cheating in the stack - Page 1

some of these issues have turned into off topic fights on various threads, i thought it would be instructive to discuss how a stack position can really influence perception of a dog's conformation. i get the expereinced folks will not be fooled so much but the rest of us....although on critique threads i have also seen the best change their perception on same dog in a different stack.

can a stack really enhance or hide faults, what are some of the tricks?

note the czech crowd seem to have very stretched stacks they think is cool, others scenes do it different.

anyone want to add other tricks like trimming the top-lines in photo-shop and adding colour.  i have also heard diets will change the pigment as well in regards to red pigment.

uneven ground, more roach/less roach, more angulation/less angulation.....hands on forcing a dog into a postion it would not normally stand in etc.

my local rural club trains all breed show dogs at least twice a week in stacking, no joke.

the newbs think the images they see are natural, i know some of these images involve several handlers and possibly hundreds of photos, lens combinations, filters....to represent the dog in a certain way.

this is not  a bashing thread, it is meant to be instructive to newbs.

vk, good question. Showing dogs in conformation is a very expensive and time consuming  "hobby" so good handlers will always try to present their dogs in a way that offers them the best chance of winning. That includes how the dog is stacked - to show it's best points and place less emphasis on its faults. It all depends on the venue in which one is showing a GSD.

If in the AKC ring, the last thing the handler wants to do is to show the judge a carp back in the stack as is popular in the SV ring. If showing in the SV ring, the last thing a handler wants the judge to see  is a dog with a lot of slope to it's backline as is popluar in the AKC ring. How the dog looks stacked doesn't really matter much to judges, they can see what's going on. For example if they are looking at an ASL with a lovely backline but that dog is stretched so far behind that his rear hock is not at a right angle to the ground and he is standing flat on his hock of the inner most leg, they know that dog has a more level topline than it appears to have. Can't fool a good judge by the way a dog is stacked. Most are more concerned about the way a GSD moves, side gate is emphased in the AKC and the SV ring. Coming and going not so much. Handlers will also do some questionable things like thinning the undercoat on the shoulders to make the backline look more flat or trimming belly coat to show the true length of the dog's legs. There are many other things that handlers do to attempt to show the dog at it's best.

Having shown dogs in AKC conformation for a very long time, I like to think that showing dogs to their best advantage is really not cheating, it's making the most of the few minutes one has to convince the judge that he or she has the best dog in the ring that day. Show an untrained, ungroomed dog to most judges and there is little chance of that happening.

There have been other threads here that have shown the way the stack effects the way the dog looks. Maybe someone can post the links here. Sometimes they can look like different dogs. Photos can lie, a good breeder never judges the merit of a dog's conformation based only on photos. When I saw the official photo of one of my dogs that was taken at the German Sieger, I asked who the dog was. On the photos she had a slight carp back, in person she didn't . Never did figure out how the German handlers do that.

A stack is so limited of a view of a dog, to evaluate structure a dog must be seen in action. gaiting is one form of action. What a privilege to see our great breed work.