Mary Allen
Many small animal shows for the 2020/21 season have been canceled. In order to be able to offer breeders an opportunity to evaluate their animals, associations and clubs have organized table evaluations. Here, too, it is important to present the animals in a well-groomed manner.
The year 2020 will go down in history as a very special one. The reason is the corona pandemic. The virus, which has been keeping the whole world in suspense since the beginning of the year, taught us all to practice and appreciate solidarity and helpfulness more. Due to a lack of cultural and sporting events, many people became quiet. Rabbit breeders appreciate being able to spend time with their lively darlings during this time. They would have been only too happy to present their most beautiful animals at various exhibitions.
Many of them had great hopes of providing the champion of their breed at the Swiss Buck Show in Thun 2021 – which has now been postponed to February 18-20, 2022. But the anticipation remained. Nevertheless, the breeders now receive information about the quality of the conformation of their animals from various table evaluations and also from a few exhibitions.
On these occasions, every breeder aims for high scores with their animals. An ideal prerequisite for this is the serious preparation of the rabbits before they appear on the judging table. Anyone who only takes the animals out of the stable and brings them to the exhibition premises in the transport container is likely to experience many negative surprises. Deductions of points due to digs, uncut claws, or exceeding or falling below the ideal weight could, in any case, be avoided. Getting ready for the show is the end of a long process that began with the care of the animals after they were born. In any case, omissions cannot be made up for quickly.
Pay Attention to the Genitals
The rabbits have to get used to people, which is only possible if they spend a lot of time with them. If an animal has dirty legs, these cannot be cleaned just before delivery. It is therefore important to prepare the long-eared cats in good time for their evaluation performances.
Before the rabbits are placed in the transport box, various checks must be carried out. This is how the weight should be determined and the length of the ears measured. The auricles are to be checked and cleaned if necessary. It is important to check the ear tag. It must be neither fixed nor ingrown. At the same time, the assigned (box) number can be written in the left ear with a waterproof black felt-tip pen.
It is advisable to also pay attention to the edges of the ears and to check the soles for cleanliness and hair. When clipping the claws (five on the front legs and four on the hind legs), the tips are removed. It is advisable to check these again and, if necessary, trim them before submitting them for further evaluations.
The genital corners must also be checked. Foul-smelling deposits of glandular secretions can be easily removed with a damp cloth or cotton swab. The genitals also need to be checked. Rabbits with inflamed genitals or venereal disease will be excluded from judging. In the case of bucks, particular attention should be paid to sagging testicles and missing scrotums. Moist areas or even matting in the genital area, the flower, or the inside of the hind legs could indicate a cleft penis.
Unwanted Show-Reading
Checking the position of the teeth is often forgotten. It is also important to check the length and position of the flower. The coat needs to be checked for hair, loose skin, dewlap, bald spots, or parasites (mites). However, attention should also be directed to the color, the shine, the markings, the color of the eyes, the running position, the backline, and the pelvic bones. In addition, you have to look for pricks or even tufts. These white or other colored prickly hairs may be removed by the breeder. Proper preparation requires a certain amount of time. However, some checks can be carried out days before delivery, so that there is no stress for the animals or the breeder.
Any modification made to the animal that alters its appearance or is intended to deceive the experts is undesirable. This includes the cutting and plucking of the fur in the case of color or pattern defects, as well as dewlaps or their roots. If such machinations are noticed, the expert evaluates as if the correction had not been carried out. For him, the removed colored point is still there, which leads to a deduction of at least one point in position 8. At exhibitions, it is not the “hairdressing skills” of a breeder that are to be evaluated, but the true external appearance of each individual animal.