Conformation

Just for fun I had Hubby take a couple of conformation shots of Gentry today. I thought I would discuss them. I'm going to use the book "Poodle Clipping and Grooming" by, Shirlee Kalstone as my refrence. I LOVE doing things like this!

The poodle should be nice and square. Squarely built means the poodle is the same length as it is tall.

Oh My Gosh! You do NOT know how long it took me to get this picture formatted to work here!! Geesh! It took me seconds to put the box on the photo, then about an half an hour to get it here... Whew!

Okay, in the above photo you can see how Gentry's chest and back of the butt fit into the box. That is good! The top line is a little long however and he is a bit sway backed. Also he has a low set tail. It should come directly out of the top of his back, it's a few inches below his back bone.

Now for the head shot. He is a little "jowly" which means that he has too much skin around his mouth. He has WONDERFUL ear leathers, they are long and full. The measurement from the end of his nose to the spot between his eyes should be the same as the measurement from the spot between his eyes to the back of his head. It looks pretty good in this photo.

His ears are set nice and close to the head, when viewed from the front...

His head is a little too broad as is his muzzle. (He looks manly to me!)

His neck is a little bit too long and it's a ewe neck, which means that it sits too far forward on his shoulders. The correct neck starts back more between the shoulder blades. He is a tiny bit butt high, but has a nice muscular hind end and a nice deep chest. (The chest should come down and be equal to the elbows.) And he has a nice tuck up, where his stomach goes up into his hind quarters.

Front View should be nice and straight, toes pointing forward, not in or out...
He has nice straight legs in the front and nice tight feet. His toes are a nice oval shape and his nails are nice and short. (Thanks to my nail grinder!)

The hind end is supposed to be nice and straight, legs parallel with eachother. I'm sorry this is a terrible shot. I didn't check before Hubby snapped and he didn't say anything. (He thinks I'm obsessive/compulsive about these things. WHATEVER!)

But in reality, he has nice straight hind legs and again, very NICE feet.

I think he could have a little more angulation in his hind legs, when viewed from the side. His hocks are a little straight, but nothing to worry about. He will stay nice and sound!
Actually once I put the line on the picture, his angulation looks pretty good! His hock is a good distance from the line and there is good bend in it. With the hair a little long, it makes his leg look straighter than it is. If I was a PROFESSIONAL groomer, I would be able to enhance that leg instead of making it look like a post! lol (and this picture didn't take me near as long to figure out as the first one did! I can LEARN!!)

Movement is very important. That is hard to show since I don't have any action shots of him except this one...
And it is hard to see his wonderful fluid trot. He has what we call a "Daisy Cutter" trot in the dressage world. Meaning that his toes would snap the heads off the daisy's as he skimmed the ground. Pretty picture!! Now I just have to get an actual picture of him trotting!

Hopefully you enjoyed our little Conformation Education ;)