Irish Terrier Association

The I.T.A. held a most successful Breed Specific Seminar with Assessments. It is some years since the Breed put on a Seminar, the last one having been hosted by the Northern Irish Terrier Club. The I.T.A. were keen that for this occasion the Seminar should be open to our newer enthusiasts as well as those ready to Judge and those on the Judging ladder. With that in mind it was decided to give a Breed Specific talk in the morning and to have Assessments for those ready or having judged, perhaps already on the C or B list.

For the Assessments five dogs had been selected which included one Champion and a dog with cracked pads, it was important that potential Judges were faced with this condition. We owe a debt of thanks to the owners of these dogs for giving their time to take part. Our Assessors were Paul Livesey, Kevin Anderson and Feffie Somerfield who had generously given their time to be with us for the day and did a most thorough job assessing the candidates.

For the morning the breed presentation was designed to cover a brief history, before discussing each part of the breed standard. For this a digital projector was used showing photographs of correct and incorrect dogs. The object of the exercise was to show contrasts of correct and incorrect points, in an effort to drive home what makes an Irish Terrier what it is and how it should stand away from the other terrier breeds for its breed type.