2023 GSPCA Top 25 Gala Judging Format

Judges will gather at 8:15 PM with their clipboards and score sheets. Each Judge will be assigned one steward to hold their pen and clipboard, and assist the judge as required. Judges and stewards will be announced into the ring at the start of the competition and will proceed to their appointed judging station in the judging area.

Exhibitors and their dogs will enter as a group once at the start of the competition and then be judged as an individual. Each dog will enter and go around the ring to their chosen music then head to the middle for a free stack in the center of the ring to each side meaning a quarter turn then free stack 4x to each side of the ring.

Then each individual dog will move to the first judging station to be examined by each judge in the stack then each handler and dog will be asked to do a pattern consisting of one down and back at each station and then the judges will come together to the center of the ring to watch together the final go around and one final free stack in the center arena for our three Judges which will conclude the individual section for each dog.

At the completion of the individual judging, all of the scoresheets will be collected and given to the statisticians. After individual judging then the entire Top 25 group will be brought back into the arena for an individual go around with a reading of the narrative and then a final group go around and stacking which will conclude with the awarding of the participation rosettes by the Judges. The second runner up will be announced and enter the ring for ribbon presentation followed by the first runner up and then the Winner will follow.

Judges will rate dogs in each category (Balance and Proportion, Front Assembly, Rear Assembly, Outline, Moving, Head) based on a one to ten point scale. A ten equates with meeting the highest interpretation of the breed standard. A one would indicate that this does not meet the breed standard as you interpret it.

Judges are asked to keep in mind that these are the Top 25 dogs in the country and that scores will be available for the owner of each dog at the banquet and the top three combined scores will be posted on the website

Upon completion of the individual examination, Judges will sign and date their score sheets which will then be collected by the statistician. Scores from one to ten in each category will be multiplied by the evaluation factor assigned to it, tabulated and totaled for each entry.

After final tabulation the judges will announce the winners and ribbons presented. The results of the competition will be announced at the GSPCA banquet with trophy’s awarded at that time. Following the announcement, the winner, 1st and 2nd runner-ups total score will be publicly posted on the GSPCA Top 25 website. Each entrants individual score sheets will be available to the owner only, if they so desire from the Top 25 chair on the night of the banquet only.

In the event of identical total scores, the top three entries will be brought back into the arena and rescored by our three judges. The rejudging will include at judges discretion both the hands on and/or movement segment with an added score for showmanship based on the same scale one to ten as outlined above.