Most experienced dog show judges will tell you that they can only judge a dog on the day.
Anyone outside the dog fancy may wonder why anyone would state something so patently obvious, but allow us to explain this old adage: A dog shouldn’t be judged by how she looked last week, or even how she looked an hour before. Neither should the dog be judged based on how she looked the last time the judge saw her if the dog has been exhibited to the judge before. Judge must evaluate a dog “in the moment” a dog is in front of them.
A dog may shine during class judging and be chosen Best of Breed, but more than one dog has been “dumped” by the same judge at the group level for any number of reasons, including stronger competition, or the dog’s distraction or fatigue by the time group judging rolls around. Bottom line: You can only assess a dog by what you see in front of you.
We’ve taken a circuitous route to get to our point which has everything to do with the dog in the photograph, and that’s determining if this American Staffordshire Terrier’s color is correct according to the breed’s AKC standard. As adorable as the Am Staff is in her Easter ears and pink netting, we don’t know what’s underneath the netting, and we can evaluate only what we see. Is this a “cheap” way to get to the topic of color in the breed? Probably. But the photo is cute, and we saw the opportunity to touch upon color in the breed.
So is she or isn’t she? Correct, that is.
In this breed, any color, solid, parti, or patched is permissible, and that makes nearly all colors common in dogs also to be found in Am Staffs. There are so many colors, in fact, that the American Staffordshire Terrier Club of New South Wales created a page just on colors. Markings are equally rich. The AKC lists patched, spotted, tan points, white markings, brindle points, masks in black, blue, or white as acceptable, and we won’t begin to go into degrees of brindling because we’ll be here all day.
But……
The standard also indicates that an Am Staff that is all white, or more than 80 per cent white, black and tan, and liver is not to be encouraged. If this little lady’s coat is more than 80 per cent white and she stepped into a show ring, should she even be there?
She is entitled to be. The breed standard does not consider the predominance of her color to be a disqualification, or even a fault. It simply states that more than 80% is “not to be encouraged,” and thus, it is the least preferred.
Why does it matter?
It should matter to the person who wants to show their AmStaff. It should even matter to anyone wanting the breed solely as a companion pet because people should want a sound pet whether it’s being shown or not, and there are “breeders” out there specializing in all white AmStaffs. We know this because we found them. Any “breeder” who sacrifices health and soundness for a particular color should be a concern, if not a red flag. Bottom line: Buyer beware.
Image: Deposit Stock Photo