"This is my 14th time awarding CCs in this breed and as it has been nearly five years since I last judged them I had no idea of the quality that I would be facing, I was quite surprized the entry consisted of 5.1% of imports, I have never know as many imports in breeds that are coming to our shores, however, I have some reservations with regards to the faults that have crept into this breed, my main problem is short in forelegs, as this is not a small or medium breed short legs are no good to any large breed and it was for me a great problem to get past as you are now faced with unbalanced timbers supporting the large framed dog, you need to breed for a longer forelegs than what many had today. And staying with the front assembly, toeing-in in front action (I know you are all going to say that the standard permits this type of action) but where do you draw the line when the standard refers to SLIGHTLY, slightly means just that, some were too excessive. Heads in general where quite good but some where too narrow which detracted from a broad backed dog, whilst this breed askes for a broad back it doesn't mean to be constructed with too much weight, I had great difficulty when there is too much bulk and found it very difficult to examine the skeletal structure of a dog. There where many good dogs today with a loin that was too long which spoilt their outline, whilst this breed is never compact or square it should not be long, it should be balanced and pleasing to the eye, coats were somewhat varied, very few had the correct flat lying coats of the past. The bitches outstripped the dogs today.

I have an apology to make. I wrote a Boxer critique last year where I said that puppies in slow maturing breeds should not be winning CCs as if they do there is something wrong with the breed, but today I went and did the opposite to what I wrote, I will let you to come to your own conclusions regarding this apology.

I would like to believe that this critique is received with the same passion it was wrote for concerns for the breed, my scribbling is not an attack on this breed but a factual report on what I found."