 All right you guys we are live. I'm coming in a little bit early, just in case there's people that are anxious to join us and if you are out there in Listener Land hop on, say hey in the live chat. I am going to work very hard at my multi-tasking this evening. But for those of you who are just getting on, just joining us, come on down. We have a very very cool conversation. Hey Isabel, how you doing? Great conversation for you this evening. We're going to be talking about problem-solving. All the things that we have as problems in the dog show ring. So I'm very excited for today's conversation. We have some super great questions that Listener submitted ahead and we're going to get to that here very very shortly. We are still just about a minute early. So for those of you who hopped in early, join us. Here's my Superman cup to toast our lightning round with Laura. Although I don't know, feel me out guys. How do you feel about live at five? Like I feel like that has a really great ring to it. Like there's a whole lot of new stations that have been using it for like 40 years. So what do y'all think? Poll. Poll time. Drop a poll. Drop a poll question in the chat. Live at five or lightning round with Laura? Speak to me people. Meanwhile, Isabel, are you good? Are you good with live at five? Because I feel like that has a lot of potential. Okay, I have a whole spiel, but I want to wait until everybody gets here before I start on my spiel, right? So because I'm so totally talented at all of this. And you guys are so fabulous to put up with me last last month's Facebook live was terrifying. So we have dropped back to YouTube live and feeling a lot happier with feeling much happier with this. Hi, Heather. Hey, Kathleen. How you doing? All right, Stephanie. Oh, my God. Hey, Steph, how you doing? Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna start with the spiel because here it is 501. And we're gonna have people joining us as we go along. And unlike zoom, I don't have to click them in so I could actually just talk to y'all. Okay, here we go. Welcome, everybody. Pure dog talks live podcast. We are on the lightning round with Laura. Although for those of you who are just joining us, we're having a conversation in the live chat about changing that to live at five on pure dog talk. So y'all speak up voice your opinion on that one. Speaking of that pure dog talk is the voice of pure red dogs where your passion is our purpose. And that's really important to me. So I just need to make sure you guys know that check out our newest sponsors. I'm so excited you guys joining true panion and and embark our two long standing sponsors. This week revival animal health made their debut on the podcast. And next week, we have another new advertiser that's going to join us on the podcast, reader cloud pro. Anybody wants to check those out? Go to the partners page on the website pure dog talk.com. As always, there's a podcast for that, right? Tonight's topic is live conversation and discussion and condensation of some of my very earliest episodes. The audio book How to Stack Your Dog and other important talks came from this. This is actually going to drop as an ebook pretty soon. So again, countless handling seminars and workshops. All of this is stuff that I've talked about in various ways in various places with various people. I have some great questions from listeners tonight. I'm super excited to dig into this. Don't forget, and this is I think an easy thing for people to lose track of. You can keyword search the archives of more than 500 episodes on the website, right? Just go to pure dog talk.com. There's that little magnifying glass, do to key up on the top, type in whatever you want to know about. I can almost guarantee you there's a podcast for that. Okay. All right. Shameless plug quickly listeners here. You guys are getting a little insider information. This is all going up live on the main page tomorrow. The 2022 pure dog talk patrons retreat and workshops are checkmark set plan on it May 30th to June 3rd. Okay. It's midweek. It's what I could do. It's a long story. Work with me here, people in the chain of lakes area just northwest outside of Chicago and the suburbs in the forest preserves that area. Details and sign up registration opportunities are on the website once again. If you aren't a patron, get on it guys. As little as $5 a month. You get a monthly gab fest during our after dark in the private pure dog talk patrons group. And might remind you free entry to these sites sorts of live events. So I'm going to put the link here in the chat to the to the retreat on the website. You guys can go check that out. And meanwhile, we've got some questions that are from our listeners to start with. Now, if you guys have more questions than this, put them in the live chat. That's what that's there for. But in the meantime, I'm going to start with these questions that that listeners had sent in ahead of time. All right, Renee Owens. And she writes, I say Renee, I don't know that Renee Owens writes, I'm trying to get his I assume the dog's grand championship on my four year old Boston Terrier. But he has this new thing where on the go round, he pulls very hard toward the center of the ring and starts to gallop. He got his championship at 19 months, was put away to grow some muscle, got to best especially show wins. And then go vid. Any ideas? He doesn't do it in class. He is not stupid. I need an in the ring strategy. Okay, so Renee, and anybody else that that may have, hey, Bethany, your question is coming up, girl, good, good that you can make it. Okay, Renee. So here's the thing. Dogs now four years old been off or pretty much off right for a couple years. And is super jacked up probably your little jacked up when you're in the ring. That makes a difference. And I say this all the time. Our dogs don't communicate with us or, or we don't communicate with them with our words. Words are right was peanuts, the teacher and the peanuts show, right? That's all dogs here. What they hear is our tone of voice, our body language, and our energy, right? So like our nervous energy, or our negative energy, or a very positive energy, or most importantly, our Zen energy. Okay, that this hand signal to my kids that worked for me