news - 23/05/2003
Hans Lehtinen - judge for 50 years - Finland
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by Jetta Tschokkinen
The world known international allrounder judge, Mr. Hans Lehtinen, celebrated his 50th anniversary as a judge at the Helsinki Aptus Show in the 24th of May.
Mr. Lehtinen's choice for the BIS at the Aptus Show was the Giant Schnauzer, Stablemaster's Northern Hope.
Known worldwide by his nickname Hasse , Mr. Lehtinen says straight what he thinks.
- The critique must be more positive than negative, he says. -However, you must not go too far. On the other hand, if the dog is a fantastic specimen of his breed I can tell his owner that he might be slightly better here or there but I never dictate secondary things.
-You must maintain certain balance: if you give an excellent and your critique includes a lot of faults, the whole thing is wrong. It is far too easy to just list the faults but is is more difficult to see the overall picture and say: this is a damn good dog!
There are very different people in judges too, and everyone should find the judging system best suitable for him or her.
-One person may be negative as a human, the other one is very soft-spoken, and why not give up to your feelings if you find a beautiful dog? I have just that much Slavic blood that I cannot be that solemn.
According to Mr. Lehtinen, a judge just has to trust his own eyes. -The first thing about judging dogs is to make it clear to yourself what you are looking for. The ideal of the breed must be chrystal clear.
The early days
Mr. Lehtinen's judging career started from The Dachshund Club's juding test in the 16th of April, 1953. Hasse had not attended the preliminary course before the test - he just went to the test, judged the dogs, wrote the critiques and passed. After the succesfull test he of course had to study all the things that the other pupils had read.
-The professors were old gentlemen, and of course I was scared, Hasse says. He was sixteen at the time.
Those days Finland had two central kennel organizations. They asked the FCI what to do with young Hasse, and the FCI answered that judges should be full grown. So after that Hasse had to work as judging aspirant until he reached 18 years of age. He used the time by studying more breeds.
-We did not have as many breeds as we do now, Hasse says. -The dog sport was a hobby to everyone, and it wasn't as commercial as it is now. Everyone knew each other, everybody was your friend. We had champagne after the entries went over 300 for the first time.
The handlers were mostly madames with fancy hats. -They did not handle their dogs that much.
-Sweden was well ahead of us. They had breeder handlers who came over here and won. The society ladies were extremely mad.
The foreign experts
-If some judge from Timbuktu comes over here, everyone enters their dog!
There are a lot of judges who come from relatively young kennel countries. They don't even register a certain breed, so what makes them so great an expert in our country? This is a thing Mr. Lehtinen cannot understand.
- What I mean is that I have been somewhere sometimes. Some countries have maybe 10 Cavaliers, and here that judge draws an entry of one hundred. Let me give you an example: a judge gave an excellent to 98 of the 100 dogs entered to his ring. If breeders believe all our dogs are that good they are just lying to themselves. You should be honest and say to yourself that those dogs are no good even though they won the ribbon.
Hasse says that it in a country with a lot of American stock some breeds look very different from elsewhere. It may be a big surprise to judge our dogs in Finland.
-I am sure they do well in Poodles and Dobermanns, but they may encounter certain difficulties in other breeds.
Be honest!
Mr Lehtinen is a breeder himself, his own breeds being Smooth Dachshund, Standard Schnauzer and Norwich Terrier. He says that what he needs is to see more honesty between breeders.
-I believe it is good that you keep track about hereditary diseases, but it seems like in many breeds they have been perhaps too radical and removed many otherwise valuable dogs from breeding. Some breeders even boast about the other breeders having all those diseases while they are clear. That's rubbish. The dogs are all the same!
Mr Lehtinen remembers that the past-time breeders were more open and shared all the information. This seems to have vanished.
-I find it silly that everyone is importing their own stud dogs. Why can't they use the other breeder}s dog? There should be more cooperation.
A full-booked man
-I don't want to brag about it, but next week I will be there and the following week there.
Mr Lehtinen has a calendar that covers 10 years. He doesn't have very many blank weekends in his book. He is booked for Montgomery in the U.S., the European Winner Show, The Bundessieger Show. Twice he has been chosen the Judge of The Year in Finland, but he is also popular elsewhere. He is the only Finn who has judged group finals at Crufts. He has also been invited as a member of the Kennel Club. After this year he has been to Sydney Royal for 8 times.
Many times Hasse has been the pathfinder to foreign countries and opened door for other Finnish judges. He has been able to show that even little Finland can educate fine judges. He has judged in 44 countries and during his fifty years in dog sport he has gained a lot of friends all over the world. There are not very many hobbies besides sports and politics that can take one abroad as much, as he puts it.
-It has not always been fun and easy, Hasse says. -But I feel privileged to have been able to lead this kind of life. It has been a very, very rich life. And we have had so much fun, indeed.
The Aptus Show finals
The Aptus Show, held in Helsinki the weekend before the World Winner Show in Dortmund, honored Hasse by choosing him as the Best in Show judge. The show committee also arranged a party for Hasse in Saturday night with many international guests.
After careful examination Mr. Lehtinen's final decision for the BIS was the black Giant Schnauzer Stablemaster's Northern Hope, owned by Jan Fabergé and Anna Popova. The runner-up was the Samoyed Ikiliikkujan Milady Melanie, owners Elise and Rainer Lehtinen.
The third was the Gordon Setter Kingpoint Diplomat, owned by Pirjo & Petri Huovila and the fourth was the Coton de Tuléar Rifelin Julius Caesar, owned by Pia and Riitta Stylman.
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