I would like to start by thanking the AICC executive board and its general membership for having the courage and foresight to bring in a forgiener (American) to judge their 10th International show, you have my respect and admiration. Also thank
you to Georgia Cremonaisi for interpreting for me.
Accepting this assignment meant great potential for embarrassment for myself as well as for the American passionate in general. What if I didn’t encounter a group of dogs I could relate too? What if my idea of what the breed should
be is different than conventional wisdom surrounding the breed in Italy? I decided to put all of these fears out of my mind, reasoning that they were pre-show jitters. I would judge the breed based on my experiences both in America and Italy, and by what I appreciated in the breed- balance, type, movement and
soundness-throw in a little bone and substance and we have a winner. Then out of the blue I recalled a conversation I had with Steve Nash a few years ago when discussing judging, he told me “when you judge only one person goes home happy, everyone else is mad a you” Steve was right, whatever dog I picked
there would be people criticizing me and the selections I made. Strangely enough this seemed to calm my nerves.
Renzo explained to me that it was customary at the AICC International shows to have two judges each for the juvenile and adult classes respectively. I did not have a problem with this-especially considering the other judges on the
panel, AICC Vice-Presidents Alberto Cremoneisi and Nicola Palazzo, Ricardo Cresiani (who has owned the breed since 1969) Alberto and Nicola would judge the juvenile classes and Ricardo and I would do the adults. What I liked about the panel assembled was that it was comprised of solely passionates of the Cane
Corso, not judges in love with another breed, only choosing to judge the Cane Corso as another breed on their resume. As I have heard Renzo say many times “to judge the Cane Corso correctly you must live with the breed” I believe we in the states need to cultivate more judges from within our ranks. There
needs to be more than just myself, Ron Williams and Steve Nash. I think back to the job that John Finn did at this years Nationals with the puppy sweeps and know that there is the talent and raw material to make this a reality. Perhaps at next years National Specialty weekend we could have a panel (for one
show) comprised of aspiring ICCF member judges. We could do like the AICC and have a panel of 2 or 3 judges per class. I could think of a number of serious passionates who would do a great job
Upon arriving at the show my first impressions were that this was not so different than a typical American show. Present were Cane Corso of all different shapes and sizes. Some nice subjects, some not so nice subjects. There seems to
be common threads that we share with our Italian cousins, firstly everyone seems to be genuinely in love with the breed (and there dogs in particular) their love goes beyond correct head to muzzle ratio and good top lines, it is just a love of the Cane Corso. Another similarity would be the seemingly complete
lack of homogeneity. While milling around prior to the start of the judging I came to the realization that this would not be so hard after all. The dogs here displayed many of the same characteristics as the dogs at home- Mastino type, boxer type, and bullmastiff type. Correct dogs, dogs with long muzzles
dogs with short muzzles good character, bad character. As it turns out this would truly be an International show as dogs from Hungary, Chzecksylavkia and Europe where present (unfortunately no American dogs) Interestingly enough some dogs were from countries with bans on cropping and docking. So we would be
judging dogs with intact ears and tails. This would certainly make things interesting, while I was accustomed to seeing dogs with ears I was not used to checking for normally descended testicles and finding a tail. One positive thing about keeping the ears, it allows you to really see if the ear placement is
correct, a thing many breeders ignore because of the practice of cropping. It is a characteristic more attention needs to be paid too in the future as one day these bans may also be implemented in Italy or America. Prior to the start of the judging I was told that 96 Corso’s were entered, this result made
me very happy, it was an honor to judge such a turn out. Out of shear hospitality my Counterpart in the Adult class Ricardo offered to allow me to judge the males, which is considered the more prestigious assignment. I humbly accepted his gracious offer. As the show got underway the first class I would judge
would be the juvenile males (12 to 15 months) There where four subjects in this class- all very different from one another. The first place dog had a very volumous head for his age, good type but his rear was slightly out and was not a very clean mover. The second place dog was very sound structurally, and
presented a very nice profile, however his head and eyes where round and the placement of his eyes where in a frontal position. The third place dog also presented a nice profile, typical if not volumous head, he was a little slight of built and needed more bone. Perhaps this dog had the most potential of the
dogs in the class but right now he was not enough dog. The next class I would judge would be open male. There were ten dogs entered in this class (just like in the previous class all much different from each other) I decided to avoid any problems with so much testosterone in the same ring, so I divided the