meant just cool. Just go inside yourself in through the nose, out through the mouth, take a deep breath, focus on your dog, work on your watch me command, work on all of those things so that your dog is centered on you and focused on what you're doing. And that I cannot emphasize enough how important that is. All right, Renee. And the other thing that I have as a particular favorite sort of go to move, if you will, in the ring, with a dog that either wants to chase the other dogs, wants to get jacked up, wants to run, wants to be a ding dong, whatever it is, whatever excitement they have going at that moment. Usually, you've got a lineup of dogs, right, your best to breed, you get a whole bunch of dogs, whole bunch of specials in the ring, whatever it is. And they all start to move. And instead of standing there facing the back end of those dogs as they start to run away from me, and the dog facing them as they're running away from them, I turn the dog, I put him fully, can you see my arm perpendicular to that line of dogs running away. I keep him completely focused on me and on a watch me until it is our time to go. And then we go, we give the dog in front of us three full strides before I start. And then we go. And then the dog is going to be more collected, more together. If you can concentrate the dog's attention on you, not on the surroundings, not on these other dogs that are running away from them, he wants to chase, he wants to play, he wants to do whatever. Turn him to the side. Keep him on a watch me. And then just when it's time to go, turn and start your go around and start that easy gradual one, two, three, go. All of those things go into it. The judge is not going to be as interested in seeing your dog be nose to tail, nose to tail, nose to tail, nose to tail going around the ring as they are going to be seeing your dog move correctly, move collectively. And your entire job in the ring is to show your dog to its very best advantage. And that is very frequently not racing like a lunatic right behind the other dogs in the ring. Okay. So that is my suggestion for Renee on the dog who gets very excited, pulls to the center of the ring, does all of those things. That is my in ring strategy for that particular type of behavior, Renee. Okay. Carissa Nielsen had another great question. She said, I have a very young English cocker four and a half months old and my very first show dog. Yay. Chris, I'm so excited to hear that. When gating, he always wants to be looking at me instead of straight ahead. We're where we're going, which I feel throws off his gate. I'd love any suggestions. Chris of this is such a common, common movement fault. And you are absolutely right. Every time that dog is looking up at you like this, he's moving like so, right? His front feet are going like this. They're not going like this. And so absolutely correct in your observation and a very, very simple fix. I will tell you. Don't look at your dog. I know, seems kind of silly and sort of simple, but we get so worried about what the dog is doing that we're constantly looking at them. And the dog's reaction, of course, because again, they don't respond to words, their response to body language. If we're giving them eye contact, they're going to give it back, right? So when you move to things, put the collar straight, whether you're moving them on a rescue or a chain or a modified whatever you've got, put the collar dead on the back of the dog's skull, right? Right up the occipit. I know people get crazy about this, but trust me, this works. Give the dog a straight line to follow. Do not strangle the dog. Okay, Keith, you want to have what we like to refer to as contact without tension. It's a very important thing. And it's a piece of what we talk about a person having good hands on the dog, right? They can have contact. Like if you're riding a horse, for those of you who are horse people out there, I promise you there are so many comparisons. You want to be, you know, you want the horse to know you're there. You want to have contact with a bit, but you don't want to be up in the dog in the horse's mouth. Okay, same exact thing with the dog. Contact, not strangulation. Okay, straight line right up off the occipit, straight line, you run in a straight line. Okay, another important movement fault is we need to not look like drunken sailors. Sometimes, sometimes it's a thing, right? Okay, moving a straight line. So get done with your exam, get the dog off the table, stand, go in front of the judge, make sure that the dog is lined up with the judge, not you. Right? So many of us want to stand in front of the judge. Judge doesn't want to see your backside going away, wants to see the dog's backside going away. Dog in front of the judge, you to the side. Look at the far end of the ring. Look at the corner post. Look at a pole, look at a lady with a funny hat, whatever. Straight line, run down, turn around, run back. Do not look at the dog. And I promise you do that a few times in practice and handling class, it will quit looking up at you. It's looking up at you for validation. You're going to do all of your communication through the leash. Your hand on the leash is again, you're in contact. Everything's good. Everything's comfortable. Nobody's worried. No stress, no drama. Straight line, straight back. Look up. Do not look at the dog. It is a painful, difficult thing to train yourself not to do, I promise. But it will make all the difference in the world. And as long as the dog is happy, right, like you don't have a super shy dog, I also would not talk to the dog. Because as soon as we're talking to them at that time, they're looking again, looking to us for validation. So that's some very early and essential basics. After that, if you're still having problems, you can use Cavaletti poles and you can teach a target, right? So that the dog runs through the Cavaletti poles and gets a piece of food sat on a chair at the end of the Cavaletti poles. So they're looking forward to that. You can also use a ball and roll it forward while you're moving the dog. All of these are more complicated answers to the same question. And honestly, nine times out of 10, just simply moving the collar to the point of the ox to put running in a straight