You never stop learning. The better youget at judging, the more you can study and improve your knowledge onthe intricacies of the Standard. There is also extensiveinformation that is *not* in the Standard. I learned a lotabout the French Angoras by talking to breeders and having them show medifferent specimens. While they are a large commercial breed,they are slightly short of ideal weight for a 6 class breed.This means they only have junior and seniorclasses, but nointermediate class. I found that a 6-8 month old (normallywhat would be the intermediate class, but they would be shown asseniors), does often *not* have the mature senior coat with the correcttexture. Very important piece of info, as I've heard far moreexperienced judges wrongly comment on those young seniors and say theywere worthless "mixed breeds" due to their soft coats. Notso! Those "baby" coats will molt in another month and be thecorrect texture!
A judge should never stop educating themselves or strive tolearn. It is no surprise that seasoned breedersknow the intricacies of their breed better than the judge, so I takeevery opportunity to pick their brains and educate my self on theirbreed and on all stages of development of that breed.
Pam
