Show Continental Critiques Please

[ladyscarletthawk]

Hi everyone,

I cant help but feel I have lost my way with my bitch's pattern, and am on my own when I clip/scissor her. Plus I have learned the style of grooming/ spray up I was taught was a bit outdated.. Even so she recieved 2 5pt majors towards her GCH lol, BUT now I think I have confused myself or over thought things. Then I remember ya'll and your keen eyes teehee. My mentor always said think round when scissoring her jacket, but I know one must to suit the trim to the dog to bring out their best qualities. So I am a bit torn.. when I scissor her jacket round it looks great to me in person, but if I look at her just right(or in a pic) I tend to feel she looks a lil long /off. So I would like your opinions, critiques, tips, etc. The more the merrier!!

When looking straight on I trim her in a U shape as she has plenty substance and looks dumpy and less feminine to me if I leave her too ful/roundl. Now this last time I trimmed her side profile round(the judges side is my best side).. I tend to trim the rosettes close to the jacket as well as I think it gives the shorter back appearance.. IMO at least. I also did not fool with her bracelets and tail as I tend to be a perfectionist and would take too long lol! So altho the placement is there lol, they dont look their best.. I used no product nor "show dried" them.. by the looks of it I barely brushed them lol. So be gentle on the shape of them as I know it looks ****** lol!! But I would like to now if their placement and relative size is right! I tend to do one or the other scissoring wise to cut corners in between shows and will sometimes take off more than need be for easier maintenace .

My thoughts mainly are that I need to move my jacket and rosettes back. I think the back of the rosette should be at or just infront of the base of tail when erect. She gains some oz between shows so she gets a bit of a fat roll above her tail lol.. she will be on a "diet" to lose the "weight" before her next show which is in 2mons. I was also told being a lil leaner will give her more of a shelf (well looks like she has more shelf) All we need are Wins over Ch(I call these CH wins for short), which if she were a class dog would be as easy as majors IMO!! I want her to look her best!!! And need the keen eyes of others.. hell its like pulling teeth to get hubby to take a pic or hold a head so as you can tell the pic was single handed. NOT bad considering! And obvi she's in warppers so I hope it still looks right.

Anything else you see let me Know !!! She has about 9wks worth of growth, and over an inch extra coat so will be easy to move lines!! Im dying to give her a proper cut as she looks really shaggy. I appologize ahead of time for the lack of quality in the image.. it was on my camera phone and single handed so a lil blurry. Thank you kind PG folks for all your help!

[NeveahsMommy]

I have no idea how things are properly supposed to be placement wise, so I've got no business critiquing this one, but man that looks like a ton of work!!!! And your scissoring skills for the round part on the body and the neck thing (see? Yeah...not critiquing lol!) are really good!!

[funkypuppy]

I'm no expert, and I wouldn't put my attempt at a continental next to yours for a million bucks... but I have to say the first thing my eye sees is this naked rear end. For more balanced, I'd bring those rosettes back a bit to draw the eye to the center of the dog, rather than her rear end.

Again, no expert.

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[kat05]

I would need to see her sprayed up to be able to critique anything, as the whole dogs balance is of upmost importance. Without the whole picture she is of course going to look long as she has no height to balance out the length. I can see that she is a bit chubby, but if you do spray her up try to beat your hubs into taking a stacked pictures so we can see her angulation etc.

[KarlaSnyder]

I agree with Kat. We need to see her done up to get the true picture. Her rosettes do look a bit large to me.

[ladyscarletthawk]

Neveahsmommy

*blush* thank you lol. Yeah she is a ton of work.. if I did her all the way thru from prebrush, bath dry, full clip, full scissor cut, and rewrap/band.. it would take me like 6-7hrs. I watch tv when Im brushing her and she just chills. Seems like most of my time is brushing, drying, and wrapping lol. i try to keep it to about 3 hrs or so teehee. Im sure when I get my new dryer it will be faster.

Funkypuppy

I agree with you! lol but could be the lil fat rool that seems to be forming above her tail. Like I said when I spray her up she looks like it needs to be all moved back a bit... and dont realize it will its sprayed up teehee! Very helpful to hear someone else say the same thing I *was* thinking . Right now Im using "your" hair growth idea and that is my before pic and she has over an inch of growth in 9wks now. She looks like a fuzz ball and everything takes sooo long that I drag my butt to doing them .