line, not looking at the dog and not talking to the dog will work. Okay. Gunner, hi Gunner. What should she be giving the dog to look at then? Okay. So Gunner, as I was just saying, the dog is going to naturally look forward of its own accord. They will mimic your body language. If you look forward, the dog will look forward. And I talk about this the same thing when you're training a free stock, when you're training anything else, the dog will literally mirror you. So if you have the dog facing you, and you're trying to do a free stack and you're all slumpy, the dog is going to do the same thing. Stand up, you know, shoulders back tummy in, chest out, all the sort of marine playground thing. The dog's going to do the same thing. You point your toys out, toes out, the dog will point its toes out. It is absolutely miraculous. Try it sometime. You line yourself up, you have the confidence, the dog will do the same thing. So you look at the corner of the ring, the dog will look at the corner of the ring. Absolutely 100%. And then if for some reason you have one of the tiny fraction of the dogs that that's still not enough, as I mentioned, use your Cavaletti poles or use your ball to move them forward. Okay. So that's that. Renee or Chris, if you have any follow up questions to that, absolutely pop them into the chat. Bethany, Bethany, I know you're there all the way from Australia. I don't even want to know what time of day it is in Australia. That kind of scares me. So I'm super impressed that you're here joining us. So thank you. Okay, Bethany had a really great question. She has a young Whippet that is 15 months old. And she gets distracted. And she's trying to get to the dog and oh no, he's trying to get to the dog in front of him, or in the best of breed classes trying to turn around and look at the bitch behind him. Okay, so Bethany, I think you were here when I was answering Renee's question. So all three of these questions really fit nicely together. They're actually kind of similar. The same answer applies with your Whippet that wants to chase or be worried about what's behind him, what have you. Practice that turning sideways until it's your turn to move, right? Practice the watch me and then go. And then if you have a particular exhibitor who wants to follow particularly closely, you might just quietly say to them, Hey, could you give me just an extra couple strides? My dog's a little worried or, you know, whatever, whatever you need to do. And so that your dog has the ability to showcase himself nicely on the go round. Some of the same things I was talking about in answer to the question from Carissa can also apply, right? Because you want to look where your dog is going, not look at the dog. You want to have the dog focused on being in tune with you and moving in stride with you. If you can do those things, most of that's going to go away. So for those of you who have additional questions, those are the three that I had one other one, but whatever it didn't show up on my page. So those are the questions I had going in. Anybody else drop it here in the box. Meanwhile, I'm going to do a little bit of a riff. And I'm going to talk a little bit about what I've been spending the last three months working on, which is the ebook from the audio book from the how to stack your dog. How to stock your dog was originally a column I wrote for Best in Show Daily a million years ago. And it got so much reaction that I was shocked, was absolutely shocked because people did not have mentors, they didn't have people to tell them to teach them how to stack their dogs. And I was absolutely blown away by that. And so that is what has developed into what was a CD audio book is now going to be a downloadable audio file as well as a downloadable ebook. So that's a lot of what we're talking about tonight. Hey, Kathleen, how are you? Kathleen wants to know about tips for keeping my toy dog peppy in the group ring, particularly when breed judging is early in the morning groups are in the late afternoon. Great. Bethany says her dog is a walking hormone. Well, we'll get to that in a minute, Bethany. Let me let me finish with Kathleen. Sorry, my throat is really dry tonight. So Kathleen, here is my suggestion for toy breeds. And I know you have, I remember correctly, Japanese chin. And any of these smaller toy breeds tend to get almost hypoglycemic in a long day. And so you show in the breed, you win the breed and that's eight o'clock in the morning, and you're not going in the group ring until four o'clock in the afternoon. So put the dog away, put it in its dog crate in the setup, give it a toy, put it in the X pen, let it chill, right? Give it a little bit of lunch, right? So some people don't feed before they show in the morning. I'm one of those people. Make sure that it has food after that, that hypoglycemia can really, really, really weigh down on those on those small five, 10 pound dogs. Okay. Try a little B pollen or B vitamin. Just I am not a fan of NutriKal and some of these other things that are just quick pick me ups and particularly in the toy breeds, the hypoglycemic crash and burn of spike and fall. I just really don't like it. So B pollen is a is a really good one. And just chilling out, right? Like, in their pen, playing with a toy, having a nap in their fluffy bed, whatever it is that is that dog's particular happy place, let them have that, make sure they've had a good potty, make sure they've had a good nap, make sure they've had a good lunch. And then it's like a whole new game all over again. The biggest thing I would not do is leave them sitting on the table for hours and hours and hours and hours on end. Chen do not have such extensive grooming regimens that you can't do it in 15 minutes before the group ring, right? Dog is clean. Maybe wipe up a little pee from when he went outside and you're done. And so I really think it's important that those dogs get a lot of rest, and a lot and a good snack and a little bit of running around exercise and then they're fresh and ready to go later in the day. I think the very worst thing you can do is drag them around, push them around, put them on the table, leave them on the table, do all of those things that I see too often. And they're just detrimental that poor dog is exhausted. