She is so structurally sound that I can't find a single fault on her. Nice length of neck, topline, gait, angulation; man, that dark chocolate, shiny coat! She's reserved but also kinda friendly, everything rolls off of her, she's brave and patient and calm and easy to live with and train.
But ever since that tick got in her ear, her earset has been rose. Oh no. Not that!
See, if this puppy does end up as perfect as I think she'll be, I will have my breed champion, oh yes I will. And Yishai is sad that she doesn't have triangle ears anymore, so . . . we had a discussion. I think it may be too far along to do much now, but I have to . . . my little perfect stockdog is getting a cosmetic lift:
Yes, her ears are taped. I happen to think this is the dodgiest thing that Aussie people do for their show dogs. If the ear doesn't naturally stay in the ideal set, so be it. My first red dog had rose ears and he was going to finish his championship anyway, so why am I doing it? Because dogs that look like this:
have a lot going against them. That's me at 13 or 14 with Trekki on his first Winners' Dog. I still have the frame. A dog with that light of bone and coat rarely wins these days, but I was good at handling and that was twenty years ago.
The interesting thing is he is pure conformation lines, and Rippa's going to have heavier bone and coat than he did. And maybe I'll have luck, but this time around, I need to do what I can to really help her out. Plus, as I said, Yishai gave his blessing. So she now has taped taco ears to encourage the side fold to get weaker. Hopefully it works.
The puppies are almost as big as Fury now:
Laura reports that Emma is probably bigger (and more stout), I know Reid and Moto are bigger, and I think Piper is the smallest. It's getting REALLY hard to tell with peripheral vision which dog is Daca and which is Fury. My mom had to keep asking me.
The girls are getting along a lot better now, so yay!
I need to mow the lawn in the back yard, for shizzle.
Can you explain this ear thing? Why are button ears preferred, I thought rose ears should be equally accepted?
ReplyDeleteShould, versus are. The standard calls for the ear to fold forward with nothing about it folding to the side. Thus, the ideal ear is "button" and rose is a fault. Some judges don't adhere to this, but many do. I think the rose ear is every bit as typey and this should be changed, but this is the current ASCA standard.
ReplyDeleteFunny, it's true, ASCA standard doesn't include rose ears. I never noticed that. But AKC specifically mentions them, and so does the European FCI standard. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I think we need a stacked picture or two of this perfect Rippa pupper you speak of. ;o)
ReplyDelete