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SZIZLIN VIZSLAS
IV. STACK STATION: HEADS, NECKS, TOPLINES and TAILS ETC.
After the dog has been stacked with its front and rear squarely beneath
itself, the handler needs to be attentive to these additional aspects of
presentation.
Head: When the judge is walking to individually examine your dog, try
and present the headpiece. Be aware that there are judges that are very
attentive to the headpiece of their exhibits and who will walk up and down the
row of exhibits, looking directly into faces. Some judges really want
expression.
- Presentation of the head can include a variety of approaches…e. g., framing
the ears, gently holding under the muzzle or baiting in front to obtain
expression. It is not as pretty a sight to approach a dog whose handler is at
that particular moment squeezing the jowls or holding the dog in place by his
or her lips.
- Gather up any loose/hanging skin under the neck into the lead.
- Make sure the lips are free and loose and not caught on teeth.
- Make sure there are no goobers in the eyes or face.
- Train your dog to accept BITE EXAMINATION without backing away by using lots
of positive reinforcement (say "teeth", look, treat, over and over).
- When the judge takes your dog's mouth to examine the bite, say "teeth" and
hold your thumb and forefinger directly behind the back of the dog's head to
keep him or her steady.
- Alternatively, you may be asked to show your dog's bite (or you may just do
so if you have a dog who has mouth sensitivity for some reason). Tilt the
dog's head upward, and pull back the lips to show the teeth, and then rotate
the head from side to side so that the judge can see both sides.
- Try and keep the dog's expression keen and alert by using your bait to keep
his or her interest.
- Figure out any head faults you have (light eyes, insufficient stop) and
position the head (using bait, noises etc.) in a way most favorable to your
dog (for example, if your dog has extremely light eyes, don't encourage him to
look up into the sun at the judge; rather angle the head slightly down).
Neck: Make the flow of the dog's neck into shoulders look as smooth as
possible. An arch of the neck is also desirable.
- If your dog has a wrinkle over its shoulder at the base of the neck (fairly
common), try and push that wrinkle up under your leash and hold it.
- Pull UP on the leash to elongate the neck, and bait the head DOWN to show
the arch.
- Avoid bringing the head too far forward (chicken neck) or too far backward
(making the neck look like it is just plopped on the shoulders).
Toplines: Toplines should be LEVEL. They should not be roaching
(arching), dipping (caving) or sloping (downward). After you have your dog
stacked, look at the topline. It should be straight and level, with a slight
drop off to where the tail is placed on the body. Try different techniques to
make the topline level.
-If your dog has a roach in its topline, it sometimes helps to pick up the
entire rear, hold it for a second or two and then place the feet back on the
floor. This lift sometimes relaxes the topline and settles the roach. You may
need to pull back slightly as you reset the rear (some roaches are caused by
not having the rear feet back far enough).
- If your dog has a dip in its topline, you can gently push under the ribcage
to lift the topline and hold if necessary. Dips tend to show up in dogs with
longer backs.
- If you have a dog with a low tail set, or a dog with a sloping topline, you
can put your hand between the rear legs and pull back and upward without
lifting to help level off some of the problem.
- If your puppy is going through a higher in the rear phase, stretch the
puppy's rear further back to level things off.
Tail: The tail should be placed at the horizontal and straight, and
should be long enough to drop to the front of the knee.
- It is ideal if the dog holds its tail horizontal without assistance.
Sometimes you can feather a tail into position and the dog will hold it.
Otherwise, gently hold under the tail. Do not push your dog's tail into
the gay position.
- If your dog's tail is docked too long, you can mask some of the extra length
by cupping the end in your hand.
- If your dog's tail is docked too short, you can create an illusion of more
length by cupping the tip of the tail and the air behind that.
- If your dog's tail curves to the side, you should hold it straight.
Feet: Nails should be clipped short so that the feet look their best.
Pasterns should be upright and strong. Make sure that your dog is stacked with
it front underneath itself and it is standing up over its front feet to have
pasterns look their best.
For Males Only: Make sure when you train your males to have their bites
examined, you also train them to have their testicles examined. Avoid any kind
of sharp jewelry that could scratch or hurt you dog
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Copyright © 2004 Szizlin Vizslas, Reg. Page Last Updated Thursday, 14 August 2008 All Rights Reserved
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