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. So if you want to take a nap, your dog wants to take a nap. That's always a great plan. So anyway, let me know if that if that kind of rings the bell of Kathleen. Bethany walking hormones. Okay, this is actually a thing that you can, you can work on. Remember that teenage boy dogs are teenage boy dogs just like teenage boys are teenage boys in much the same way. Teenage male anything thinks lower than with their brain, just gonna leave it there. And when those dogs are all jacked up like that, it's hard to get them to concentrate. So one of the things that you can do is actually kind of take away some of their ability to spell some of their environments. The old time dog handlers used menthol, right? Like Vix like the thing you put on your throat when you have a cold. That's kind of mean to a dog that has so many smelling receptors, although I'm not gonna lie, I've done I actually like and have used and had really great success with vanilla, just like pure vanilla extract on a cotton ball, swipe it under their nose. And all of a sudden, all those girl hormones aren't nearly as exciting because the sense of smells a little bit deadened without destroying it entirely long term. So there's that tiny tip of the day. Okay, yes, B pollen is one of my favorites, Kathleen. It's a longer acting, less glycemic index kind of thing. And I think just is a better overall supplement during the course of the dog show weekend, you know, give them a little bit with their lunch sort of thing. Okay, anybody else drop something in the in the chat there. Meanwhile, I want to talk about a couple things. When we talk about having a challenge in the ring, there's there's kind of like categories, right? So a dog that pulls away from the judge is one category, moving with their dog is today's apparently today's category. And and pacing so like they're moving wrong. So since we're on the moving category seems to be what everybody started with. Pacing, pacing is a thing that we see in a lot of breeds, a lot of breeds, particularly large breeds, any of the more square breeds very, very common. It is somewhat structure. It is somewhat lazy, to be honest with you. It is not proper movement for the show ring. So we avoid it. We don't want the judge to see his pacing, the judge is going to yell at you if your dog paces. Hopefully they'll yell nicely, but I'm saying. So we're going to talk a little bit about how you can avoid that number one and how you can fix it number two if it happens. So to avoid it ever happening, we need to start training our dogs on leash when their baby puppies, right? Like I talk about this all the time, like you have to do this all the time. This isn't something that you yank your dog off the couch and run into the show ring and think they're going to be big winners. I mean, it's just not going to happen, guys. So be realistic. Know that you have to put the work in and put the work in. And if you don't put the work in, don't complain when you get beat. That's that's all I ask. Start with your baby puppies just on a kennel lead, teach them to walk on a leash. Walk on a loose leash. Loose leash is always a challenge. And as they learn to do that, as you've got them on this little soft kennel lead and they're going the wrong way and you turn the other direction and say puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy, puppy, and they come running to you and pretty soon they just kind of stay with you. That loose leash walking is so critical to training the dog later to move the idea of going in circles. And instead of, you know, just being really rigid, it has to do this, it has to do that, it can't do the other thing. We're very loose and we're very free and very open with these baby puppies as we get started with this. The basic ideas they have to stay with you. Okay. And then you kind of can graduate from there. I don't put my baby puppies on a show collar, you know, like a chain show collar or anything like that. Often until they're six months old. They learn to do everything on a kennel lead. And they learn to free stack without a leash at all. And they learn to hand stack either on the table or on the ground for a piece of food or, you know, before they go in their crate or what have you. So those sorts of early foundational building blocks are so, so, so important. And I think one of the things that in today's society too many of us lose track of is that these are dogs. They are not for children. They're dogs. There are comparisons between raising a puppy and raising a child. But they're dogs. They need boundaries. They need guidance. They need direction. And they need someone to be in charge of their universe because if you're not in charge of their universe, they're going to decide they're in charge of their universe. And that is rarely in any breed going to be a good idea. And in some of the, you know, the the big strong working and tougher sporting breeds and things like that. It can really be dangerous. So really start with dogs, giving them guidance, giving them boundaries, giving them direction, building them up, helping them understand nothing is worrisome. You got them. No problem. I got you. Right. I got your six, babe. And if they understand that everything is going to go a lot better and a lot smoother all the way along. So with your movement, start on the loosely swapping. If they, as you go along, if you're finding that they want to forge ahead or they want to lunge or they want to do some of these other things, teaching them to respect the leash pressure is so important. And it's just a simple tap. Right. You tap the leash and you go the other way. You can do it with a slip collar. You can do it with a kennel lead. You can do it in almost any way. But they need to understand that they don't get to just drag you around. That's not acceptable behavior. It's not funny. It's not cute. You don't put a harness on to solve it. All that does is make them pull harder and further away. Just a simple tap on the collar and go the other direction. And they're going to understand that that's the way they do things. Okay. So starting with that foundational piece, then you move up to starting to teach them to walk nicely