Has anyone ever had a problem with a young dog with too much 'tuck-up?'.

I know it's something that should improve with age but as a temporary solution, before going into the ring, someone suggested giving the dog a bowl of milk, as this should swell the stomach up slightly to improve the amount of tuck-up.  Anyone any suggestions?

sarah

Don't rush your dog, you will be laughing when all those winning Juniors will look like old men.

Thanks Jackie,
It's just so frustrating when your 19 month old bitch looks so immature compared to similar aged dogs/bitches.

We had this, our aussie boy looked gorgous in puppy and done abt of winning with numerous puppy group wins, then in juior and start in post grad looked awful and didn't do any winning at all (didn't help he had no coat!) :(  Now he is over 2 years he is finally starting to mature and look nice, now the litle sods losing his coat just to be bald at bath!!!!!

Rox

I had exactly the same problem, i was worried about my male rottie, he was up against males that looked huge when we went up a class from puppy, but everyone said just wait his time will come and i am glad to say i waited ,and now at 2 he is starting to look more mature , i have another 15 months ahead of me until he is fully mature but now he can hold his own up against a good class of males that are older than him,if you can find some pics of dogs the same breed at ages 6 months,18 months,22months and then 4 years old you will see the dif in the dogs, so don't rush,your dog will proberly look better in a couple of years than those that look good now. hope that makes sense.
Carol

Give me a slow maturer any day.You're only in Puppy and junior classes for 12 months..a slow maturer will hopefully give you loads of fun in adult classes for many years!!
Archer

Gawd I hope so Archer :-)  My 3 year old male is taking his time, only a few months ago did his brisket finally drop to elbow level, now I just want him to fill out.  We're in limit at champ shows and he just looks lost against the other more mature males but I felt age wise he should be moved out of post grad however when we were in post grad we won the class a couple of times and never went home cardless.  All that has changed now :-(  I'm now wondering if regardless of his age I should have kept him in post grad a while longer.

I call my oldest boy my  'ugly duckling'...as I've posted before he was always thrown out/last till 18 months old and the started winning/placing well.He was 3 before I moved him up to Limit..hes now done 2 Limit classes .winning both with RCCS.I can still see him maturing before my eyes ...his breeder did tell me he'd be 3 or 4 before he was fully mature.
I now look at it as a good thing but remember thinking that I'd love one of those 'older' looking puppys when they kept beating us!!
Archer

Dont put your dog down Claire from what I have seen he is a lovely dog.  We too are in limit soon.
Nutkin :D

Aw thanks Nutkin :-)  And don't you dare move into Limit yet, I've always admired your lad :D  You've got a rather nice looking young bitch out too if my memory serves me correctly ?

I have a 9mth old schippy bitch who still hasn't finished teething, she was taken out at 6mths with a mouth full of puppy teeth, she still got bpib but like the judge said she needs to mature into being a puppy lol.

Her father was the same he took a 2nd at Crufts in Junior but didn't mature until he was 4 and even then he looked like a junior dog bless him.  The breed has a long show lifespan so I don't worry about taking them out too early if they are from a slow maturing line. I  show the faster maturing dogs but even then you can find yourself like me with an 8mth old puppy who could walk into open dog and get placed so of course they get ignored as younsters for a different reason, that happend to Dakota but it didn't stop him making  Champion by the age of 3 which is breed average 3 - 5 yrs old swings and round abouts but I would rather have the slower maturing as at least you know they won't go over to early.