A moment of your time if possible to help cure a happy problem. My baby Vino is 6 months and while she stands well in the ring (and everywhere) she is... "rather bouncy" while moving. She will run up and down quite well but when I go to move her round...whoopee we are off and I am lucky to get more than one foot on the ground. She is such a happy girl I do not wish to subdue her but it would be nice to have a reasonable run round so the judge can get at least a clue as to her movement !!! We practice at home and ringcraft and she is Ok'ish. I start out on a run and if she bounces I stop, then restart once she has settled and so on. She never gets her treat untill we have competed a curcuit without the Boing! Her Mum was similar but not quite so bad. She just is full of fun and loves to play so it is hard not to squash the fun but learn the trade so to speak...any ideas?
Aileen

A 6 month old puppy, full of the joys of showing, stands to be assessed, movement can be seen on your up & down, if your judge moves to the side whilst you're doing & up & down then they would see the profile movement too.  Whilst I understand that you want it all to be perfect, do judges of your breed penalise this behaviour?

The only thing i can suggest is that if you start at a slower pace, let her go ahead of you, she may think it's a game or race when you're running, then slowly speed your own gait up.

My 10 month old puppy will move fine (so long as we're not following another puppy in the ring), but he won't stand still to be assessed, he's fine at home & was fine at ringcraft but hey ho, he's very outgoing & enjoys the attention!

I would say let your baby be a baby and enjoy herself. I think too many people want puppies to act like old pro's most judges will take into account the age of your baby, in fact when showing my pup I have had judges comment on how good it is to be a puppy, so long as the judge can see movement all be it having to study your dog harder because of the playfulness I would let her enjoy her ring experience.

I know the feeling, my 7 month girl loves it so much that she has a ridiculous 'prancing' gait as she looks up at me, so sweet to see but not the right movement at all! She doesn't do it if she's just mooching around in the garden, so I'm developing a 'non showing' way of showing her, I don't talk to her or look at her, just take the lead and walk off trusting she will follow! But like others have said, it's much easier to settle an overexcited puppy as she grows older than to put the fun back into a dog that's got bored of it all, so don't worry too much yet.

I love to see a puppy behaving like a puppy in the ring.  They get older far too soon so I've never tried to calm puppy bounciness.  A good judge can see conformation through that. :)

I usually let them chew on a piece of tripe while the judge is going over them after they've bent down to look at their head to avoid a tripey kiss! :)

See how you feel three years down the line.  My girl is nearly three and as some SWD owners will tell you she is extremely bouncy and a fool.  Suppose I can't complain as this happy side made her win BIS at the first ever SWD Club Open show at 16 months of age!

I have had so many judges say she is the best constructed dog that they've ever seen and not to knock her overly mad self, but it's not easy when they get to this age and you know that she could do sooo much better :)

I have one here that went round the ring midair most of the way round ;-) She calmed down in time. As already said, start off slow and build up speed slowly. She will calm down as she grows up. It is so much easier with a bouncy pup than with one that ends up like a sack of tatties. Had one of those too :-p

My Newfy girl just the same and she is 13 months, will stand all day but as soon as you go to move she's up in the air on two legs, twisting, leaping , it's just pure excitment she is such a happy girl.
Have told her though if she does it again she's off to the pound !! But she does not listen !!!

Peanuts