beside you on the leash. Right. So you've got the idea of a loose leash. You don't gag and drag. You don't like run away with me. And so I again, I start all of my puppies with that. As I mentioned, the the leash right on the point of the oxapot, not tight, but just so they know that there's a collar there. And we just go in a straight line and you have to walk before you can run. And I think this is something that's so important. Everybody wants to start running. No, no, no, no, no, no. Everybody has to walk before they can run. So walk down and back. Just walk, just walk, just walk, walk on the straight line, walk back in a straight line. Then the dog will know what it's actually supposed to do. And then you can trot down and back. Okay. But just think of it as building blocks. Think of it as baby steps. Think of it as setting your dog up for success. And if you just slap a chain, collar on them and run, they don't know what's going on. They don't understand what you're demanding of them. So try to have a little respect for their perspective and helping them understand what you're asking them to do. So finally, you have this dog that after all of this still thinks that pacing is the right answer. I see this Akitas. I have had a number of Akitas over the years who could actually go from a trot to a pace while moving. It was frightening. It's truly frightening. A few Ridgebacks. A Portuguese water dog that was such an amazingly smooth pacing dog that most judges never noticed and would give him the breed while he was pacing. It was terrifying. So I'm saying this is a thing that is particularly challenging. So your best solution is that you need to get the dog a little bit off balance. Like you would put a horse a little off balance if it's going on the wrong lead, for example. So you do your exam, take your dog, gather it up, go in a big, what we call a courtesy turn, right? All the way. And your courtesy turn should end at like the ring gate behind the judge. And you're going to do one, two, three and a little lift on the collar. Just doesn't have to be like a big production. You don't have to hurt the dog. Just lift. Just bump them off balance. Lift them up. If they have a beard, used to scruffle the beard on one of the spinonies that like to pace, right? Anything that just throws them off a little bit and then go. And the important thing about a dog that paces don't stop. Like seriously, you have to keep moving. So you're on your down and back and in most cases I say go to the end of the down, stop, turn around, look where you're going, go back. No, down, back. Don't stop. Because once the dog is actually moving properly at a trot, it's much easier to keep him moving properly at a trot than it is to start him and have him pop out of a pace. Generally speaking, speed is a big part of it. Practice. Have a friend watch you, videotape it. Know what a pace feels like on the leash and what it looks like on the camera. All right. Remember a pace is when you take the left front and the left rear forward together and then you take the right front and the right rear forward together versus what they're supposed to do which is the left front and the right rear together underneath the dog to balance them and then the right front and the left rear. Same thing. Okay, so that's that's a primer on pacing. Amanda, hello. Amanda Deprens. Suggestions for making the table happier place for my pug bitch. Oh, honey, we can be c-stas. I have that pug bitch. Current tactic, uber short sessions with glurious treats and praise, liver worse steak, etc. Result, sad tale, won't let me stack, reaching. Okay, trust me when I tell you I feel your pain. May I introduce you to kiss the pug dog who's terrible, horrible. The thing that I have found with many of the table breeds that I have shown over the years, pug's not no different than anybody else. The same work that we do to teach them a free stack on the ground, right, like walk up and then walk into the stack, all of those things that we do to teach them a big dog or to teach a dog to a free stack on the ground, we can do the same thing with our table dogs. We are so insistent that we have to pick them up and plop them down and they're going to just be fine. And a lot of dogs are horrified by that, they're like, I don't need you, I got this, I don't, I can do this just fine. Right, so I have found many of those dogs, if you put them on the table at the very, very back of the table, pray for one of those big exam tables, right, put them on the table at the very back and walk them up, like your free stack and then walk them towards you, stand in front of them, do, do, do, do, do, and they come like they're doing a free stack on the table and then at the very last minute you whip around and maybe fix a foot and do your, your presentation for the judge, that will solve a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them. My general go-to for most of these guys is to see what happens if I let them do it themselves and, and honestly it is shocking how much difference it makes. The other thing that I have had success with, with pugs, some with Manchester's more is less drama, for lack, for lack of a better thing, less, less liverwurst and more just super boring, right? Like we go up on the table and you stand here and you just do that very con, you know how I'm talking that really calm hand and you just set your hand on the dog and you just stroke really quietly and you do that ahead of the table exam, right? So not on the table in the ring, I'm talking outside the ring, bring a ringside table, set the dog up on the table and just quietly stroke it and just really give the dog the confidence. Everything is fine, this is no big drama, we're not really making a big scene about this and as they relax on the table and as they stand up there for a while with you, you just put that calm hand just really quiet, almost a t-touch concept, just right? So you're really just pushing the energy through the dog, that dog will settle and you'll feel it settle underneath your hand and as they settle and as they relax and they settle down into their body, their tail will come up, their ears will go up, everything will come with that, but that's gonna, it takes, it takes time depending on the dog