I started working seriously on stacking Mishka. Talk about a patience test. She hates having her feet touched, if I have to put a foot back into place. She is soooo excited about the food I am tempting her with that I cannot get her to hold still. She's doing all she can to get/find the food. She is not quite 11 weeks old, so this is understandable...BUT....how in the world do I do this?? I have tried getting her to free stack, but she just jumps and dances around for the food or sits down.

Please help~don't really want to spend $200 bucks on stacking blocks.

Thanks! J

I worked with show dogs wayyyy back in the day. (When I was 13-14, I sort of "apprenticed" with an awesome mother- daughter team who raised and showed Cardigan Welsh Corgis in conformation, along with other doggy activities such as obedience, herding, and even therapy work in hospitals) One of the skills I learned to prepare the dogs for the show ring was to stare. Complete, absolute focus on you (the handler). Sort of get them to lock their stance and focus intently on you. Free- stacking, if you will. It's good that Mishka is food motivated, as it will make this easy for you to teach her. Show her the treat, bring it close to her nose to smell, then pull it away for her to see it again, and as soon (and I mean, immediately!) as you get her attention, give the treat and praise. You're goal is to get her to hold her attention on you/ the 'bait" for a little bit longer each time, while using a command such as "stand" or "stack" if she responds well to verbal commands. The more you do this, the longer she will stand and hold her stance until you give the release. Now, I understand your main problem is manually stacking her, because she doesn't like to have her feet touched. I'm not really sure what you can do to fix this other than to try and touch her feet daily, to sort of desensitize her. Maybe, have some treats on- hand, and touch one foot ever so gently, and then immediately praise her with a treat. Just a thought. Maybe that will help her to associate having her feet touched, picked up, and placed back down with good things... treats!

Becca gave some great advice.

Most dogs don't like having their feet touched as it's not a "normal" thing to them. The best thing you can do is like Becca said is to desensitize her. Play with her feet every day multiple times a day (usually when she is relaxed - not when you're attempting to stack). Reward her for allowing you to do it without flinching or moving her feet away from you. When she's comfortable with this and comfortable with you grabbing her feet and moving them than you can actually work on manipulating for a stack.

Good idea. I had already started working on attention so maybe the first step would be to just get her to hold still and focus on me. I am also going to start standing her while hand feeding her one if her meals and messing with her feet then. Anyone else?

Rather than messing with her feet, use her legs. You still want to get her feet desensitized for nail and pad hair trimming, but you don't hand stack by feet but further up the leg even as high as the elbows near the body. To place the rear, reach under the tooshie (you can go either backward under the belly or forward under the bum) lift up just enough to get the weight off the legs, let them fall naturally into place set down. As long as the rear is good the feet will naturally place. For free stacking, when she jumps up back away tell her no or uh-uh and start again. If she is too excitable wait until she winds down before trying to work with her again.

The best thing you can do, IMO, is find a handling class for you and your pup. They are usually really reasonably priced and I've always had a lot of fun going to the class. This is especially important if you don't have a mentor to show with.

Good idea. She does fall into place but she wants to move her right rear paw forward ? Basically just doesnt want to stand still. I do gave a class i can go to but we are waitibg for all her shots. But by that time she will be nearly 16 weeks and i really want to gave the basics down before then.

By 16 weeks you are well on the right track. Don't rush it, no matter what kind of training it is. She is a puppy and puppies are wiggly, that's ok! She's not going to go into the ring her first show and be a stone sculpture. At 16+ weeks you'll have a good foundation, handling class will get you the rest of the way.

Ok great. No dont expect her to be perfect at all! Just dont want to be embarrased or to screw her up making silly rookie mistakes!

No need to worry there is plenty of time. Lord I didn't even start really working with Denali until he was 6 months old, literally weeks before his first show! They need to take some time to grow up, yes breeders post pics of 5 week old puppies in perfect stacks, trust me there are dozens of moving wiggle shots before that perfect capture I just experienced that again this week evaluating a litter myself. No stress, have fun, and even if your dog does do something that is 'embarrassing' you are new most people will just laugh with you and tell you it's ok and how when they started something equally embarrassing happened to them too. Just don't let them poop in the ring, that is probably the most mortifying thing I have seen-

Oh, the poop in the ring!!! At the state fair this year, there was this yellow lab in the agility ring who was running around like nuts, then did that right on the teeter. I felt so bad for the girl handling him. Anyway, I really want her breeder to be proud~maybe it's the embarrassment to her I would like to avoid! Believe me, I laugh at myself everyday...so not worried about that! ha!

One question, tho, she is in love with my younger son...seems like he is her favorite person right now. He is involved in the Jr program with his dog, and when a show offers Jr. showmanship, can we enter her in her regular class and also let him show her? Not sure about the rules on that one.....

Thanks, again...I will try to calm down! Ha! Just have some high hopes for her.....

I have seen Jr's showing in regular classes, though sometimes that can be a sort of 'disadvantage' in comparison to the more seasoned handlers. I'd say just feel it out, you may be the better handler choice as she approaches that 6 month stage. All in good time I know it can be hard, it was a long road to get here with my two girls...now I find out their first show has a 4 point Major in bitches....so pressure is officially on!

Just keep practicing and +1 on moving the legs and not the feet. I felt like Elara would NEVER learn to stack and stay put! OMG, it was horrible! But after lots of practice and taking her to conformation classes every week, she finally got it when she was about 4-6months old. Just have patience!

Seems like you received plenty of great advice already (not that I have any experience with such a thing)

Just for funnzies, here is a very food motivated stacker:

that video is great! Splash is adorable!

that is adorable!