"Perfect weather for Newfs with a refreshing breeze and cloud cover. I was looking forward to judging them and as always, the breed didn't disappoint - temperament, presentation and that occasional (but frustrating to owners) decision not to cooperate was for me a pleasure combined with a restrained chuckle. Type is very uniform by and large and pleasing as a result. General fitness and muscle tone was good. I noted that far fewer dogs had the 'acceptable slight toeing in' which is hopefully due to better forehand construction rather than a narrowing of the body. The veterans were a great example overall and I shortlisted both sexes for higher awards in the challenge. Other observations I made were - quite a few were carrying a pound or two more than they needed, tail lengths were good in the majority but a handful were short and one dog had a distinct kink. Four dogs had borderline top eyelids with lashes pointing downwards with minimal traces of clear eyeball fluid (not mucus and no obvious irritation) but something to bear in mind when/if breeding on from those dogs). Otherwise well fitting eyelids were the order of the day. Given the unusually dry/hot weather, a few had the remnants of healed hot spots - clean areas - (no welfare issues). There is a slight tendency to short legs creating an unfavourable ratio of depth to height - and while the Standard now says 'chest at least to elbow' it would be unwise to assume that the deeper it goes beyond that is a desired quality or we could drift into the morphological frame of breeds that are now attempting to correct that shape."