Preparation for the Conformation Ring
Martha B. Anderson, PhD
Recent statistics released by UKC show that the Labrador Retriever is the 11th most popular breed in the UKC, according to numbers of dogs registered. This is no surprise to people acquainted with the versatility of this congenial gun dog. The Labrador is truly ‘a dog for many reasons.’
Labradors are found in many dog-person partnership jobs – such as Bomb Detection, Blood Tracking of wounded animals, Service Dogs, Search and Rescue, Animal-Assisted Therapy – in addition to their traditional dog-person sport of bird hunting. More and more Labradors excel today in other canine sports such as Obedience and Agility often earning top competition honors. Labradors can also be found working as Pack Dogs for hikers, pull dogs for skijoring, companion animals for disabled persons, and just plain old-fashioned pets for dog lovers.
It is not surprising to witness the accompanying increase of the Labrador as a Conformation competitor in the various registries programs. They have held the largest conformation entry position for several years in the AKC. Their fast rise in entry totals as confirmed in the Top Ten dogs defeated column just this year in UKC attests to their growing popularity in our registry.
The mission of the newly formed United Labrador Retriever Association is to preserve the Labrador Retriever as a working gun dog who is a delightful and obedient family companion and a beautiful and sound physical example of its breed. To that end, to introduce our club to the fancy, and to help educate and promote our breed to other UKC owners and judges, this series of articles about the Labrador Retriever has been written. The first article addresses the preparation of the Labrador for the Conformation ring.
The old adage that “Form Follows Function” certainly applies to the Labrador, and can be used as a ‘mantra’ when deciding how to prepare for conformation competition. The History section of our standard points us in this direction. It talks about the early role of the English gamekeeper in the development of Labradors, “always striving to improve the breed’s hunting and retrieving instincts.” It summarizes today’s Labrador by stating “it has proven to be one of the most versatile breeds, excelling in hunt tests and field trials, in obedience and agility events, and also as service dogs.”
These emphases are important to the conformation competitor. They point out the basic reason for existence – the function – of the Labrador. The Labrador is a hunter, a retriever, it excels in hunt tests and field trials, AND in obedience and agility events, AND as a service dog. All the functions of the Labrador are active, athletic, thinking jobs for the dog IN PARTNERSHIP with humans.
From function to form is a natural progression. The Labrador in form is an athletic specimen; it is alert; it is interactive with its person, and they work together as a team.
What this means to the conformation exhibitor is first and foremost, the Labrador is fit and should be shown in working condition. Substance in this breed should refer to the ‘powerfully built dog’ described under General Appearance in the Standard. A powerfully built dog has substantial bone and muscle, not fat. Dogs exhibited during the winter and early months of spring may indeed have what some would call ‘a winter pearl-like layer of fat’. In other words they might be a little bit more soft in muscle tone or a few pounds heavier than expected during the months of spring, summer, and fall. But a little bit of winter ‘softness’ does not mean a dog that is so ponderous it looks like it would sink to the bottom of the pond, not be able to swim across it. The Labrador as presented in the show ring should be able to perform one of the traditional jobs of the breed.
Preparation for conformation exhibition should contain a physical conditioning regimen, certainly if the individual dog is not used as a hunter-retriever. Muscle and tone are central to development of the correct outline of the dog and to evaluation of movement, especially since the conformation dog’s movement can only be judged over land and not as an efficient swimmer in the water.
Because the Labrador is a Gun Dog, and expected to work over land and in the water, preparation of the dog’s coat for conformation exhibition is important. Our standard states that the coat is “a short, dense, water-repellent double coat….the coat texture is firm and resilient, neither coarse nor silky.” In fact, a ‘soft, silky coat’ is a Serious Fault. I draw your attention to the coat, because coat preparation is one area in which many exhibitors are clearly ‘over-grooming’, a practice contrary to UKC philosophy, and contrary to the function of the breed.
