Last Tuesday I had a unique opportunity. I judged junior showmanship at the Sonoma County Fair for the 4H kids. There are a large entry of kids in 3 different classes. Some had purebred dogs and others had mixes. They are judged on how well they present the dogs for exam, move the dogs both in a group and separately, present them in a line up, do different ring patterns, and even have a question and answer session.

What is unique for me is that each kid gets a written score card. I had to score them 1-10 in a variety of categories. At the end, I had to use a microphone and talk to all the kids and the entire audience to announce my placements and make any comments I wanted. I had a couple of tied classes. In those cases, I had to give the kids a tie breaker. The kids receive placement ribbons for ALL placements. Lovely huge rosette ribbons.

These kids all worked so hard. You could tell they really wanted to do well. Just prior to my judging, most had also competed in obedience. Having to be so public with my placements was hard in that I did not want to disappoint any children. I was truly impressed with each and every one over their personal efforts.

The difference between my top winner and the 2nd place was only 2 points behind which is insanely close. Pretty impressive! My top winner got a perfect score.

Later in the week, the kids competed in Round Robin. This is where the 2 top kids from each species compete with I believe 10 total kids from 5 different species. The children have to know about each every one of them. Cow, goat, dog, guinea pig and chicken were the species this time, I think. Well..........drum roll...........the lovely girl that I gave the perfect score to won Round Robin !!! I wish I had been there. I was so proud of her. The show "mom" sent me the email and so I sent this gal a Congratulations.