SBTCA JEC

Ringside Mentoring Guidelines and Ethics Exam
We are relying on the considerable knowledge that you already have. Just express it to someone who is eager to learn. It is your responsibility to make sure that future judges of our breed know what they're doing when they walk in the ring.
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1. When expressing your knowledge to someone whom you are mentoring, based upon our guidelines and your own knowledge, how would you best convey the essence of the Stafford if you only have three minutes to do so?
2. What does it mean to “reward the virtues” in Staffordshire Bull Terriers?
3. When providing your ringside opinion on how you would place dogs or when discussing the order of placement with the aspiring judge, how would you explain how a breeder prioritizes virtues and faults without discussing breeding issues or history of a particular dog or exhibitor. In other words, how would you do so while avoiding discussing health issues, breeder personality issues, or anything other than if you were a judge seeing these dogs for the first time that day?
4. The AKC encourages judges to refrain from fault judging. The same holds true when mentoring aspiring judges. Please do not focus on pointing out the faults of each dog you are observing. Talk about how you would evaluate a dog against the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Breed Standard. Discuss below how you would point out the nuances of Breed type while highlighting the strengths of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier in each class you observe.
5. SBTCA JEC recommends conducting ringside mentoring as if you are a judge seeing the dogs for the first time. Without fault judging, discuss below how you might explain what you would think of the dogs in a ring and explain how you would place them, and for what reasons you have made your placements.
6. Using our mentoring handouts as a guide, discuss how you would explain the importance of MODERATION and BALANCE, and how to find it, to an aspiring judge. Explain why it is important to our Breed Standard and why this is a part of BREED TYPE.
7. List the four most important virtues of the Stafford using our mentoring handouts as a guide. Discuss how you would explain the importance of these to an aspiring judge.
8. In order to help an aspiring judge more clearly understand correct movement in a Stafford, describe below what you would tell them to look for in their ring and how you would prioritize movement in accordance to the Standard.
9. List all of the FAULTS and SERIOUS FAULTS in our written Breed Standard.
10. How would you help an aspiring judge understand correct TEMPERAMENT of the Stafford IN THE RING and how to prioritize it according to the Breed Standard.
11. During a mentoring session, how would you handle a situation where your aspiring judge just was not ‘getting it’ or fault judging only?
12. At the end of a mentoring session, how do you handle keeping track of this session?
13. How do you feel you could contribute to, improve upon or offer your ideas best to assist the SBTCA JEC in becoming the best outlet for information about this breed to judges?
We acknowledge, respect and appreciate all that you bring to the table, however, mentoring is not the place for opinions. Use your knowledge and teach from a place that doesn’t come from opinion or current ‘group think’ discussions from the internet, but rather from the materials the SBTCA JEC has approved along with all of your own experiences.

In other words, at home and in your whelping box you may prefer Staffords to be a certain way. When mentoring or judging, we ask that you teach the Breed Standard and explain the approved club materials in ways which are helpful to understand the nuances of this breed. These materials are always being updated and improved as we learn more and as we become better teachers ourselves, but they remain true to the Standard. There is only one 'type' of Staffordshire Bull Terrier and that is the BALANCED 'type'.

Thank you for taking on this important, and sometimes difficult, project. We hope that mentoring becomes a great learning experience for both yourself and your mentees. We can all benefit by sharing knowledge and the breed benefits the most when we work hard to share our knowledge and information together.
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Ringside Mentoring Guidelines and Ethics Exam