Graduate nurse in the past, one keeping judge’s dog (7)
I believe the answer is:
basenji
'dog' is the definition.
(basenji is a kind of dog)
'graduate nurse in the past one keeping judge's' is the wordplay.
'graduate' becomes 'ba'.
'nurse in the past' becomes 'sen' (historic abbreviation for state enrolled nurse).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'keeping' is an insertion indicator.
'judge' becomes 'j'.
'sen'+'i'='seni'
'seni' going around 'j' is 'senji'.
'ba'+'senji'='BASENJI'
(Other definitions for basenji that I've seen before include "Barkless dog" , "Smallish hunting dog" , "Breed of African hunting dog that rarely barks" , "Small hunting dog" , "Dog unable to bark" .)