ON JUDGING 81 



would prefer to be judged after luncheon, meet their 

 wishes. Remember that they have done you the honour 

 of paying for the privilege of your opinion, and in common 

 courtesy suit your arrangements to their convenience. 

 But, if everyone is ready, the sooner you get to work the 

 better. 



Take your place in the ring, then, and tick off the 

 exhibits by their numbers in your judging book, until the 

 whole of the class is before you or the absentees have been 

 satisfactorily accounted for. 



From the first keep your eye on the dogs. Never 

 mind who is at the other end of the chain ; that has 

 nothing whatever to do with you. And strive above all 

 things to discharge from your mind any previous 

 acquaintanceship with or recollection of individual 

 animals. 



Your business is to decide upon their relative merits 

 to-day, and you would probably achieve this result with 

 the greatest success if you had never seen any one of them 

 before. To try and remember their previous records is 

 perhaps the most fatal mistake you can possibly make, if 

 you really aspire to be a judge in the word's best 

 sense. 



Having accounted for all the entries in your first class, 

 you may now proceed to take the fullest possible advan- 

 tage of the size of the ring, which is usually much too 

 small. To do this you will begin by clearing out every 

 unauthorised person. No one except the exhibitors and 



