Heathrow on Boxing Day and flew to Atlanta. During the trip, when asked when we had arrived, it soon dawned on us that we were facing totally blank looks: apparently Boxing Day is not a term that the Americans use. Indeed, the only drawback of traveling when we did was that it felt as if someone had nicked half our Christmas since the US festivities seemed strictly limited. But with bright blue skies, temperatures in the 70s and gorgeous sunshine, that was a small price to pay.

We had only flown into Atlanta because no Florida flights were available, but as the home of CNN and Coca Cola there was plenty to see even though we were only able to spend a day there as we had a good bit of driving to do down to Florida. In the days before the shows we managed to fit in Fort Lauderdale and then all the way down to Key West before heading back up to Miami for New Year. The New Year’s Eve firework display on South Beach was something special. We then had a few days to get re-acquainted with Orlando before driving the short distance to Daytona Beach for the shows. The Club had put us up in a lovely hotel right by the famous Daytona Speedway circuit and the pre-show dinner on Friday was held at the track. Here, we were pleased to meet up with the well-known Boxer man, John Connolly, who had a heavy judging schedule all weekend. It was also nice to see the Canadian all-breeds judge Jim Reynolds, who I had met on a previous US trip when he gave my BOB Boxer Best in Show all-breeds at the Somerset Hills Kennel Club. Every time you open a US dog magazine Jim is always featured judging somewhere!

At 7.00am the following morning I left for the Volusia County show grounds, for judging to start promptly at 8.00am. As usual when foreign judges are in town, there was an AKC representative present to offer assistance and to make sure that all rules were followed. This time, it was Anne Bolus who I had met on previous trips. Anne is actually an ex-pat Brit from Durham who has certainly retained her North-Eastern accent. She could not have been more helpful and it is reassuring to know that there is someone on hand should you need to check anything out. Both John and I had excellent entries of well over 100 dogs and considering that the next largest breeds at the show only had entries in the 50s, we were delighted.

Overall, we both found the depth of quality in the class males to be a little disappointing, but the Best of Breed class and the bitch classes were a pleasure. I felt that the non-Champion males just lacked a little in quality and too often you were left making compromises, with few males standing out. However, I felt that one exception was the winner of the 9-12 month class called Hi-Stands How Do Ya Like Me Now (sired by Ch Sarkel’s True Grit ex Ch Hi-Stand’s Signature of Sarkel). This lightly marked brindle was shown by the talented Lori McClain and he filled my eye totally. He is a beautifully balanced male with lovely angulation and a compact, square outline. He has just the right neck with great poise, and these lovely flowing lines. His head was well made with good width of muzzle and lean skull and where he scored over a lot of the entry was in his finish of head and expression, which was so much more typical than many. In the final analysis, despite his youth, I had no hesitation in making him my Winners Dog for a maximum 5-point major. Reserve to him was a well built red dog called Tamaron’s Experience shown by Carmen Skinner (who seems to have had a lot of Reserves under me recently!) I loved his overall make and shape and his soundness but on the day for me, the type of the young dog saw him comfortably through.

In bitches, there were some hotly contested classes. Ricky Justice had a very nice brindle bitch in the 12-18 class sired by his impressive special, Taylor Made, and second in this class was Dreamweaver’s Future Perfect, who we had all admired at ABC when she won the Futurity. It was nice to have some close decisions to make among top quality bitches and this was true throughout the classes. When the line up was called back in I had thought that I would probably end up with one of the younger bitches, but I found myself being drawn to a plain brindle bitch who had won the American-bred class. She had beautifully balanced angulation and she was totally free from exaggeration, moving with ease and scope. On top of this, she had a wholly typical head and a lovely expression. When I made her Winners Bitch for a Major I thought that the roof was going to come off the hall. Her rather strange name was Banta-Reigel’s Sizzlin Sensation. Reserve to her was a lovely headed brindle being shown by Jack Brown called Daisax Winmere Night Chime. Subsequent to the show I was delighted to hear from Sizzlin’ Sensastion’s owner that this bitch was also well advanced in Obedience. The American show people certainly seem a lot more interested in the ‘non-show’ activities than we are in the UK.

The Best of Breed class was one of the best that I have seen in a long time, with some old favourites competing with many that were totally new to me. Right from the start, the red dog at the head of the line caught my eye. He had this flowing, smooth, quality outline that I really like to see and he was on top of his game. Debbie Struff had him in excellent order. Also present were my Winners Dog and Best Opposite Sex from when I had judged up in Boston in May; a couple of lovely headed Johnny J Champions; a very promising, if somewhat raw, youngster in the capable hands of Sioux Forsyth (daughter of Jane); the Taylor Made dog who I have admired and done well for before; Laura Cuthbert’s very square Diamond Mine male who had won an Award of Merit at ABC; and a couple of very smart bitches. It was a competitive field that took some sorting out and at every cut I had to excuse animals that I would have been extremely happy with in different company.

