[spoospirit]

Dianne and I took Billy out on a seldom traveled road near us and we worked him for a while to get him used to ring work and to get some pics of his movement. He wasn't sure about it but he did OK. I will be working with him every day on his gait. He has been stacking for awhile now so we should be good there. OH, he was groomed out completely the night before but I didn't have time to re-do him before we took these as I worked all day today. He is starting to curl a bit again.

Heck, I need work. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to keep the right pace for my dog!!

Billy still looks wide. That is why I have my hand over his back to give it some perspective.

 

[spoospirit]

 

[roxy25]

Next you practice bring so bait so he will naturally carry his head up with excitement. As I said in your first post his gait looks perfect from the side.

 

[jester's mom]

The problem is, Billy is NOT very food oriented. He hated having his head held up and at first was fighting the lead a lot. We tried baiting him... no go. He wasn't happy about not having his poodle friends with him, he wasn't happy with having to keep his head up, he wasn't sure what we wanted. We gave him LOTS of praising and petting to let him know he was doing what we wanted.

We worked him again tonight and he was MUCH better, he still was not thrilled with having his head held up with the lead, so we fixed the choker so it was not able to slip around his neck but just used to help him understand to hold his head up, then I suggested that Deb take it off him completely and just call him and run with him and use the food in her hand to watch and he liked that a lot better. He worked next to her with his head up and watching her!! So then we added the lead again but NO pressure at all, just lots of happy talk and holding the bait up for him to see. It is funny, he does not care much for the food and barely eats it but thought it a game to look up at it, so now we found "his thing" that he likes, that is what we will be doing to practice till next Friday. Deb is really excited about going into her first ever show.

I am sure Deb will post pics from the ones I took tonight.