class in half. After evaluating the first group I brought in the second five dogs, from the entire class I rated five dogs “very good” and five “good” I would make my selection based on the five “very good” dogs. My first place dog was a dog I had seen as a puppy during my last trip. His
structure, rear angulation and shoulder angulation were all excellent. He had a very well developed thorax, appropriate width of chest, neck to head ratio correct, musculature sufficient, his movement was excellent, very clean with good reach and powerful drive. His head was typical but it lacked volume, he
had an undershot bite that was on the verge of being excessive. He also needed more bone and size. The second place dog was a very robust subject, powerfully built with a good head. His structure was very good but he had a slight dip in his top line and was a little hocked in the rear. His movement was
excellent but not as clean as the winners. He was a valid subject but did not have enough to overcome the winners overall balance. The third place dog was a nice dog but too much white. From what I have been told there were a number of people who questioned my selection in this class. That is unfortunate, but
this is the order in which I liked this particular class. The winner for me was the most complete specimen. Had there been a dog with an important head with movement and structure to match then that would have been my winner, but it seems such a dog was not present that day. The next class was “Champion
male” were three dogs were presented to me. A furmentino, a black and a slate gray. My first place winner was an extraordinary furmentino. He was quite a physical specimen, he had excellent bone, superior muscular development, a beautifully typical head, his structure was flawless-great rear angulation,
great shoulder lay back, a beautiful front end, nice tight feet, his top line was flawless, the dogs movement was sure, clean strong, powerful drive and good reach. Many people make the mistake of defining type only in the head, but it is in the movement and structure as well, to quote DR Morsiani “for a
correct selection, we should always keep in mind that, as much as the head, construction and movement are special in every breed and represent breed type” and this dog had breed type in every cell of his body. He was however not without fault, in my opinion he had too much loose skin around the neck, he
however did receive the first excellent rating of the day. The second place dog was another robust strongly built impressive dog. He had a shiny jet-black coat. He possessed outstanding type and structure (he probably could use a bit of conditioning) He also had powerful movement but less clean. Because it
was a close decision I wanted these dogs to prove there merit so I moved them quite a bit, it was here that the winner emerged as the black dog seemed to have a problem with his left front leg. The third place dog was a gray male who seemed to be out of place with these other imposing specimens. I later
learned that he was still a young dog, so he fell on the double edged sword of being a champion, but not being as mature as the other dogs in the champion class. In fairness to this dog he had a typical head and good structure, but this was not to be his day. Prior to rendering my decision, I decided to give
those in attendance a summery of how I arrived at my selections. I believed the Italian passionates did not understand the importance that American judges place on movement, structure and balance. I explained that in my opinion type, structure, movement, balance are all of equal value. After all is your arm
more important that your leg? Is your sense of humor more important than your mobility? So to me all of these factors carry the same amount of weight. I told all in attendance that I would gladly own either (the black and furmentino) of these two dogs and gave the class to the furmentino. Up next was the
veteran’s class, in which I was happy to see we had an entree. And what a valid entree he was. He was an 81/2-year-old black beauty. He had a typical head, excellent structure and sound movement for a dog his age, especially considering his size. He did however seem to have some kind of anomaly in or on his
left upper canine. I was trilled to give him an excellent rating. Ricardo joined my in deciding who would be the best male between the open class, champion and veteran class winners. The fawn male from the open class was a nice dog but was lacking in comparison to the champion and veteran class winners. So
the decision would be made between these to fine and valid specimens. My selection was the furmentino, to me you could take his picture and put it in the dictionary under “Cane Corso” but as I said this would be a joint decision. Ricardo wanted to award the class to the black dog to kind of pay homage to
him for his many years of contributions to the breed. Certainly if the furmentino dog had been a lesser dog I might have been inclined to go along with him and select the old warrior. I could not in good conscience ignore what I felt was a special dog. Ricardo agreed and told me the furmentino was a beautiful
and deserving winner. The best female was a nice little bitch with a very pleasing head and good structure and movement. I would have liked to see darker eyes but she was a very representative subject. To say she was overmatched in comparison to the best male would be an understatement. We selected the
furmentino champion class winner as the Best of Breed dog.