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 can award (to as many as he/she wants):
Excellent (red ribbon) - and this is a “ticket” to go into the competition class.
Very good (blue ribbon)
Good (yellow rippon) or
Sufficient (green ribbon)
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 Excellent (red) compete.
4 is placed, and the judge can give the CK (“Champion Quality") to as many, few or none he/she wants.
Intermediate class (15-24 months). Same judging metod as the Junior class, with the CK for the ones that are worth it in Interm. competitionclass..
Open class (over 15 months, but not Norwegian champions). Judged the same way as the Junior and Intermediate. 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 - they will still compete for the CC in BIK (best in class) later on.
Same way of doing things as the other classes, the ones of champion quality are awarded CK.
Veteran class (over 8 years old). The same way all over again. The champion quality ones are given the CK.
Best in Class (BIK) class. All dogs with CK compete for best male (and later in the day the same goes for the bitches). The one placed highest, that aren't already Norwegian Champion are awarded the CC.
At International shows – the CACIB can be awarded to the best dog (except if it's shown in Veteran or Junior class). 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 Intermediate as well.
Other info about shows in Norway
All officially approved dogshows are judged as above. The new rules with excellent/very good etc came in 2010 - so it's quite a new way of judging here.
The old system was very much the same, though. But now the rules and regulations are moving towards the same in all of FCI.
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.