@zande said in Logan Has a Trainee...:
@jengosmonkey Oh I do wish I could be at your shows - The photo of the hair tells a multitude of stories and so many tiny things you could correct and do Logan even more justice than you are at the moment !
Don't try to hold him with your hand under his chest. Get the show lead/collar in the right place (high up under the cheek bones) and hold it in your teeth or around your neck, then grasp the front legs and stack them perpendicular and parallel. Once the front is good, you turn your attention to the back end. Fingers between the back legs, lift ever so slightly, a quick flick of the wrist and down and lo and behold, the back is also good. Hocks perpendicular under the shelf. The dog looks square as called for in the Standard. At need, a quick tap under the tum straightens the topline and there you have it !
But I am sure you know what you need to get right and as long as you and Logan are enjoying yourselves that is honestly all that matters !
Conutined good luck -
@Zande I wish you could be at our shows, or that I could be at yours too! Meeting @tanza here, then getting to know her in person has been a fun part of my Basenji journey. Maybe someday!
Your feedback is great! Thanks a bunch. This past weekend was fun, stressful, and a learning experience all rolled in to an unanticipated path I'd not expected to be on.
The picture was from Saturday. The day I royally messed up in the ring. I remember walking out of the ring at the end of an absolutely pathetic display of ring craft... Stella was there waiting. I think she could see how crushed I was. She just said "Come here." and gave me a big ol' hug, which really meant a lot. I really felt like I'd let her down. She said "We'll talk about it later", which was fine by me. I just wanted to forget about it. Of course I couldn't. I kept going over how badly I'd done. I mean... I messed up EVERYTHING! I felt completely overwhelmed in the ring that day.
Sunday I just decided to change up how I'd approached the entire weekend. What I'd been doing and how I'd been doing it wasn't working... at all. I ditched the jacket, which kept getting in my way Thursday and Friday, kept Logan out of the crate much longer before ring time to keep him happier, found a place for us to stand in the sun while waiting to keep him warmer than I did on Saturday, stopped thinking about every step I needed to execute in the ring and decided to just do it, and I shifted my focus from me to Logan once in ring. The last part made a biggest difference. It finally dawned on me that Logan and I are team, and that I hadn't been a very good team mate to him. I'd been too focused on me doing things right rather than focusing my attention on helping him look his best. Stella had given me great feedback on Saturday night once I'd settled down. She's a really good coach. We went over pictures and she pointed out several things I could improve on. My goal on Sunday was to bring home a point and make Stella proud of us. It was my last chance in the ring. No more do overs. I will say that that was the first time that I've felt that Logan and I were finally having fun in the ring together. He definitely was. I could see it and that made me happy.
