Anyone who has experienced the very mixed blessings of an English ‘Summer’ will understand why I am always so keen to leave the country! Accordingly, I very much welcomed the invitation to head for Florida in July to judge at the Tampa Bay Boxer Club. This was to be a holiday as well, so having carefully planned things so that I was not away from home for any UK shows, my good friend John Cormack and I packed our bags and made for Orlando. Thankfully, the UK schools had not yet broken up for the Summer so the arrangements were made easier and the crowds were fewer. I have always been rather snooty about the Florida theme parks and have previously made strenuous efforts to avoid them, but we were staying right in the heart of Orlando, so they were kind of difficult to ignore. Suffice to say, we enjoyed them enormously – they are so well run, great fun and you certainly get a full days’ entertainment for your money. I can certainly recommend the new ride at Wet ‘n’ Wild. We felt like a pair of eight year olds as we queued at ‘The Storm’ for the third time!

By the time we got to the show, we had already had five great days doing the tourist thing to the left, middle and right of the State, without a dog in sight. The only slight disappointment during this time was Tampa’s Ybor City. We had been told this was a ‘wild and wacky place’, but I think it must have been closed on the day we went there, unless we just turned up too early. However, an alternative explanation might just be that definitions of wacky might be somewhat different State-side judging by the expression of total disbelief on every bartender’s face when we ordered our fourth lunchtime beer. And telling that reminds me of another thing … to my great shock and disappointment I had to wait until the very last day of our week away before any bartender asked me for proof of age. I have hitherto experienced this on very nearly a daily basis in America thanks to my youthful good looks, but I could only conclude on this trip that my 33 years were beginning to creep up on me. Suffice to say the duty free did pretty well on the way home as the skin repair and rejuvenation kits sold out in record time!

Anyway – enough of the travelogue – let’s got on with the show! Thursday came around and with the benefit of some excellent directions we made it to the State Fairgrounds without difficulty. I have to say at the outset that judging in America does give me a tremendous buzz. I just love the sheer professionalism of the show scene, the way that the exhibitors always do exactly what you ask of them, the way everyone stays for well organized photos, the way the AKC rep’s do their rounds and the way the handlers never let their emotions show in the ring. All of this adds up to a very special occasion for a visiting judge and I never underestimate the honor of a US appointment.

However, strictly speaking, a judging engagement is only as good as the quality of the entry, where I think every judge is agreed that there is nothing more difficult or soul-destroying than judging bad dogs. But thankfully, I did not have this problem in Tampa. In fact, it was quite the reverse, with overall quality at an extremely high level. Those who know me well will be aware that I do not say this after every judging appointment – far from it – so this is praise that is sincerely meant. Starting from the top, it was my great pleasure to award Ch. Carillon’s Elegance of Rummer Run best in specialty. Of course, she was no stranger to me and in fact when I was last in Florida at the beginning of 2000 I had been present when she won her very first Best in Shows all-breeds right at the start of her career. Since then I have seen her have great days, good days and some not-so-good days

In Tampa, if I am permitted to say it, I can honestly say that I have never seen her look better. She was in absolute peak condition, beautifully toned, showing her proverbial socks off and, on top of all this, I consider that she is technically one of the very best Boxers that I have ever judged anywhere. I think that her angulation front and rear is an object lesson to us all: here is a lovely clean front with beautiful slope and layback of shoulder and FORECHEST! From this beautiful balance of angulation comes a truly typical outline that is not exaggerated in any way, it is just pure Boxer. You then come around to this headpiece with tremendous underlying bone structure and a very expressive finish. How hard it can be to get that super width of muzzle coupled with a clean refined skull, and no trace of coarseness – but here we have it. She really made my night and now, having had my hands on her, she will go straight into my psyche as one of those truly great Boxers that will form part of my ongoing understanding of what an outstanding Boxer should look like. I will return to that thought later.

It was then interesting when returning home (after a 26 hour flight delay which resulted in my missing the UK show that I wanted to get back for!) to almost immediately judge a very large entry of bitches at the British Boxer Club Championship show, our National Specialty. Comparisons are so difficult when the Boxers are separated by space and time, but I certainly did not get the same sense of excitement from the UK entry that I had felt in Florida. Lots of typical Boxers, without doubt, but very few that really ‘pressed my buttons’. I have long been a believer that the UK Boxer and the US Boxer are on a similar level, quality-wise, but in bitches at present from what I have been seeing recently, I think that you probably have the edge.