The coat in a Labrador should be prepared and presented as naturally as possible. The water-repellent nature of the coat is contained in its oiliness. The quickest way to strip that coat of its oily and water-repellent texture is to shampoo. A shampooed coat results in a softer and silkier coat, exactly the type of coat the Standard calls on us to penalize. But the conformation exhibitor often strives to present a clean dog, and certainly to present one whose coat is ‘full or dense.’ Also, frankly, many of us want to spend those long hours driving to shows with a van full of dogs who smell more clean than like they just jumped into the crate from the kennel.
What is the solution? We recommend that conformation exhibitors do indeed clean their Labradors, but that they do so by thoroughly rinsing them with warm water. The rinse can be followed by towel dry, by air dry, or even by blow-drying when necessary in the interest of time. But the purpose of the rinse versus the shampoo is to rinse out the dirt and even odors from deep in the coat BUT leave the water-repellent texture undisturbed. Remember that Form Follows Function. The function of the double-coat, the dense, water-repellent coat is to protect the dog from the cold waters in which they often work to retrieve shot birds, and originally helped to carry the nets of the fishermen in the chilly North Atlantic. The form that we see exhibited in the ring should follow the function of the breed.
We further recommend that when the Labrador is dried by towel or by blower, that the coat ALWAYS be combed, brushed or smoothed by hand IN THE DIRECTION of the growth of the coat. That means brush, comb or smooth from head toward the tail. Labradors should NOT be back-brushed to ‘fluff’ or ‘enhance’ the depth of the coat. Remembering again that Form Follows Function, the dogs don’t have towels or blow dryers when they are working in a blind, or from a boat. They shake off the excess water and air dry. Certainly at best, the back-blowing or back-brushing is a cosmetic alteration, and at worst, it represents a practice that could harm the dog’s ability to retain body heat. If we are using the conformation ring to evaluate our breeding stock, then we want to select dogs with coats that are sufficient to repel water and to keep the dog’s body temperature warm. An ‘open’ coat that results from back brushing or back blowing is not a coat that will repel water and not a coat that will maintain a dog’s body temperature.
When the Labrador sheds it undercoat in order to grow a new one, owners find out just how much coat their dog really has! The undercoat of a Labrador comes in different colors. For example, some black dogs have brown undercoat, some have grey undercoat. Many of the yellows have biscuit colored undercoat or grey undercoat, and most of the chocolates (or livers) have brown undercoat. For those blacks that have the brown undercoat, they can often appear ‘brownish-black’ in color during the weeks that they are shedding the undercoat. Conformation preparation includes a good ‘rake’ or ‘slicker’ to help pull out all the loose undercoat and diminish the brownish-hue in overall appearance. Judges and fellow exhibitors should be aware of this phenomenon and not mistakenly believe the Labrador is a ‘combination of colors’ not allowed.
Finally, as far as coat is concerned, nothing should be done in preparation to those distinctive undercoat markings commonly referred to as “Bolo spots, the mark of Bolo” or another similar name. It’s true that the uninitiated may panic and think “ oh my gosh, what IS this? What do I DO with this? “ These refer to small areas in the undercoat of a Labrador, usually seen at or near the base of the tail on the tail itself, where the undercoat color is actually a bright white. In Novice pups these can be noticeable, but as the outer coat grows in, the white undercoat spot is obscured, and only someone who looks carefully in the undercoat on the tail will find the spot.
Judges sometimes come across these white undercoat spots in the process of examining the depth of coat and wrap of coat on the tail, and the tail set. Naturally, they will be evident on chocolates or blacks, but not yellows. The name, Bolo spot or mark of Bolo, refers to a very striking Labrador generations ago who was reported to have one of these markings – English Champion Banchory Bolo – and from whom all bearers of the mark are alleged to descend. No scientific evidence has been gathered to document the prevalence of this occurrence in the breed, but in some bloodlines, the mark is regularly seen every other generation. No data has been gathered to substantiate the myth that all bearers of the mark do indeed have Bolo in their ancestry. Today, reference to the Bolo Spot is simply a convention for naming that unusual occurrence. There is no known function of the Mark of Bolo.
