Lily's Conformation Photos, Session 1

Lily had an advantage over the other dogs since I've worked on the stand with her before. Even so, I was impressed by how well she did. I placed her feet and then she stood completely still, even without holding treats in front of her nose. Her alert expression is great!



With her, I mostly just need to work on getting myself out of the picture, and providing better lighting and background.

Bibb's Conformation Photos, Session 1

Bibb was quite a bit more difficult than Netta. He prefers sitting and lying down to standing, and I had a heck of a time convincing him to stand for me. Imagine him flopping to the ground after each of these photos, and you get the idea.





This last one is the best in terms of placement, but his back is rounded, his tail is tucked, and he doesn't have a very happy expression on his face. He was clearly nonplussed by the activity. Unfortunately, he's not very food oriented, so it makes luring or clicker training more difficult. He likes getting petted, but that makes him melt down into a doggy heap so it wasn't much help in this exercise.

I think that if I can find a reward that will really motivate him, it will work best to capture and shape the stance I want. He doesn't seem to handle physical placement as well as the other dogs do. I also need to do some research into confidence building exercises. I think that if he's more confident, he will feel less of a need to sink into a down in every interaction.

Netta's Conformation Photos, Session 1

For the first attempt, I was too busy juggling the leash, the dog, and the treats to really get a good stance. The best part about this photo is that Netta's head is mostly pointed forward.



On the second try, I got Netta into a better stance and hubby figured out the zoom lens. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that Netta's head was turned too far back towards me, mostly obscuring her face with her ears.



Considering that this was the first time I was trying to get Netta to stand in one place, I think things went fairly well. She was confident and under control, so it will just be a matter of teaching her what I really want in the exercise.

Conformation Photos, Take 1

Today the stars aligned, my husband was available to take pictures, and I remembered to ask him, so I attempted to take conformation photos of all the dogs. I handled the dogs, he handled the camera. The results were less than stellar, but at least now I know what to work on with each dog. Photos to follow in individual posts for each dog.