There are different “patterns” that most judges will follow when they want to watch your dog move. When you are training, move your puppy in those patterns! Practice gaiting on the “down and back”. This is a straight line, turn to the right at the end and come straight back along the path. Then practice a “triangle”... In this pattern you will gait along a path, turn to the left, go “across” and then come back to the point from which you began. IMPORTANT: The dog should always be the thing the judge is looking at, NOT YOU so switch your lead if necessary from left hand to right hand and keep the dog between yourself and the judge at all times. Many top handlers don’t even do this BUT if you can accomplish this, it is a nice touch and will make you look like a polished professional. There are other patterns that judges will use to move out a dog..at every show that you go to, watch the different rings and you will see the different ways in which judges move out the dogs. Once they start in their first ring, they will continue that same pattern throughout the day.
PRESENTING YOUR DOG TO THE JUDGE AT ITS BEST BOTH DURING THE GAITING AND THE STACKING IS IMPORTANT. YOU WILL ONLY GET TWO MINUTES AT THE MOST TO SHOW OFF YOUR DOG.
When you are moving your dog out in front of the judge, he will be looking for several things. He will look to see if the dog’s gait is “choppy” (often this is evidence of a poorly structured dog) If a dog’s topline is “bouncy” it can mean that the rear angulation is so extreme that he is crossing over (the rear feet will hit the front feet unless he moves slightly “sideways”) The judge will be looking for “paddling”, where the front feet are “slapping down”, not smooth. He may be looking for “prancing”, which should not be present except for certain terrier breeds. He will certainly be looking for the qualities which represent a soundly built and correctly structured dog, and these are the things that YOU need to know about YOUR breed. In any event, presenting a dog well in the movement phase is very important. Check out the photo below and you will see the difference in the “pick me, I am the winner” look that is obvious between the two dogs. Checking the movement you will see that the black dog is over angulated in the rear and “crossing over” and that the head carriage is low giving a “no neck” appearance, while the Landseer shows better drive in the rear and better structure with less extreme rear angulation. And the attitude of the two dogs definitely shows in the head positioning.
POSITIONING THE DOG'S HEAD WHILE GAITING
If your puppy is very young, you will not even have a leash on him, you will be “luring” him with a cookie right in front of his nose as he trots alongside you. Soon you will put a harness on nhim and a leash. When he gets older, he will be wearing a choke collar, unless he is a sighthound (they wear tightly fitting broad buckled collars as a general rule), and you should place the choke collar right up behind the ears and under the dog’s jaw and gently hold his head in an upright position. This will increase the “commanding “ look of the dog as he moves and will increase his overall “showy” attitude. You will sometimes hear other folks say “That dog was asking the judge for the win”...what they are talking about is the general showy attitude that the dog displays. One way to get this “look” is to keep that puppy’s head up and looking forwards. You can “click” the dog, after he understands what the clicker means, every time that he IS holding his head up and looking straight forwards. ( A dog that is looking up sideways at you is an OBEDIENCE dog, not a show dog. Looking up and to the side throws off the movement and the judge will not see the true movement of the dog.)
A WORD ABOUT CHOKE COLLARS: In the dog show ring, there are only two types of collars permissable: a "slip" collar (a choke chain) or a "buckle collar" . The pupose of the "slip collar" is to give an audible signal to the dog by a swift tug on the choke, which will "zzzipp" for a minute when jerked, then quickly released. It is NOT meant to constantly hold tight. It should be just snug enough to hold the dog's head up but NOT choke the dog. It should be loose enough that if you need to remind the dog to slow down, you can extend your arm slightly and give a quick "zzipp" and release to remind him to slow. When you are waiting outside the ring and fear that your dog may become "out of control" because of the excitement, remember not to constantly hold the collar too tight. You will be choking your dog. When you are gaiting him around the ring, and he is gagging...(and you can often see this at a dog show) then you are choking the dog! You need to practice learning how to use the "zzzippp" technique to control your dog. Outside of the ring, when you are just standing around with your dog, you will have far better control if you hold onto the collar itself with your hand, ther will be way less "give" and you will have more contol of the dog. This of course will only work if you have a big dog that you don't have to reach down to hold the collar!
In conclusion..
Each breed will gait and move according to his particular standard. Terriers will exhibit a somewhat “shorter” stride. Pekingese and Bulldogs will “roll” or “waddle” from side to side. Working dogs will be expected to have a good deal of “drive” from the rear and sled dogs should exhibit a “push off” with the rear feet and show power in their stride. Greyhounds will show off an easy lope with a rather floating appearance, as will Afghan hounds. Study the movement of your breed. And study the judges. If you have a dog that moves well, and you KNOW this, then by all means find the judges that look for good movement and take him to that show and that judge!