Standing you dog – part I
You may have heard the terms stacked dogs and free stood dogs. Over the next couple of blogs I will explain each of these terms and how best to go about standing your dogs in either of these ways.
Stacked dogs
When you stack a dog you place the feet into position and then hold the head and the tail (if applicable to your breed). It’s important to consider many things when you stack your dog to make sure you present your dog to its best advantage.
Present your dog with outstretched arms and stand/crouch back from him. Keep your own posture too, in particular keep your back upright.
Do not lean over you dog. This will spoil the overall picture and may also affect the dog.
Always keep the dog straight from nose to tail to avoid ‘the banana dog’.
Many people find it easiest to start at the front and work back.
When stacking your dog, the order to go though could be;
- Position head and check for clean eyes and ear position.
- Now while holding the head in one hand position front legs as needed
- Stroke the dog as you move towards the back legs and place them in the required position for your breed and dog.
- Finally have a last check that nothing has moved and check that the dog is in a straight line, (Not impersonating a Banana), place the lead in the correct position
- If necessary hold the tail out and present with outstretched arms.
With practice a good handler and a trained dog will be able to get the stack and present in under 10 seconds and it can be useful to practise doing this.
If your dog moves a leg, calmly place it back into position giving another ‘stand’ command. If they move completely, move them off the spot and start the sequence again. Getting flustered will ultimately affect the dog further. Likewise, telling the dog off might confuse him. He might think you are telling him off for standing there. A quiet ‘No’, or ‘woops’ followed by a repeat of the sequence should suffice.
Some judges will ask you to freestand your dog on completion of the pattern work. With this in mind you should practice free-standing your traditionally stacked dog too.