and the reason that they're unhappy on the table are they scared, are they mad, are they whatever, right? So there's different reasons for dogs to have problems on the table. So understanding the source of the dog's unhappiness and yes, you might be micromanaging and adding to the drama, yes, that is possible. Pug does as Pug wants, forever is so, so, so true. They are ancient, they are they're Chinese royalty dude, like, they don't really want you messing with them. The people that can teach pug dogs to hand stack, I bow, man. I'm like, I've shown best in show winning bugs, I've shown them, I've finished, I can't even tell you how many bugs I've finished. I don't think I've ever had one I could hand stack, they're like, that's how they think about that. Okay, so that was fabulous, Amanda, try that, try the throw them up on the table, walking forward and say yeah, right and and just really relax through that. And I think a lot of times so many times. And I say, and I don't say this to be mean to you or to anyone at all, I say it to myself all the time. It's almost never the dog. It's almost always us. And once we figure out what we're doing wrong, right, the dog is what we're doing wrong. And we didn't listen, we didn't hear what they were telling us, we didn't, we didn't appreciate the depth of their angst or their, or their fear or their concern or their independence or you know, whatever it is. So I think that is so important in so many things in our relationship with our dogs is listen, listen to what they're telling you because they'll tell you. And if we can do that, I think we'll all be so much happier. Okay, so while we wait for another question, we talked about the pace and we talked about a little bit, as I was answering one of the other questions, but I want to talk some more about how to move with your dog. And it's always better when we can do these in lives. So like I said, if you guys can get to Chicago for the workshops, I'm doing a handling workshop with that and we'll work on some of these things. Moving with your dog, no matter what your breed is, is so critical to the success of the presentation because you are always, whether you're standing or moving, a frame for your dog. Okay, that is how you think of yourself. You are a picture frame for your grand masterpiece. That is your mindset. That is your presentation. That is your body language. That is your dress code. That is everything. I am a beautiful frame for my masterpiece. It is not about me. It is about my dog. And like any great artwork, the frame isn't meant to be seen. So when we move with our dogs, our goal is to move smoothly, to move from the hips. All of the drive, when we move around the ring with our dogs is from the hips. And so, whether you're walking or running, whether you have a Chihuahua or a German Shepherd dog, the same things apply. Move from the hips. Drive from the hips. All of the motion in your body is below your waistline. Everything from your hips up is quiet. Just like we want our dog's top lines to stay still, unless we're a clumber spaniel and then we want them to go like so. Right? Okay. It's really important how we move to impact how our dog moves. So drive from the hips. Take long strides. This is not a joke. I help people visualize this by talking about cross-country skiing. If you've ever done cross-country skiing, if you've ever watched cross-country skiing at the Olympics or what have you, that kind of concept, low feet on you means low feet on your dogs. Low hand means low head, which means better reach. All of those things go together. And that is just I think too often we all want to do the flash and splash that we see in the ring from other people. And God bless Nancy Martin when she was showing and she had her four-inch fingernails and she would hook the leash for the samoyed on the fingernail. On the fingernail and go around the ring with it. Well, that was beautiful, but not the rest of us can't all do that. Yes, Bethany, y'all find me the ticket fly me down to Australia. I am down. I'm so all about it. At any rate, so watch how you're moving. Practice moving if you're new to this or even if you're old to this. Practice moving with no dog on your leash, just a leash in your hand. And that leash should never move. If you're moving properly, and there's no dog attached to your leash, there should be no sway, no swing, no flailing around, no it's sort of like when they talk to the models about walking with a glass of water on your head or a book on your head or whatever. It's the same basic concept. It's that concept of sheer core control. And one of the reasons I have found over the course of time that many of the best dog handlers are also relatively good athletes. It's because they understand core control. They understand how to control their bodies. And those of us who are kind of not athletes have learned how to do that particular component. And so that's very important, right? Move from the hips, upper body still, left hand holding the leash still, attached at rib hip height, right, right hand swings, left hand doesn't, like grab your head and pat your tummy, all that stuff. Those are incredibly important things. Core control and supportive undergarments, yes, yes, we don't want to be dismissive of anyone. But I do encourage everyone to keep in mind the vision that you are a frame. You are a picture frame. So put the prettiest frame around dog that you can range. And know that it is about your dog. And the painting inside the frame is what counts. But the frame helps showcase it. Elliot, Elliot, how you doing? National specialty prep. Okay, have your dog really well trimmed. Have your outfits put together that you know what you're going to wear. Be sure that you have a packing list. Be sure that your packing list has extras of everything. I am an overpacker. Anyone who has ever met me will tell you horrendous overpacker. But I'm rarely unprepared. Most important thing you need is your dog, right? You can buy everything else, but you need your dog. What else would you like to prepare for the national? You should know who you're showing to. You should know the classes you're showing in. Sorry, we're having a power surge and I'm going to open my door. Hole, please. Okay. Know the judge