The line game, my version

Ok...here is my attempt at the line game...although did it all and then realized when I merged the image the lines are not a color, so hard to see...maybe someone else can figure out how to correct that! I give up! So, for my lines I tried to do not only the angles, the length to height ratio, but also the length in loin, head planes, and added a short one to articulate the length in hock. Secret is first, she has some gorgeous angles, that is why she can fly.

Diesel is next.

Then did Della for comparison sake, as she doesn't have quite the angles as the other two. So, what do you see in all three? What do you like? What don't you like? Remember they are all at different stages, but the angles will stay the same. Rip them apart, I give you permission! I know why I have all three in my backyard!!

Body Talk

This weekend I went to a training session for Body Talk Access. Body Talk is an amazing technique that helps people balance health related items by using an energy based technique to encourage the body to work at it's optimum. For those of you are interested in learning about this technique, visit http://www.bodytalksystem.com/ You can also use the technique on animals. My physical therapist is a trained Body Talk practitioner. She was the one to encourage me to learn the technique so that I can help in immediate situations in both dogs and humans. Body Talk is not designed to be something that replaces doctor visits, but rather something that will help the body's natural wisdom and help to maximize it's efforts in recovery. Please go to the website to learn more as they do a great job of explaining the theories, techniques, and research behind Body Talk.

Sparky New Champion picture!

Sparky looks really good...of course I was going "stay stay stay" in me head and so didn't ever get fully upright, so don't like me as well. In the craziness of the day, I spaced getting a photo of Lincoln, so no photo coming of him. Oh well, next time!

Hello blogland...

Hey all! I just wanted to say that I will pick up the front discussion hopefully in the next few days. I keep trying to get to my parents house to get some pictures off of that computer, but haven't had a chance too! Thanks to C-myste for doing a wonderful job about making lines all over dogs!!! For those who haven't gone to CCI website, http://www.cardicommentary.de/ in a while, I encourage you to do so. They keep adding things that I love and a bunch of things on balance, length to height ratio, etc. that will help in this discussion we have going on blogland! It is amazing to me once you measure your dog and really feel where everything is...how many dogs are actually TOO long for their height ratio of 1.8:1. Don Lassila years back created a tool to measure this. I have experimented with it and maybe some of you might want too. Of course measuring is always the best, but this tool sometimes helps go over several dogs at one time and just see how big of difference a too long dog is, a too short, and the correct length to height ratio.

While I am on that theme...I was talking to a Papillon breeder the other day who measures her puppies at different stages through their growth. After many years of doing this she now has the tool to be able to guess if a dog at a young age is going to be proportionate by adulthood. The interesting thing is, most of the dogs that are perfect "slightly longer then tall" (according to the Pap standard), are dogs that some breeders have told her are TOO long. So, in both breeds your eye can be fooled and the only way to help with that is to measure and get the FACTS about which dog is really too long and which is correct.

Always remember that in a Cardigan, the majority of length comes from the ribs NOT the loin. This is one of my pet peeves and is hard for me to live with a long in loin. I would much rather have a too short that is proportionate ratio of the rib versus loin.

LCKC day 1...

For those who are wondering... Sparky became a New Champion today!!!

AND...Lincoln won his first points, but also went onto BOW and BOS for a major win!

Fronts part 3...

Puppies are 4 months old in these pictures. This is just about the time I let the girls go to their new homes. I happened to have boy #2's owner come over and so got his pictures as well. Unfortunately boy #1 is no longer in the pictures. One of these days I am hoping to get a chance to see him again. You might all ask Richelle, as she knows the owners of him and I think has seen him most recently! :-)

Boy #2

Girl #1

Girl #2

Comment on fronts part 1 discussion...

Sorry...too long to add to comments.

Le'o commented on pictures. I wish I had the skills to take better pictures! In fact they are more for me to remember what that puppy looked like and not to use like this in trying to get points across by using only pictures. Thus, getting back to a previous comment made on one of my lists...the best way to learn about all this is to get your hands on dogs!! My house is always open and I will tell you everything I do and don't like about my dogs and could trace about every characteristic back in the pedigree. (For those who don't know I am a pedigree fanatic, literally have 13,000 Cardigan pedigrees, most of them being older dogs, as I don't tend to put new dogs in my database unless I am curious about that dogs pedigree.)

Le'o's last comment on this discussion needs a big THANK YOU! For those who haven't gone and looked at the skeleton picture in the IS (p. 13), please do. Boy #1 actually has a longer forearm, thus making him taller. You have to be careful of this, as longer pasterns are going to make the feet turn out more, not so much a dog taller. So, look again at boy #2. He actually is the one with longer pasterns. It will become apparent when I post the older pictures. On the side shot you can see it much better. That arch in his foot is not present as in the other three puppies. When I evaluate puppies at this age, I don't want to see ANY turn out, none. Boy #2 is at this age slightly turned out. I did not like this feature but since he was my best male (that wasn't a mismark) I grew him up.

This brings me to another point. Some of us breeders have different ideas on where the front should turn out. I was taught that it is in the wrap, not the foot. So, it is a big pet peeve of mine when I see front foot turn out from the pastern not from the wrap. Thus why some of my dogs tend to be straighter then some people like and I will forgive a bit wider front before I forgive a front that has a long pastern and turns easty westy. In person is much better trying to explain this one.

And since I am going off subject a bit...Australian lines grow a slight bit different. You have to wait for them to mature and I have had many puppies go really wide at stages. So, a puppy that looks similar to one of these puppies we are looking at, may not grow exactly the same. Different lines mature differently...breeding is always interesting, isn't it?!!!!

Of course all IMO.