Welcome to the Hamsters In Focus "You Be The Judge" feature. The goal of this excercise is for everyone to learn and improve their understanding of the standards as well as further their skills at evaluating their own animals. This is also an excellent way to gain insight into the judging process.
While this is one way to learn, please keep in mind that we are limited by what we can see in the pictures of each animal. Evaluating via photos prevents a true evaluation of the animals themselves. So in this excercise we are not judging animals, we are instead judging their photos. A photo being placed high in the class does not necessarily suggest that the particular animal would place as high if judged at an actual show. You will notice there are several hamsters who were placed in the wrong class. We left these in, since it is a very common thing to have happen.
Below are photos of various hamsters divided into classes much as they might be at a show. To the left of each hamster is its placement in the class and comments on it from Linda Price, CHA judge.
Many thanks to all the members of Hamsters In Focus who sent pictures of their hamsters for us to use, as well as to those who participated in this Judging excercise.
Females
Short haired males - 5 entered
A
B
C
D
Long Haired males - 2 entered
E
Rex males - 4 entered
H
I
J
K
Patterned males - 3 entered
L
M
N
Males
Short haired females - 2 entered
O
P
Long haired females - 5 entered
Q
R
S
T
U
Patterned females - 3 entered
V
W
X
Best Males
Best Females
Best Overall Goldens
Wrong Class
Umbrous golden.
How can you tell that he is umbrous? If you look behind his cheekflash in the side view, you can see that the crescent is not ivory. The umbrous gene has darkened the color. You can also see that his belly should be ivory but is darker and sooty due to the umbrous gene. Those are both key indicators that he is umbrous.
Why does it matter that he is umbrous? Any hamster (with the exception of sable) which is umbrous is entered in the Unstandardized class instead of the Standardized class. The unstandardized class is for those hamsters whose ideal color has not been defined. The ideal color for an umbrous golden has not been defined, so we would actually ignore his color and markings in the unstandardized class and only judge him on his other elements in the standards.
Let's mention a few things about him here, though, and he can be re-entered when we do unstandardized at a later date. Even though he is umbrous, you can see that his markings are pale and rather faint. The cheekflash is barely noticeable. His body is reasonably good (could use a bit more bulk), but his head is on the long side.
This "male" is actually a tort female. You can see the patchiness in her color and ticking. That's due to the yellow gene. We'll move her to that class and judge her there. It's also worth noting the difference in her color in the photos. The upper left photo gives a very different color than the other two photos. This highlights the difficulties with judging over the internet and demonstrates why we are really judging photos instead of animals. Judging in person would certainly give different results for some animals.
B
Not Placed
This little fellow is quite young. He may not even be old enough to come to a show. Five weeks is youngest that we allow animals to be entered or to be sold, and I think that's fairly consistent with other clubs.
One of the problems with evaluating them at this age is that their color, type, and size are not generally mature yet. He would have a very hard time contending in any class with adults, so he would really only have a chance if there were a pup class. It's hard to judge in the photos, but it appears his markings (cheekflashes and ticking) are nice.
Wrong Class
This male's strength would be his markings. You can readily see the black cheekflashes, and he has even ticking across his body. He also has a nice body. His weakness would be the lack of brightness and redness in his color. The standard describes the ideal color as "rich dark mahogany red." A secondary weakness would be the need for some additional bulk/breadth in his head.
1
This male is a satin and some clubs put satins in their own class. The satin gene does affect the coat color, and this has to be taken into account when comparing him to the standard.
This male's strength would be his nice body followed by his good color and markings. His weakness would be a lack of bulk/breadth in his head as well as too much length in the head.
2
G
F
Young and not yet fully mature in color, size, or type. The black around his eyes indicates that he carries black. His color is dull (probably at least in part due to carrying black) while his markings are strong.
2
This male has no real weaknesses but no exceptional strengths either. He has reasonably good color, bright with dark markings. He also has good type. (He has a major weakness in lack of length in his coat which will be covered under the fur score.)
1
His body is nice but head is weak. He is also lacking depth in color and markings. Both are noticeably diluted. (The rex affect in his coat also appears weak.)
