Difference in stacks - Page 2

No colored chalk or a cattle dryer, JC? Ya gotta have a cattle dryer if you want a super-poofy GSD. 

I used to show dogs in AKC shows (not GSD's). Back in the day we started with a clean dog, spritzed it with water a few hours before judging time. Used some powdered chalk or cornstarch on the white parts and put the dog into the crate to dry. A quick brushing to remove the chalk and tidy the coat and we were good to go.

Now my friends in that breed have these enormous cattle dryers that they drag to shows. No electric hookups? No problem ...they also have a gennie in the trunk. Ever see one of those dryers in operation? I wonder how they keep the dogs on the table without nailing them down. It's like putting them inside a 50 MPH windtunnel. A longcoated GSD would like it was groomed using an Afrosheen Blow Out Kit.

I have to confess I do love to see well groomed dogs in the ring and cannot stand long toenails or untidy feet. As obsessive as most of us may be, we can't begin to compare to the rough collie handlers. You'd have to see it to believe it. The use  steamer trunks for tack boxes.

Gotta love dog people..............

Can proudly say I've never coloured a dog for the show. Sure I put Sun-In on my rottie to give her a red stripe from tip to tail for purely cosmetic reasons (success!), and I tried recently to darken my terrier's black spots with Black-on-Black to make him look sharper (fail!).

Funny you should mention rough collies though. At the risk of getting off topic, that's what my mentor bred, rasied, and showed. It's also what I learned about grooming on. Never heard about the corn-starch. It was either chalk or talc. But after collies, even the worst bur-filled longcoat GSD tanlges are an easy project

The way you stack a dog, the height and angle of camera plus the ground topography affect how below dog elements look:
Proportions
Chest depth
Topline
Under line,
Rear angulation
Front angulation
Croup lay
Croup length
Also the conditioning and excercise play a role in how good a dog looks in a stack, in an old thread I was given directions how to best take pics of a stack but can't find that post. Here are some examples.


 

Afternoon Blitzen,just logged on n now to your questions.No,its not allowed by our kennel club show rules to wear items that bear a kennel name or dogs name in the ring,tho.some owners do wear shell suits etc.with their kennel name on outside of the ring.One is not permitted to engage in conversation with the judge except to state age/sex of animal.Ppl.are supposed to remain in the ring while their class is in progress but this is very rarely adhered too,especially at breed club shows.Judges here in the uk too shouldnt have access to the catalogue but these days most know the dogs/bitches anyway.The german side of the breed in the uk have now started having regional,non kc licensed  shows run on the german system culumating in our British Sieger Show.Carole S.

O.k those post bring up a whole skew of questions. I probably should have mentioned that about me, the answer to one always brings up another in my brain.  1. Ibrahim those are very pretty gsds are they yours? You seem to have a lot of the technical knowledge yet you are always saying you are new, are there books that you have read that were really informative? Now the show questions. I was shocked to find out recently people dyed their dogs, now I see talk corn starch chalk, what do those do? Do they just whiten up the white parts? How do you sparkle up a dog? is it just the grooming, etc? I learned to groom bc when I was 8 my first dog was an American Eskimo, a guy down the street bred them and one got loose one day and I brought it home from then on he couldn't get rid of me.  I would show up at feeding time to help out, he taught me to groom them because I wanted to help, anything to play with the dogs.  After about 6mo of me cleaning kennels with him etc he talked to my parents and let me have the first pick out of a litter for all the help, that's what I learned to groom on. He used to show his but being a single guy and me an 8 yr old girl it was never apropriate for me to go.  I have always been mesmerized by the conformation shows how they get the dogs to look so majestic.  I just always had wl it was hard enough over the yrs in my rural area to find a mentor w the wl , but now with the sl guys there isn't anyone around here.  It is a VERY interesting side of the gsd, so much new stuff to learn, seems like a lot of work but just as much fun as the wl guys, I dnt remember the last time I went looking at books on the wl guys (prob a cpl months).  I didn't think I would be so intrigued with the sl side. ok sorry to derail my own post. Where do you guys find things like gloss spray? I would think do most people that show have a mentor before they start or do they show up at their first show not knowing what the talc is for? There is A LOT to know. 

Perhaps a grooming thread should be made so this one remains stacking information. If others want  fashion wear at the show thread as well.

     Ty for the stack photos, it helps to see as many placed differently as possible to see how different they can look depending on how they are set up.

Donnerstorm,

I am relatively new compared to some who had GSDs for more than 20 years, therefore I feel shy to say I am otherwise especially that some of the members on the PDB were and are still my teachers, as a matter of fact I read few books, but to tell the truth most of the theoretical knowledge I got from here, if you check older threads you will find many started by me and members answered my questions, provided me direct info/explanation and guided me to articles to read, they would post diagrams and teach me angulations etc, since English is not my first language some answers were re-explained several times for me, the sure good thing I started with was no shame to say "I did not understand" and "please re-explain", lol. The other thing I did, sometimes was good and sometimes not, whenever I got a piece of info I would check it practically on my dogs, I had good results in regards to anatomy, gait, obedience, feeding etc but bad results with training my dogs bite work, I think I did so many mistakes that no trainer can now rectify them on some dogs. Whenever there was some technique or correction mentioned on a thread I would try it on a dog, but maybe that was not right.
And yest all dogs pictures I posted are either mine, were mine or one of my friends'.
Here is one old thread, enjoy it and have a laughing cheeck at me.

I couldn't find that specific thread, I will ask the administration about it.

I got it here it is:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/bulletins.read?mnr=453174&pagen=4#453684

Ibrahim

Donnerstorm, i learned from scratch.Bought Cassie in 1986 ndecided to have a go at showing the following year after spotting the 2 wkly.dog papers we have here in the UK.I attended a local open show when Cassie was about 8mths.Knew absolutely zilsh about showing,was literally pushed into the ring by a fellow exhibitor(after she,d enquired as to whether i was entered in puppy)who said...We,ve all had to learn how to do it.I now,as a seasoned exhibitor,try to help ppl.who are new in all aspects of showing.There are stalls at all championships shows in the uk selling grooming stuff,food,leads n collars ,health supplements ,bedding,cages.Carole S.

The SV magazine has an excellent article on stacking dogs this month, excellent photos for comparisons, too bad I cannot read German....

This thread needs pictures from the experts (ie. not me).


Natural stack

Starting to hand stack

Hand stack (no hip pressure)

Hand stacked (hip pressure)

I noticed with Addy, and I guess any dog, that getting their front legs straight underneath them gave them a steeper slope to the top line.  Got a critique of his position in the last photo?