How to show a Vlcak?

[Gypsy Wolf]

Hi all,
I would like to know how vlcaks are shown? I am familiar with AKC, UKC, German Seiger shows... but have never seen a vlcak show... are they hand-posed at all? Are they expected to stand four-square without assistance? Are they supposed to have one rear leg behind the other like a GSD?
We had our first conformation class today and though I have memorized the standard, it really doesn't specify how to show them (some standards actually say a breed is shown "natural" or without assistance).
Due to her angulation, it does not seem comfortable for her to position her rear legs so that the hock is at a right angle to the ground like most breeds are shown. She looks a little "A" framed that way and is unbalanced. Positioned with her right leg under her hip and her left hock extended to form a right angle (like a GSD) looks better and she is more comfortable with that.
Having her stop and position herself four-square, it looks "amateur" to me - but perhaps I am used to GSD and other breeds in the ring (I also show Belgian Malinois, Collies and Finnish Spitz).
As with ANY dog in the ring, the goal is to maximize her good points and minimize her bad ones. She is more GSD-looking than wolf, so she is more angulated than some vlcaks. Perhaps she should be shown a little more like a GSD if she looks more GSD? ANd a wolfier vlcak allowed to stand four-square on it's own as it would be less angulated?

[michaelundinaeichhorn]

Hello,

you will find here several pictures http://www.wolfdog.org/drupal/en/gallery/cat/2/2010/
Forget the Shepherds a wolfdog should not have an angulation like a shepherd. The presentations I have seen in Shepherds did force this angulation and therefor can´t work with a wolfdog. It should stand properly and straight, that normally is enough.

Ina

[Vaiva]

There is a group of nice articles, written by Margo. But they are in POlish (also translated by wolfin to Lithuanian, but the language still not more understandible ) Still there are nice schemes, pictures and with a help of google translate you could get some knowledge in this area
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/778.html
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/776.html
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/768.html

[massimo]

Originally Posted by Vaiva

There is a group of nice articles, written by Margo. But they are in POlish (also translated by wolfin to Lithuanian, but the language still not more understandible ) Still there are nice schemes, pictures and with a help of google translate you could get some knowledge in this area
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/778.html
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/776.html
http://www.wolfdog.org/pol/articles/768.html

Vaiva, I tried to google translate it and the result was not so bad, not perfect but understandable.

[saschia]

Having her stop and position herself four-square, it looks "amateur" to me

Well, wolfdog should look as natural as possible I think. The correct posture is a natural one. Of course, it is onot good to let your dog stand "at ease", but a good judge tells you to make a step or two if the dog is not standing naturally, and looks how the dog m\positions his legs.

I like Margo's articles on the showing, but there is one thing wrong and one which I don't agree with. The correct posture of the hind legs is with the hock joint being exactly under the "ischial tuberosity" - the end of pelvis. The hock are usually not in the right angle with the floor.

The thing I don't agree with is the use of showing leash to hold the dog's head up and the collar part being positioned on the top of the neck, just below the chin. In my opinion, the dogs look much better if the collar is slightly loose and falling to the bottom of the neck, so that the head is held naturally, like here and here.

[Priska182]

Originally Posted by saschia

The thing I don't agree with is the use of showing leash to hold the dog's head up and the collar part being positioned on the top of the neck, just below the chin. In my opinion, the dogs look much better if the collar is slightly loose and falling to the bottom of the neck, so that the head is held naturally, like here and here.

I really agree with you. They’re more beautiful without pressure of the collar, they look "natural"
But Margo has very good results in show... but, her dogs are really beautiful!

[z Peronówki]

Originally Posted by saschia

I like Margo's articles on the showing, but there is one thing wrong and one which I don't agree with. The correct posture of the hind legs is with the hock joint being exactly under the "ischial tuberosity" - the end of pelvis.

What you write is correct. But the photo is correct too....
I fully agree with you with one exception:

Originally Posted by saschia

The hock are usually not in the right angle with the floor.

IF the dog will have the right angulation than the hock joint will EXACTLY under the "ischium".
Usually it is not with the right angle because USUALLY the dogs have wrong angulation (in the most cases they are overangulated - with the angulation more or less similar to these of German Shepherd Dogs).


I wrote these articles a VERY long time ago when it was really hard to get any good photos. In this case the goal was to show the right angles when you show the dog and not the right angulation of the Wolfdog. It is very young female with overangulation typical for young dogs..
Now I plan to reedit all of them and not only post better photos but fix some parts which are not clear enough....

To see the angulation of the dog it must be standing in the show position which I showed - the legs MUST be vertical to the ground. Of course a judge will be able to judge the legs even if the dog is not standing in the right possition because you always can see if the angulation is OK or not.

Here you have two examples:

FIRST (the photo is not perfect because it is also almost a puppy but at the moment I have no time to look for better one - anyway it is visible what I mean :


Here you can see the right (show) position of the legs & the right (standard) angulation. As written in the standard: "An imaginary vertical line drawn from the point of the ischium, would run midway through the hock joint." )


SECOND:


Here you have also the case that the line comming from the ischum goes through the hock joint BUT the legs are not vertical to the ground. WHY? Because of bad angulation - if you would move the legs to the "show possion" you will have to move them very far to the back. What you will get would be an angulation of a German Shepherd Dog. Really bad angulation of a Wolfdog.
Simply said: if the legs of a dog are standing so that the line comming from the ischum goes through the hock joint BUT the legs are NOT vertical to the ground it means only one: the angulation is wrong.


Now all people will for sure check their dogs - but the true is pretty sad: really only few Wolfdogs have PERFECT angulation. Most of CzWs are a little bit overangulated - it is not a huge problem if the breeders will make the proper selection. But SAD is that even the extremly overangulated dogs also never get worser notes on the bonitations, dog shows, aso...(In only few cases I saw that a judge gave J5 on the bonitation or worser note on the dogs show. In the most cases the dogs was judges as perfect even if it was angulation like a RABBIT ). Really: almost nobody cares (nobody knows?) about the real angulation of the dogs... And it is the reason for pretty bad situation in this area. It is really worth to start to select it because it have huge influence on the movement (only dog with typical angulation moves like typical CzW). But also the endurance of our dogs depend on it.

And for the end - two photos of the wolves with a nice angulation and (almost) show position....