Judging the Landseer Newfoundland
In this country (Australia) currently there are 3 allowed colours, Black, brown and the white and black which is known as a Landseer after Sir Edwin Landseer, the artist, who painted many of the white and black newfoundlands in the 19th century.
There are NO ideal markings, there is a preferred patterning only.
Firstly the dog must be white base coat with black markings. For "preference " only a narrow white blaze on muzzle, black saddle, and a black rump with minimal ticking.
Very few landseer newfoundlands will fit in to this preference. Most breeders prefer a full black head as a blaze up the centre can make the head appear narrow, be it just an optical illusion.
The preference only comes in to effect when judging a class of landseers against each other. If you cannot split 2 of them any other way, ONLY then would and should you go back to markings.
Most specialty shows for the breed have a "Best marked Landseer " class.
There is an enormous variance in black markings on the white. You must firstly judge the dog on everything else in the standard: head, bone, size, substance, movement etc.
Landseers have a variety of 'ticking" (black hairs appearing in the white) through the coat. Litters of landseer puppies tend to have both ticked and unticked pups in them.Ticking doesn't become apparent until the pups are usually ready to go to new homes which makes it difficult to decide on a pup if you want an unticked coat, and most breeders do want a clean white and black coat if at all possible.
It simply looks more appealing in the show ring. And whilst we all aim for these clean coats, do not discount an otherwise good dog on ticking.
Below is Ch Newfcastle Ualwayshad the power (Gilly) with 2 pups from the same litter. The one on the left is unticked, the one on the right displays quite heavy ticking. Ticking in the coat tends to increase as the dog gets older.
Just to add to this in Europe there is a breed called the ECT Landseer (European Continental Type Landseer). They are NOT what we have in Australia currently. They are a totally separate breed with a different standard.
