Need some help/critique

[amenin]

I'm trying to get back into showing but I'm having difficulty with posing.

Here's Tonka posing before and after-

before:

after:

I was really trying to focus on lining his feet up more... Is he facing too far away from the camera or is this an okay distance? Please, I need critique.

Profiles with Toyota and Kiku-

Toyota-

Kiku-

What can I do to improve the profile poses?

I've been reading some posing threads over at RKC but I think some critique on my actual dogs will help me out a lot more visually. Thanks!

[[Lucid]]

Okay, let me see if I can help you out a little.
With the first two poses, the dog is in "overpose" (judges will DQ this) which is what happens right before the dog actually settles down into a pose. It puffs up extra tall, and then comes back down into a regular pose.

The bottom two poses are unaligned, but you're getting closer, the dogz are posing here. But both of these entries would probably be DQ'd in most shows because they're severely unaligned.



This is my dog Brambles, she's kind of similar in build to your Rotties. This pose isn't PERFECT as there are a few pixels sticking out here and there, but it's good enough to place. In a correct pose, the dogz legs are aligned so that you cannot see any pixels in the front or back of the legs. Usually with showy petz breeds, once the legs are aligned, the camera angle is correct. It takes A LOT of patience to get a pose just right. I've posed dogz for up to an hour sometimes, but you just have to be persistent. I'll try to get some more pictures up to help.

[Dani @ Caradobe]

In Tonka's before picture he is faced to close to the camera and in his after picture a little bit too far away. Both are overposes. An overpose is when the dog is trying too hard and goes a bit extreme; it's also called a double pose. The back legs become wonky and the head seems distorted and too high because of this.
Alignment is based off the ankles. Since all three dogs are hexed breeds then when the ankles are aligned you shouldn't be able to see any of the legs furthest from the camera.

Toyota: Are you using P5? If so, I think this is a skinny pose. It's hard to tell with this breedfile. Skinny poses just mean the chest isn't puffed out so the dog doesn't seem to be showing off as much. With rotties you can usually tell because their neck doesn't look thick and solid. Also, she is faced too far from the camera by about 5 pixels. Try aligning her ankles. With her head, I'm not a very good judge simply because I'm not familiar with the breed, but it looks just a tad too close to the camera. Her rear leg is a great example of the breed. This file should be completely straight and she captures that. If the alignment was better it would be more obvious.

Kiku - This pose is decent. It won't place high in shows, but it's the best of the lot. She looks somewhat strained, so it might be a skinny pose and I'm not sure why her front paw would be slightly lifted unless you pet her while posing. Her topline slopes towards the neck suggesting it's a low breathing point. If you can catch her when she's between inhaling and exhaling it should either slope towards her rear or be somewhat flat. Her head alignment looks wonderful!

[amenin]

Yes, I am using P5.

Thanks you guys! This is really helping me out!! ^_^;;; I am definitely going to sit down and try to get some better poses (hopefully).

Please, feel free to post more pictures as this is really informative for me!

Edit: Actually, if I could also get some feedback on my akita's dalmatian pose as well.

Kiku-

[Dani @ Caradobe]

Omg, Lucid you ninja'd me!

P5 is hard to pose in due to random glitches added in such as skinny posing. It's hard to tell, but it's a subconscious thing that makes judges place lower in forums. If you show PKC they are automatically disqualified along with all overposes.

Kiku's dali pose is unaligned as well. Look at her back legs. See those few pixels that are slightly darker sticking out? That means she's unaligned. The goal is so you can't see any pixels from the rear legs. Again, her closer back leg looks good and straight, but it isn't very obvious when the further leg is sticking out. Her back looks great. It's straight(ish) or as close as I think the breed can go. She looks fuller, so I think you got the full extent of her pose. The one issue with the head is lack of balance. The nose and eyes should line up horizontally so they look even, not lopsided.

Here are Mei Ling, my Chow Chow, and Danger, my doberman.

Mei Ling has two marks on her, the rear leg and her back. See how the back leg is completely straight at the bottom? This is how it should look on your dogs when you get the alignment correct. Also, her back is straight once her neck ends. This shows the breathing is good and your akita should have a back as close to straight as Mei Ling's. Your Rotties should have back's like Toyotas. Their backs generally slope slightly towards their rump.

Danger has marks on her rear legs and face. She is a petzy doberman and while both your dogs are show breeds I thought I'd show Danger's legs as well. She is slightly out of alignment by one pixel. This is seen through her rear legs, but just the one pixel should not hurt her too much in the show ring. However, look at how straight the bottom of her leg is. Her paw is not as shaped so it doesn't look as smooth as Mei Ling's, but the line itself is straight showing that she is at a high breathing point. Her face shows good dali alignment. Her eyes and nose are level. Also, with her nose if you look closely there is one pixel breaking up the two nose balls. This means that her nose is as perfectly centered as it's going to get. There is no way I can get it better. I marked it with a vertical red line directly above it. You can zoom in to see it better.

I hope this helps

[amenin]

Thank you so much again! This is super informational and useful!

[[Lucid]]

Okay, so I think this will help! I used your dog 2 that you sent me.

I've highlighted the errors in each pose (except the overpose, and the standing pose which are complete errors no matter how aligned the legs might be).

5 and 1 are the only poses that would be possibly placeable and acceptable to use in a show. This amount of unalignment is acceptable, though the more aligned the pose, the better it will place. All of the other poses would likely be DQ'd, at least in my shows.

Ideally with the pose you want with the Akita is the first pose. The head alignment is nearly perfect, and the legs are slightly off. You should always aim for as close to perfect alignment as possible. Akitas will probably place better in a Dane (profile) pose than a Dali pose because they tend to look like they're just standing in Dali. Also, the base breed is a Great Dane, so they look better posed in Dane pose than Dali, but that is up to you.

With the Dali pose, there is a very slight difference between the "standing" pose above and the correct Dali pose, and it's in the way the dog's head is lifted. In Dali pose, the dog lifts it's head up and centers it and looks "proud". It does not look slouched over like pose #4.

I hope this will help you! As always, it takes time, effort and persistance to get a good pose. It's better to keep trying than to give up and edit the pics or anything along those lines that could get you in trouble. This took me half an hour. Some dogz will be more difficult than that. Don't give up!

[amenin]

Oh wow, thanks so much! It's a lot easier to see the differences now, this is super helpful. I'm definitely going to keep at it!