Thursday 4 September 2008
DOG WORLD's dedicated team of breed note writers provide a detailed weekly snapshot of individual breeds but often their contributions deserve a wider audience. Here we feature an extract from Liz Thornton's Irish Wolfhound breed notes:
The question “What do I need to look for when picking a puppy to show?” has come up. There are several people in the breed who have a great eye for a puppy no matter what family line it comes from. The best advice would be to nab one or more of them to help you and if you are a novice breeder get hold of the stud dog owner and the breeder of your bitch.
As Wolfhounds have so much size and weight to make up over their growing year, the hardest thing is picking one who will stay in proportion and have the edge in movement later on, especially in males. The biggest, heaviest puppy is automatically the one to take the eye; the friendliest puppy can overwhelm common sense.
Picking them up one at a time to be gone over on a table is helpful. One of the great puppy pickers has observed that over time pictures do not lie, so where you can, get some profile shots to look back on later. If you can, look at them at least twice to see how they are developing as the changes between (for instance) seven weeks and ten weeks can be amazing. Most breeders like to pick between eight and ten weeks.
Include width of underjaw in your assessment. Heads aren’t too hard to get right, the best ones with high small ears and those slightly oval melting dark eyes should also have hardly any stop and good fill under the eyes making a ‘one part’ headpiece.
How long and well laid back does the upperarm appear to be in comparison to the shoulder? If short and upright, it will never be as good a fronted puppy as others who have this layback. There should be a distinct neck length and it should be possible to find a slight crest there.
Ribbing is important – start at the breast of the puppy and ensure the sternum is apparent in front of the upperarm and there is decent depth of chest as if there is nothing in front of the puppy at eight weeks it will not develop later on. Track the sternum under the body as if it ends just behind the elbow the topline of the puppy will lack support. The ribcage needs to go well back down the body with a relatively shorter loin, that is when you measure the back between the shoulders and the bit where the hip bones protrude slightly, most of that length is ribcage.
If the puppy has a slight hump back, what I have heard described as the arch over the loin starting a couple of vertebrae too far forward, it could be reason enough to remove its show prospects, but totally level toplines with too much ‘bounce’ aren’t a good thing either. Slight arch exactly over the loin is perfect and where the ribs are well sprung, so much the better.
Standing behind the puppy (while your volunteer keeps it on the table!), just how long and sloping is the croup? In my experience, where this is short and level the tailset isn’t as good and the stifle isn’t as well developed. Looked at from the side you need a decent length of femur and the appearance of roughly the same length of the next bone beneath it, relatively shorter hocks should be straight not bent.
One useful tip is to look at the hock angle and length of the os calcis; it’s a small measurement but the best rearends in my experience have a definite width to the angle there. The whole should look muscular, particularly the second thigh where the puppy has no muscle it won’t grow it later no matter how you exercise.
Some puppies have the appearance of a ‘flap’ of skin at the loin that might detract from the look of the tuck up later – although very desirable in some other breeds it doesn’t denote the sighthound. I haven’t felt a tail kink for years but understand it’s still something to look out for, so do check for this too.
No matter how nice the puppy appears to be on the table, your eye needs to get confirmation from how it moves; if you do make allowances for bandy legs or cow hocks now you need to be very sure of your line and how it develops. One of the good puppy pickers likes to see the weight falling equally over the front two paw pads when trotting towards you.
I do like to see straight hocks going away – steady hind action is important. Where you can trot the puppy briefly over a wooden floor or across decking, do you hear the 1-2-3-4 in perfect rhythm? Where your eye keeps going to the same puppy as they move around, this is probably ‘the one’ as there is something about the best movers in terms of length and ease of stride and how their head is held as they go around.
For the full notes go to the Irish Wolfhound pages.