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.