3
Nice body but again weak on the head (too much length with too little breadth). Color is generally good with markings only a bit diluted. He is the strongest in the class on color and markings. (Note that this is another example in which the different photos show the color differently. It appears that the upper right photo was taken with a flash which has diluted the color and markings. The photo right below it shows more ticking and better markings. This animal might be judged differently in person if these assumptions are not correct.)
1
(wins on strength of color and markings)
Good strength of color and markings but probably carries black which causes some dullness in the coat. Body seems to be good in type although he appears a bit small in size. Head is wide particularly at the cheeks, but he lacks the
overall width and bluntness you'd ideally see. (He has a major weakness in lack of length in his coat which will be covered under the fur score.) Good strength of color and markings but probably carries black which causes some dullness in the coat. Body seems to be good in type although he appears a bit small in size. Head is wide particularly at the cheeks, but he lacks the
overall width and bluntness you'd ideally see. (He has a major weakness in lack of length in his coat which will be covered under the fur score.)
2
Very pale in color and markings. Body looks okay, but the head is too long and lacks breadth. This is the only hamster on which we can see the chestband, and it looks fairly good. The standard says that the chestband should only be broken by a fine hair line and should be a rich mahogany brown color in goldens. It's hard to see the color of his chestband in his underneath shot, but you get a fairly good look at the thin line. I can't tell from the photo if it gets narrower and then wider or not, but ideally it would be a straight line with thin width.
4
Nice dark and rich color but very poor band which will affect his markings score. Ticking could be a bit stronger but not bad. Type is generally good.
1
(wins on type and color despite poor markings)
Color is pale, and the satin gene will usually brighten and enhance the color. His "spots" are more patches than actual spots of color. Although I personally disagree with this portion of the standard, the dominant spot banded standard does state that "Spots of colour shall be distributed along the dorsal line from the neck to the rump" He is lacking those spots which will affect his markings score. Type is weak. He is lacking the breadth in both his body and head. Both are too enlongated. He also appears
to be on the small side. This hamster would be pet quality and not breeding quality.
2
Not Placed
This hamster is not really judgeable from the photo alone. You can't see his pattern adequately to be sure which pattern he exhibits. You can see that his head is rather delicate, and there is a good chance his body is also on the delicate side. He does have the best hair length of all of the males entered. Adding some density could make for a nice coat.
2
The first and second place males from each class are brought back to the table and judged for best and reserve male
E
D
F
G
J
I
M
L
I
Best Male
wins on strength of color and markings as well as slightly better head than E
E
Reserve
Male
This is a nice female. Her color is nice and dark as well as bright. She also has even ticking. She is a bit weak in her type -- lacks the breadth/chunkiness.
1
This female's golden color is pale. She lacks the richness of color you'd want to see in a good golden. Her type is also too elongated lacking the chunkiness you want to see in a top female.
2
The female appears to be umbrous and would be re-classified to the
unstandardized class if indeed an umbrous. Her color is pale and dull. Can't really make any comments on type given the photo.
This female is a Rust and would be re-classified into the appropriate class.
She can't be placed in this class. As an aside, type is not too bad, but she
could be chunkier and fuller in her body breadth.
This female has medium color for a golden. It could be darker and brighter to be a good, dark golden to the standard, but it's reasonably good. Type also look reasonably good. Nice female.
2
This female has good dark markings and ticking. She lacks some redness to her coat color. Also, you'd have to feel her to be sure, but it appears she might be slightly fat making her head look small in comparison to her body and making her nose look too prominent. This is one where I'd really like to touch and feel before judging type.
She looks like she has a good thick coat (may be a rex), but she's really
lacking the redness in her color to be a top golden. As for type, she has a
narrow head and generally lacks the chunkiness you'd like to see in a top
female.
3
Very nice type. Her color is pale but bright. Her tort pattern is not particularly even or well distributed.
1
This female is too young to be competitive in this class and would generally be in a pup class. She's very pale and lacks her depth in color. She has not yet matured in color or type. She appears to have nice, even tort markings.
This female's color is pale which makes her pattern hard to see and distinguish. Pattern looks fairly even, but this is one I'd like to see and evaluate in person to confirm. Her body type is reasonably good, but her head could be shorter and chunkier -- is a bit long and narrow.
2
This female is young. She's quite pale and dull and lacks depth of color which may come (at least to some degree) with age and maturity. Head type is fairly nice. (Note with this female that the photos show different colors. That's one of the challenges of judging from photos.)