So far, we have looked at the conditioning or fitness of the Labrador to perform its work in the field, and we have looked at the characteristics of the coat to shield the dog from cold water. We will take a quick glimpse at feet and those ‘otter tails’ before examining the partnership between labs and their people as reflected in conformation preparation.
When we consider the function of a Labrador, feet are critically important to the performance of all the various jobs a Labrador can do. Our Standard calls for ‘good feet, medium size, round and compact, with well-arched toes and thick, elastic pads. Most dogs have toenails that are going to need some trimming. We strongly recommend trimming several days prior to conformation competition. Northing puts a dog off a good ring performance more than a foot with a nail that’s been cut into the quick just prior to going into the ring. In fact, we recommend a regular program of checking your Labrador’s feet, and trimming by grinding. Several tools are available on the market to grind canine nails, and once you and your Labrador learn to do this together, it results in a quick and painless event. Nails that are the correct length contribute to good feet with well-arched toes. Nails that are too long force the weight of the dog down onto the nails and help to splay the toes. Remember, a working dog works on its feet.
Preparation of those distinctive otter tails is another quick part of grooming. The easiest thing to do is nothing at all. After a rinse, simply wipe a towel around and around the Labrador tail, NEVER go up and down the tail. When the hair grows correctly on a Labrador tail, the wrapping around and around of the hair results in a ‘fur remainder’ at the tail’s end where the fur extends out beyond the tip of the bone. This ‘fur remainder’ often resembles the end of an artist’s paintbrush, and is referred to as ‘the twizzle’ by Labrador fanciers. Many long-time breeders and exhibitors prefer to scissor off the twizzle, thereby showing the exact length of the tail, not the ‘tail plus fuzzy fur.’ Taking off the twizzle also shows more accurately the breadth of the tail. In my opinion, given the UKC philosophy of minimal grooming, either option is perfectly acceptable – with twizzle or without twizzle. Their seems to be no function tied to that final half-inch of fuzz at the end of the tail. The function of the tail itself is to serve as rudder for the dog when it swims. It is the substance of the tail that rudders the dog, and the wrap of the fur that keeps the tail warm.
A final area for consideration in preparation of the Labrador is the partnership between the dog and people. Remembering that the functions of the Labrador include that vital partnership between the dog and its person, the preparation of the Labrador for conformation should reflect that partnership. There are three words that describe the best method of preparation – practice, practice, practice. There are two definite styles of presentation of the Labrador – one is the more traditional hand-stack, and the other is the free-stack or free-bait presentation. Both require preparation -- training of the dog, training of the handler, and training of the pair as a team. The Labrador and the Labrador exhibitor should be prepared for both types of presentation. The free-stack shows more naturally the proportions of the individual dog, the soundness of the dog’s topline, and can easily reflect the relationship between the dog and person. In my opinion it is also the best way to see that kind, Labrador expression. We all are aware that some flaws can be minimized when a dog is hand-stacked. Regardless of the method used by an individual judge, Labradors and their human partners should be prepared for whatever is demanded of them in the ring experience. This certainly reflects the role of the Labrador in the field, reacting to the demands of the situation as assessed by the person and directed to the dog, and the dog performing the job it was trained to do when it is directed to do it.
There are an increasing number of Labradors being registered with the UKC, and there are a growing number of Labrador exhibitors entering the conformation ring. The mission of the newly formed United Labrador Retriever Association is to maintain the Labrador as a working Gun Dog. Nothing says that so clearly as the old rule of thumb that Form Follows Function. Labrador conformation exhibitors are encouraged to use this as their mantra when preparing their dogs for competition, and judges are encouraged to use this philosophy when evaluating Labradors in their assignments.
*membership information for ULRA may be obtained from the Membership Secretary, Jim Scott, 738 Herbertsville Rd, Brick, NJ 08724 or jim@ulra.net