that you're showing to. Know what their type of dog, preferred type of dog is. Know what class you're showing in. Know what your competition looks like if you can. Study the catalog when you get there. Watch the classes ahead of you. Make sure you know what the whole entire McGillicuddy is. Go to all the meals. Buy things at the banquet at the auction. Do all the stuff. Um, national specialties are, they really are magic. And it is where I have learned pretty much everything I know about most of my breeds. Um, I have been to many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many national specialties and all of the breeds in which I am most, um, well-versed. And they have been incredible learning opportunities. So take advantage of it. Go talk to people. Meet everybody. Don't be shy. Elliot, I'm pretty sure you've got that nailed. So what else? What else do you want to know, Elliot? Melissa, welcome. How are you? Okay. Um, Melissa asks, says she's seen many juniors swing their right hands as they run. Is that proper? It seems almost fake to a point. Okay. So, Melissa, what you're talking about is what I refer to and not in glowing terms as the junior lean, where they go like this. Yeah, it makes me crazy. Please don't ever do that in my junior's ring. Um, but what I encourage people to do is your left hand is still with the leash. Your right hand is, is kind of at your side. It's not out here flailing like a broken duck wing, right? It's right here. And it's like you're going for a jog or a walk if you're, if you're in a walking breed, if you have a chihuahua, you're not running, you're just walking, whatever your arm would normally do at that pace, your right arm should do that. Your left arm should not. And I will never forget one of the gals in one of my handling classes. She had border collies. She could not, like could not, could not do that. She was a runner and for love, nor money. Could she make that left hand be still? God love her. I mean, she just couldn't do it. So it is in fake and you want to make sure that it looks natural. That's a, that's a big part of your, you're absolutely right in what you're seeing, Melissa. And so make sure that you are really aiming for that natural framing, that natural presentation that would be the natural position of your right hand whenever you were walking or running. Elliot, it is exciting. It is not terrifying. Nationals, go back and listen. Elliot, if you haven't heard it, go back to a keyword search on the, on the website for Eileen Hackett's interview on Pure Dog Talk. She talks about national specialties and why they are mentor magic. And they are, they absolutely are. You will never see that many dogs from such a wide variety of places, wide variety of breeders in the same place. Talk to more than one person. Talk to everyone you can find. Talk to new people. Talk to old people. Don't try not to get in a camp, right? I assume your breeders gonna be there. If not, take Brad dead and go do the things, right? Do all the things. That's what I would say. If your first national specialty, you should soak up all of the things that you can possibly, possibly do. I am sorry, you guys. Really having a dry throat night. Okay, next. While we're waiting for our next question, we've got about 10 more minutes, you guys. So I'm going to do just me and Brad dad. All right, that's good. You and Brad dad have a blast. I wish I could be a fly on the wall. You will have so much fun. I will send you a message about some people that you should talk to. And for everybody who's listening, that doesn't know Elliot Winsall, Elliot is an incredible young man who has an idetic memory, I'm pretty sure. And he is the Westminster Kennel Club, trivia guru of all time. And I prompted as such by all the Westminster Kennel Club people. He is also a patron on Peer Dog Talk. And so this is one of the things you get for being a patron is easy access to anti-Laura. Heather, how are you doing? I really hope you're feeling better. Great new friends at Nationals. Hope to go this year. You'll have a great time. Yes, all those things. I have, so I had such a belly laugh the other day. So two of my Breeds Nationals are on the West Coast this year. The Spannownee National is in May, and I will be showing a couple dogs of mine at the Spannownee National. And then the Wirehair Pointer National is in Washington in end of September. And I won't be showing anything, but a number of my dogs will be there, or dogs that I bred technically. None of my dogs can be there because I'm judging at the show afterwards. Anyway, so I am so excited about the Spannownee National. Many of you know Stacey Belt, who's the co-breeder on the Spannownees that I work with, formerly my client, etc. She is banned from the dog show ring. She's the worst student I've ever had. And so, God love her. She knows this. And so we, she always wants to have something to show when we always tell her no. And so we decided this year that she and Claire Wish, who is the owner on the number one Spannownee right now that Stacey bred, are going to do brace. And Stacey's going to take the white brace, and Claire's going to take the brown brace. And there's going to be Spannownee brace competition between Claire and Stacey, who never go in the show ring. And it's going to be fabulous. So those kinds of moments you can't, you absolutely, yes, they are doing brace. Yes, Stacey is doing brace with, I think she's doing brace with Adele and Viz maybe. And I believe that Claire is going to do brace with Josie and Lark. In other words, hashtag not Josie. At any rate, so these are the kind of fun things that happen at Nationals. The Wire Hairpointer National in 2000, I think it was in Bend. Sweepstakes was being judged by a long time breeder. And I had just gotten my first pygmy goat delivered by another Wire Hair person, and I took it in the ring and showed her my Wire Hair pygmy goat. I mean, these are the kinds of things that just Nationals are, it is really hard for me to express. And I have, I've spent years trying to explain how powerful Nationals are. And there are very few Nationals that I've been to in my breed that, Stacey's here. Oh my gosh. Hey Stace, I didn't know you were here. Yes, you get to show something, you guys get to show