This will contain photos and examples for show exhibitors.
It will cover free standing and ‘stacking’ a phrase that still grates on me after all these years, we should be doing no more than offering feather light touches to encourage our dogs to stand at attention.
This is Caitlin Patchett doing a very, very good job, three things could be improved, on.
What are they?
Well perhaps have a look at the following photos and then I’ll ‘pick holes’ in this photo!
MASTER CLASS – STACKING – LESSON 1
need that hind leg back a bit further, and is she toe-ing in in front, looks like it to me, but bright and fairly relaxed — with time you’ll get her to fly and wag her tail [horizontally, in line with the topline 😉 ] Anyway you’ve got the forehand angulation showing up nicely, good topline, does fall off over the croup as that leg is too far forward
she’s shifted the front leg (bet you noticed anyway), they are prone to do that if we bait ‘too’ high, you are aiming to have the bridge of the nose horizontal to ground, again, she’s tense, you can see that in the hindquarters, and also she can stand 4 square, more distance between the hind feet
really going places here, very nice to the end of the ribs, now the hind legs are too far back, so she’s roached and this ‘affects’ the tail set. With the tail, try handling it so the feather hangs down (free), handle from the non-show side and try to keep the fingers invisible to the judge – same applies for handling the head, it is very easy to have the fingers come right across to the left side, you haven’t here of course
is much “kinder” to the head, watch that right foreleg creeping forward, again ‘tense’ in the rear, she hasn’t got a mild muscle strain here has she? No, well is just looks a bit tense overall, this is a situation where the Tellington TTouch could be really useful
Returning to Caitlin’s excellent presentation above, my three ‘worries’ are
- front feet slightly (very slightly!) too far forward
- hing feet slightly too far back
- tail is flown above the topline in contravention of the breed standard