Kat05

Thank you for the response.. I dreaded hearing it lol. I will prob do it sunday since Im off Mon to I can rebathe her either late sunday or early monday. I will try to get him to take pix but I doubt he will do a good job *sigh*.. I think he does it on purpose he is so in a hurry he just sulks, point n shoots.. I sooo wanna strangle him sometimes!!!!! I may have him "stack her" ok more like hold her in place and Ill shoot lol. Yeah I call it her grow coat weight lol.. ok so her weight escapes me sometimes.. I feed her 1cup a day, but when I cut her back it is like a thin layer off her 1/2 cup 2x a day.. Its a miracle what a diff such a small amount of food makes lol.

Karla thanks!

I think so too after she is cut lol.. I was afraid I took too much off lol.. I was whacking a lot of hair since it had been a while since I last cut her!

[ladyscarletthawk]

Ooops I forgot to add a handstack and self stack.. neither too recent.. She finished at 15mons and the other was almost 2yrs ago about 3wks after she had weaned her litter.

[funkypuppy]

Are you talking about my "fur club for dogs"? Are you on PF? Lol, i have a terrible memory.

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[Fast Ellie]

I have to agree with kat & Karla.

She needs to be sprayed up. all poodles look just like your gal when in wraps. The only thing I see, and I'm not sure if it's a shadow, that her rosettes are too big and appear to be way to low on her side near her loin.

Like I said it could be a shadow. the front poms appear to be bigger then the rear. Course you said you hadn't trimmed them.

If you think she looks long, moving the jacket forward a bit and moving the rosettes forward might help shortening her back. Moving the jacket back towards the tail, imo, would make her look longer. Also you'll need a done of her on the back to balance out if you do move it back.

[ladyscarletthawk]

Are you talking about my "fur club for dogs"? Are you on PF? Lol, i have a terrible memory.

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Yes .. Your too young to have a bad memory lol! Im going to send my friend a sample for her poodle.. she was impressed at how much coat she grew in 9wks.. Still going to wait another 4wks or so before i post my results lol!

[ladyscarletthawk]

So I stayed up till 2am sun/mon to do a full grooming with spray up. So needless to say my hubby was unavailable to stack or take a picture of her *sigh*. But I think I did ok taking a pic by myself.. have plenty of practice doing it after all these years. I took two of her profile, one of her front, and a Candid... I tried to kneel down for another pic.. BUUUT the imp started to run towards me *sigh*.

Note to self avoid grooming soo late at night lol. I also did say I do a better job on the judge's side . I went ahead and moved everything back a bit.. I think she looks better.. Before to my eyes at least it looked as if she came to an abrupt stop after going aroun the ring and her jacket was shoved forward lol.. I also made her rosettes smaller but not sure if it's small enough. I should have used product on her tail and rosettes but didnt lol. Still trying to thicken up her coat/neck hair. I need to work on the non judge's side.. Im never happy with it. Thanks for all the help guys!

[funkypuppy]

Lol it's true, i need to get some gingko. Im glad you've seen so much success with the Fur Club regimen! I just started bonzai on it again. Coat change sucks so I put her in a Lamb for the summer.

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[Fast Ellie]

Rosettes could be a tad smaller.

i would raise her jacket right up to her elbows. She looks low on leg in the front. I know she isn't. i seen pics of her before and she's a pretty girl.

Really a nice spray up on her. and over all a great show trim.

[kat05]

I agree with both the things Fast Eliie said, the other thing I would do is tighten her chest up. If you look at those pictures she does look low on legs, make sure the top of her poms in front start at the hock line and you raise it like FE said right up to the elbows. Its hard to say on your rosettes but they seem a tad to far back also, I like to put the tail up and have about a finger width between the tail and the start of the rosettes, you can also elongate them a little to take up more loin if you need to...illusion. The other thing in question is are you take her tail up to far, it should just cover her anal opening and be no higher then the top of her withers (thats how I was taught) Its hard to see with the shadows but my eye goes back to that tail and to the short front legs alot. I spent hours looking at her last night to my hubs dismay, he just doesn't get it. I would make sure her rear poms are angled well to show more rear angulation, approx 45 degrees from the top of the hock to the top of the bottom of the pom in the front part of the back leg. I wish I knew how to photo shop!

[ladyscarletthawk]

Rosettes could be a tad smaller.

i would raise her jacket right up to her elbows. She looks low on leg in the front. I know she isn't. i seen pics of her before and she's a pretty girl.

Really a nice spray up on her. and over all a great show trim.

Thank you for your input Fast Ellie! I was sweating bullets waiting to hear.. you call that a show trim?! A blind 5yr old could do a better job lol. Now could you elaborate on the elbow.. say this is and elbow:

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Would I clipper where the two slanted lines meet or just above? I clippered to the corner.. and would you scissor the undercarraige with straight or curves? I did use both shears on the undercarraige.. Perhaps I should stick to the straights to raise it up a bit? I was told to only use curves there. Im really glad you like her.