in brace. A balloon dog show. You can do anything. You can do all of the things. Nationals are about, I, my National in any breed has been my vacation more years than I can count. At 54, I would say 40 of those years have been spent having a vacation at a National. I didn't go to Hawaii. I didn't go to Aruba. I went to freaking Peoria, Illinois, or some Godforsaken end of nowhere place because it was the National. And that's what you do. And that's where you learn. And that is where you make memories that you will never, ever, ever lose. Okay, six minutes. And then my dry throat. Your end cap for the evening is a story. Oh, there's so many stories. I can't even begin to tell you which story. Oh, okay, good. Thank God. Amanda saved me from having to come up with a story for you guys. Thank you, Amanda. The amount of time to look at the dog versus the judge. I've been told I don't look at the judge enough. I worry about looking creepy, good. Tips for good balance, key times to watch the ditch. Oh my God, this is such an amazing question. You win the gold star of the day. So I like to talk about ring awareness. That's so much staring at the judge. Okay, so you make eye contact with the judge. When you walk in the ring, they check your armband number. You make eye contact. You know, here's my armband number. Then they come to examine your dog. They come up to the dog. Make eye contact, right? You don't have to say anything. You don't have to like have a chitty-chitty conversation. Just make eye contact, human conversation. Human eye contact. They will ask you to go down and back. Say yes, ma'am, or thank you, sir, or whatever. Some small connection right there. Come back from you down and back. Make eye contact to see, you know, are they satisfied with the picture that you're presenting? What have you? And they'll tell you to go around. Once again, thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir, what have you? Then, so you've done your exam. You've come in. You've done your exam. You've done your down and back. You're in line. And now the judge is coming down the line, right? They've looked at all the dogs, blah, blah, blah, in the class and then breed, whatever. And they're coming down the line. And they're looking at, usually, they're going to come like so. Right? The line is, and they're looking at the expression. Make sure you make eye contact with the judge then, too. Even if they're standing clear across the ring and looking at a profile, make an effort to make eye contact then. So those are your key points for eye contact. The rest of the time, pay attention. When you're in the ring, you don't have to stare at the judge or anybody else. But have peripheral vision and use it. Know what's going on. Know that the dog in front of you is about to blow up. Know that the dog behind you is having a lunging, gagging fit. Know that the judge watches every dog all the way around and that you should free-stack at the end of your go-round. Know those things by paying attention to what's going on in the ring. And that is ring awareness more than eye contact with the judge. So those two separate things. Beautiful, beautiful question, Amanda. Stacey, the national is about exhibiting the best of your breeding and sometimes us breeders need help. We get to compete against dogs we never see and critique our own fallacies. And you go stud dog shopping and you see what families are producing what and how you're stuck up against that. Situational awareness, yes. That's a great way of thinking about it, Stacey. Beaming like an idiot at your dog is fine, but make eye contact. They're people. Here's what I'm going to tell you. I'm a dog show judge. None of us was ever hatched from an egg. We're all people. We all put on our pants one time, one leg at a time, blah, blah, blah. All that stuff, right? They're people. Make eye contact with them. They won't bite you. I tell people in my ring, they're all nervous. I'm like, I haven't bitten anybody in a week. Two weeks. Be all right, okay. Keep that in mind. Absolutely. Proper times for loose lead versus tight lead. Okay, so loose lead typically is on your go-round. If your dog will gait properly ahead of you, Elliott, let him go. Let him go to the leash. Let him go a little bit ahead of you. That's completely fine. If you can, if your dog can manage that. If it can't, don't do it. Don't set yourself up for failure. Always, and I don't say a tight lead, but more contact is always better on your down and back because it's more controlled. And you need to have that straight line, okay? Okay, you guys, this has been awesome. It's been a fabulous hour. Thank God for YouTube versus Facebook. Facebook bite me. But here's what I need, you guys. I did Facebook Live because we couldn't get a lot of traction. We weren't getting a ton of people. I had more people on the Facebook Live that crapped out four times than I have on the YouTube Live. And so this is my problem. Trying to get consistency of the product versus traction with the community. So help me out. Everybody that's here, do me a giant favor because I helped you. You helped me, right? That's the deal. Okay. Share this stuff. Share it with your friends. Go find this link to this YouTube and share it out and say watch for it next month. First Tuesday of every month, we might be going to Live at five instead of Lightning Round, but something like that. I'd really love for more people to be able to see these. So absolutely share this. Share the love. I share the love with you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody for joining us. Fabulous questions. Awesome. Amanda, thank you so much. And I'm really glad everybody could join us. I always have so much fun. These are great. And this is, like I said, a live podcast is something I've been wanting to do forever. So I'm really, really excited that we got to do this. So thanks, guys. Thanks for coming. You could absolutely post it anywhere. There will be a link that will pop up on YouTube. It'll be under the Live. You have to go look under the Live section instead of just in my regular YouTube channel or whatever. Go to the Live section. There'll be a link. Share it. It's public. Share it. Loud and proud, everybody. All right. Thanks a lot. Good night, you guys.