How come in shows that puppies dont go against dogs they're own age?  a puppy of 6 months going against a dog of nine months what is ready to go into the next class it's not really fair is it, because that dogs much larger.

warm regards Susan

It's not practical to have separate classes for puppies of 6 months and another for 7months and so on and so forth. There would be only one or two per class.There would be dozens of classes per breed, a logistical nightmare. The line has to be drawn somewhere, and the line is 6-9 months and then 6-12 months. That's just the way it is.

Dawn R.

In my breed there is never a MP class, at best there is a puppy but at many shows even just a junior so 6 months olds have to go against 18 month olds, and even occasionally puppies have to go straight into PG. We even have open shows with ONLY an Open class scheduled -that's when we're lucky enough to have breed classes at all. :) Like others have said, it's all down to numbers being shown.

Marianne

If we made too many classes in some breeds there would be nothing to compete against.

A good judge can tell the quality of a puppy in these age groups. They are not judged on maturity but on quality. It is not common at all for a youngster to beat an older dog.

i can see why now thanks, Blue and Nursey.

Warm regards Susan

You know Susan, in the showring, dogs are not judged against eachother. They are each judged against the breed standard, and the judge applies that standard taking into account the varying degrees of maturity.

Dawn R.

At 7 months old my boy won the MP class and then went on to win BPD and the pup he was up against from the PD class was coming up 11 months old :)

My boy, also aged 7 months, won the puppy class then went onto get RBD in the challenge, up against much more mature dogs(who have had BOB and BOS) and also BPIB but on the day the judge obviously thought alot of my boy........so MPs don't always lose out when up against the older dogs, stick in there Susan :)

I agree Tigger went Best puppy in show at 6 months and 3 days!  Molly beat 50 other dallies to get best puppy bitch at 7 months and neither were mature.  I think in general judges arent stupid and can make allowances for the difference in size.  :)

but bare in mind some do go for the more mature pups everytime :(

Hi Nursey i know you said the dogs are judged on the standard, but doesn't the judge have to compare each dogs faults against each other and then pic the dog with the lowest faults compared to the standard, i think thats what you've just said but i've gone all round the houses, i've confused myself now.  Ha ha ha my reply has given me the giggles.

Warm regards Susan

No, the judges should only judge the dogs against the standard, not against each other.

but they do judge them against each other to a certain extent, if you read the critiques it will often say give the critique of the dog who came first, then the one who came 2nd and then say the reason why that dog came 2nd eg. 1 has stronger movement than 2.

No they place them in order of merit in how closely they come to the standard.  It is slightly different.  Puppies should be judged for the stagem of develpement they shoudl be at that age.  Of course this is very hard to judge if you have not seen dogs of that breed develop from puppies right through to adults, so I would expect a specialist in general to be able to judge pups more acurately than an all breed judge.