As the class reached its climax the red dog that I had fancied all along just did everything right. He was an extremely impressive mover both out and back and in profile, retaining his shape at all times, and he had a very typical headpiece. So it was Ch. Standing-O Galaxie Gasheron, sired by the famous stud dog Ch. Shadow’s Nairobi, who went Best of Breed with something to spare. I then went with my dog for Best of Winners and Best Opposite Sex was awarded to Ch. Vanassau’s Dreams Come True, shown by Lori McClain for Roberto Braun from Mexico. She had a great outline and style and if she had just had a little more finish in head, she would have pushed the dogs hard.

By now it was gone 1pm and John was not due to judge until 6.30pm, so after an excellent lunch I had a good look round the other breeds that were still going on. There were some beautiful Standard Poodle youngsters shown by Kay Palade of Boxer fame and I enjoyed the Pugs, meeting the breeder of the lovely chap who is on the UK Dog World Annual front cover this year. The Group judging was then soon upon us and we even had some Boxer connections here when Dan Buchwald won Terrier Group 3 under Jim Reynolds with what looked like a very nice Smooth. In the Working Group I did not have terribly high hopes for my Boxer, since John Connolly had apparently given the Breed to a different one the day before, but Galaxie put up a super performance and was a very good 4^th from what looked like strong competition. The winning Doberman was a stunning show dog and later in the day I thought he was a shade unlucky not to go Best in Show. This award actually went to a Pembroke Corgi who I am told is outstanding

With a bit of time to spare before the Club show started, it was back to the camping section of the showground to have a beer or seven and to eat at the barbecue which the Club had put on. It was obviously not sensible for John and I to meet up before he judged, so I arrived back at the show when he was well into his third class in a lovely big ring which really gave him space to work the dogs. As I entered the hall one lady came straight up to me and said "He’s not doing anything like you did!" I didn’t know whether this was a compliment or a criticism, so I just said "Well that’s good, isn’t it?" and smiled sweetly. In fact, on looking at the catalogues afterwards we invariably had the same few in the line ups.

For his Winners Dog John went for the plain-ish brindle Rainmaker’s Romeo Blue from the 12-18 class, who I’d had second. He was a beautifully headed dog of true breed type and he was a very accurate mover. We had the same dog Reserve, Tamaron’s Experience. To get two Reserves to two different dogs on the same day must have been frustrating since the dog only need one major to finish, but at least he didn’t have to wait long for his title since I see that he did get made up later on in the circuit. In bitches, I found it fascinating that we both ended up with the same bitch. If I found it fascinating, her owner Jo-Ann Haberl found it quite overwhelming since these two Majors made the bitch a Champion and what is more remarkable is that she is also not too far off her obedience title as well. (Editor’s note: Sizzle already had her CD and is working on a CDX.:-) She was back with her usual handler at the evening show, who had been too busy with her Danes earlier in the day when I’d had the stand-in. It says a lot for the bitch’s easy going temperament that she gave of her best at both shows.

For the Best of Breed class, Ricky Justice had obviously managed to wake up the Taylor Made dog, who was back to his usual sparkling form. He had been half asleep when I’d had him in the morning. John closely considered several of the males that had impressed me earlier in the day, but he finally signaled that Taylor Made was Best in Show, with the Winners Bitch not only Best of Winners but also Best of Opposite. Afterwards we both agreed that it was incredibly frustrating only to be able to reward one or two from the very strong Best of Breed class. By now it was nearly 10pm and as I had been at the showground since crack of dawn it was time to head for the nearest bar to compare notes. I think if we are being honest, we all love to have this post-mortem after a judging appointment and when you have both judged the same dogs within a matter of hours, it is particular fun.

Sadly, the following day it was up early for the eight hour drive back to Atlanta for the flight home that evening, but one last bonus awaited us. On arriving at the British Airways check-in desk they were asking for volunteers to return the following day and they offered us £400 each in cash (or £600 of BA travel vouchers) plus a hotel for the night if we would go home a day late. As always, it’s too complicated to arrange this at such short notice, so we declined but due to the over-booking we came back Business Class which was wonderful. The only problem is that I have spent the following weeks just wishing that we had taken the cash. It would have made a welcome dent in the credit card bill!