I currently judge the Sporting Group, the Working Group, about 2/3 of the Herding Group and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

1. I saw my first Clumber in 1982 and it was at a time that I was out of dogs.  Interestingly, I was not very impressed with the breed on my initial exposure to it.  I came back to showing dogs in 1991 and started back with Saint Bernards.  It was during this time that I began seeing Ch Raycroft Springsteen “Bruce” who  was owned by Jan Friis, a fellow kennel club member of mine.  This time around I had a new appreciation for the breed and acquired Nexus’ foundation bitch “Ch Klumberhills Long Goodbye “Sweetie”, a Bruce daughter from Jan and started my involvement with the breed.

Along with my wife Shirley, I have bred over 100 Nexus champions with many of them being owner handled to one degree or another.  We have had the good fortune to have bred 2 Best In Show winners, 2 National Specialty BOB winners, 3 Best In Sweeps winners at the National and multiple Specialty BOB winners.  I started judging Clumbers in 2001and I was chosen by the membership of the parent club to judge the 2007 and the 2014 Clumber national, assignments that I consider a great honor to have been chosen for.

1. For some one to be a good judge of this breed they need to get the outline and the head correct.  A good clumber needs to be long, low, substantial and have a have a massive head.  The clumber is supposed to be a long dog; our standard says the height to length proportions is 9 tall to 11 long.  The height is measured from the withers to the ground and the length is measured from the withers to the base of the tail.  Prospective judges seem to have the hardest time getting the proportions right.  They look at a dog that is slightly longer than tall and think that is correct but a correct clumber needs to be more than just slightly longer than tall.  In my early years in the breed, I started measuring my dogs as a tool to help me realize how they measured up to what the standard calls for.  And when you start putting a tape measure on clumbers, it becomes apparent that few of our dogs are long enough.  If you take that 9:11 ratio and apply it to an 18” clumber (low end of the dog height range and middle of the bitch range) you should have a clumber that measures 22” from withers to the base of the tail. 
   
   A good clumber needs to have the correct height to length proportions but he also needs to have a correct head to be a great example of the breed.  The head should be massive, with a marked stop and a heavy brow that helps protect his eyes when he goes into heavy cover to flush game.  There should be a flat top skull and this is one of the things that I think needs attention with in the breed.  I’m seeing a lot of rounder top skulls.  The ears are to be attached at approximately eye level for the breed to maintain that spaniel look.  The muzzle should be broad and deep and the flews of the upper jaw should overlap the lower jaw to give the proper square look when viewed from the side.
   
   
2. I like our standard and I feel it does a good job of describing what our breed should look like and how it should move.  But I would like to see the standard do a better job of describing and measuring two of the proportional ratios that are important to the proper outline.  The first change would be where the length of body is measured from.  With the way that our standard reads, a clumber with a straight set of shoulders and a low tail set can measure longer than what it really is.  I would like to see us use the description that the English Springer standard uses “point of shoulder to point of buttocks”  The second change would be to have some kind of description of what the proportions are for the withers to elbow length compared to the elbow to ground length.  For the clumber to have the proper low and massive look there needs to more elbow to withers length than elbow to ground length.   Our standard says short front legs and that is not defining enough for some one wanting to judge the breed that does not have a thorough knowledge of the breed.  About a 55% body to 45% leg looks proper to me.
   
   
3. I have not judged in a foreign country.  I have bred to foreign born dogs from Sweden, Finland and South Africa.  There are not any major differences in most of the clumbers in the other countries with significant clumber populations. 

1.  My two male clumbers that I admire most and were not bred or owned by me are Am & Can Ch Raycroft Springsteen TD “Bruce” and Ch Smokerise Country Gentleman “Wilbur”.  Both of these dogs were superior examples of the breed.  They both had correct height to length proportions and they both had very good headpieces.  Both of them were also significant sires for the breed and both of them won the national.  Our foundation bitch Ch Klumberhill’s Long Goodbye was a Bruce daughter and our Ch Nexus Blind Faith was sired by Wilbur.  So along with admiring both of these dogs I wanted their blood in my breeding program.
   
   My two female clumbers that I admire most and were not bred or owned by me are Ch Wild Cherry’s Glacier Mint “Crystal” and Ch Locksley Critter Tintagel “Picabo”.  Both of these bitches are wonderful examples of the breed.  Both of them have correct body proportions and very pretty bitch heads.  Crystal was a BOB winner at the national along with 3 BOS awards at the national.  Picabo was a BOS winner at the national and also won multiple AOM’s at the national.
   
   Two dogs from my own breeding program that I feel are the best that I have bred are Ch Nexus Dark Horse and Ch Nexus total Eclipse, both dogs were BOB at the national.   The best bitch is Ch Nexus Blind Faith.  Faith was BOS at a national, BISweeps at a national and won 2 AOMs at nationals.

Dennis Fitzpatrick article.pdf

D Johnson Showsight.pdf