For my front discussion...I wanted to try and educate what I look for in a Cardigan puppies front versus how they turn out as adults. Now I have pictures after pictures I could highlight this with, but thought I might take one of my more recent litters that are just growing up and in the show ring now.
Here are four puppies, my top puppies in this litter, and four different front assemblies at 7 weeks of age. For the purpose of this discussion I am giving them numbers not names...but you will know who they are if you go on my website. FYI, the first puppy was sold as a pet due to his markings, but wanted to include him as without the bad markings, he would be my top male.
Puppy boy #1
Puppy Girl #1
Puppy boy #2
Puppy girl #2So, of these four puppies. Which front do you like best? Why do you like it? Which one would you rate first through fourth and why?
More to come...
11 comments:
I'm a TOTAL novice, so pick me apart, and chew me out as you see fit! I'm trying to learn :) (I've never seen a puppy eval in person, and am new to Cardi conformation)
On puppy 1, it looks like his toes are going to splay out as he matures. It's a HUGE pet pev of mine in dogs, as it can't be comfortable with walk on splayed out feet.
I like the minimal turnout he's showing, but he looks like he'll be a beefcake, and I think he has too light of bone to look balanced as he matures. He looks like he's going to mature into a thick barrel chest. (I'm not a fan of the 'stick legged' Cardis out there, as that's got to be hard on the legs to hold up huge 'tank' bodies!) I also don't want to see huge Basset bone either. It looks like he's going to have a flat chest on the bottom, which I think is where the 'beefcake', wide chest look comes from? (optical illusion??)
Puppy 2, Head-wise, she's my faaaaavotite, and I LOOOOOVE her color. If she'd been handed to me, I wouldn't have said no! LOL (I'm a total head person in animals... I'm trying to get over it!). I love her wrap, and I think she'll mature to have nicely balanced bone. She looks to have too much turnout, and like she's already going down in the pasterns, or has too-long pasterns. Her chest looks REALLY pretty though.
puppy 3, I like how his front has a nice wrap, he looks to have a nice chest shape, and he has BONE! I love that! In the pic he looks 'loaded' in the shoulders, but I can't tell. I love the wrap though, and nice-fitting legs. Oh and the short pasterns are cute! Between him and his brother, I see him as the soundest.
Puppy 4, I don't like her wrap as it looks too 'loose' (chest too high), but I love her bone. Her paws look nice and round, and compact. Between her and girl 1, I like her turnout much better, but I like girl 1's wrap much better.
OK, now tear me apart! Thanks! :)
Haha! I didn't want to cheat, so looked at your site AFTER looking at the pups, and see who girl 1 is! No wonder I adore her on here... I love her now too *G*
I can't remember what her chest and front looked like when I saw her at RCC, and doesn't seem I got any front pics of her... darn! I can't wait to see 'now' pics!
After having learned about pasterns recently (*G*), I would have to say I like Girl puppy #1 best (just looking at her I have a pretty decent guess as to who she is ;-) ), followed by Boy puppy #2. Both have nice short pasterns. I like boy #1, but he is longer in the pasterns than "ideal" (as are my dogs - now that I know! :P ) Girl #2 looks like she might have been fighting sitting like that, therefore, I can't see a good representation of her front, as her chest is tucked up behind her legs...
And again... since I'm learning about fronts, pick me apart and show me what I did wrong with my picks... :)
I like puppy boy #2's chest shape and forechest. Puppy boy #1 is lacking depth and seems to be pretty flat across the bottom. He also has longer pasterns than puppy boy #2
Puppy girl #1 would be my pick between the girls. Better chest shape and wrap.
All the puppies have lovely bone and cute heads.
dreameyce...I would reevaluate puppy #1 feet. You pointed out something I wanted to comment on, but will come more apparent as we get to the older shots. Puppy #1 has a different type of foot then the other puppies. But, I wouldn't call it a splayed foot at this point. I think this shot shows him just wider in front right now then the others, maybe not as much forchest, but he is taller on leg, so that will give a different appearance then the other puppies.
dreameyce...puppy girl 1, is obvious but since I don't have updated front shots on the site, thought it would be perfect one for all to see.
Traci...now that you see the side shot, is it really the pastern in boy #1 or is it the next bone, the forearm, that is longer?
If you can upload larger images they become "clickable" and sometimes it's easier to see what otherwise disappears in small pics.
I know you can't go back and retake pictures but I've noticed a huge difference in the amount of turnout when a dog and even a puppy is sitting vs. standing. When sitting the weight shifts. The chest and ribs come further down making the forelegs cross them at what might be closer to a 45 degree angle rather than the more perpendicular angle when standing. (Note I am speaking of the legs from the elbow down not the shoulder angles.) When sitting the legs will have to splay out a bit more than when standing to accommodate the ribspring and will appear to be more turned out when sitting than when they are in a stand.
Another thing is lighting. When light hits the posternum it appears to be more forward. In puppy boy #1 there's less light on that area than the boy #2. Could have just been that the sun moved.
You kind of gave away that #1 boy would have been your pick had he not been a mismark and looking at the side view helps a lot. #1 seems to have more bone and rounder.
And I think what can be confused with the pastern is actually the curve in the bone as seen from the front. No the pastern actually looks good on boy #1 when seen from the side.
As far as shoulders I like the girls better than the boys. More layback and better angles where as the boys seem to be shorter in the upper arms?
So how did I do?
I don't know if this helps with the pasterns and assessing them from the front but if you look at the Illustrated Standard and refer to the skeleton drawing you can see that the pastern starts considerably lower than the curve of bone in the forearm where it comes into the pastern as it is visible from the front.
Le'o...good point on the shoulders...I did like the girls better then the boys. Short in upper arm is a fault I am constantly trying to get away from.
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