I have been "hanging " pups for 20 odd years : some pics to start it off :)

Hanging pups is a tool to help sort them out : you can see so much at birth whilst they are still wet and beyond: the bones are soft and seem to just fall into place and give you a good indication of what their conformation will be like. IIt does take some practice to get used ot it : but basically holding the pup up with a finger under the butt and two fingers each side of the neck cradling the head: let the pup relax and drop their legs down : take note of where the front legs fall from : they should fall directly under the shoulders ; check the rears :: how much turn of stifle do they have :: look at the length of neck and ribbing ; have they got a topline? do they have a small forechest already ?

Write down your observations then pick up the next pup and look and compare :: I like to place them in my mind in an order of what appears to be the most balanced etc : take your time : go back to a pup and take another look :: get your eye in :: and eventually you will be able to grade them. I have picked several pups from birth and providing everything else has turned out (balls bites coat etc ) I have usually picked the winner

An example of a hung pup:::


Be interesting to see what people come up with with this girl :: I have pics of her as she got older which can post later : but for now :: comments please :: and dont hold back !

Is that Shelly?

No it isnt :: it was one out of Puddles litter :: I am not good at taking pics of them younger : took me ages to find a pic on file : this pup is about 3 weeks old i think : note i am rest her belly on my fingers :: not quite what you should do but it made her feel more secure for the pic

Just looking at the picture are her shoulders a little forward and is she long in the croup area? Love to see how she developed. Ruth

I have been doing this since you showed us on another forum comparing profiles at birth, 6 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 mo, 12 mo and 15 mo to get an "eye" for puppy selection - still not quite sure what I see but i'll give it a shot ....

short upper arm, short ribbing....shoot everything is short on a pup :lol: I think her shoulders are a bit forward making her neck look like an "L" going into the shoulders, her tail set looks lower than I am used to seeing ummmm lacks chest - ok I am just guessing now :lol:

I agree that the pup's front appears to be a bit forward. I'm not sure about the L where the neck flows into the shoulders as the appearance could be from the way she is held in position. she doesn't appear to have much of a forechest but would you expect to see more than that in a three week old pup? I think the neck appears to be nice and long. It's also hard to tell about the ribbing and keel without using my hands. I cannot wait to see another pic of this pup.

I hung my pups from day one .. what a great idea claire.. it sure picked my winners!!

Ok..I am no good at this but I will give it a go...neck length looks good to me? Actually quite nice in length I think, I think that the neck length is a positive trait on this pup IMO..Front legs do appear forward..ugh, I tried to go back and look as I am posting..for some reason it isn't allowing the pic to show when I scroll down to look at posts.. She does appear a bit short bodied, but not too bad, it could be the picture.. I honestly can not tell about ribbing in pictures..I think sometimes that does require a hands on thing, very hard to tell in pictures sometimes..I look right at heads, so I will try not to even go there :lol: I love her color and from what I can tell her tail set looks fine...so how wrong am I??? LOL

OK, finally had a chance to really look at the photo. I'm seeing a nice lay of shoulder and length of neck. I'm thinking your finger under her belly is making her look a little roachy-hard to tell what her topline would look like otherwise. Her rear looks good, but the angle is off since her leg is lying on your hand and I can't tell about length of hock. She does look a bit short in upper arm? She's got a very pleasing face and shape of eye already at that age.

I'm curious to see how we've done judging her.

How old is this pup in this pic? I looked and maybe I missed the age? Just curious.

She said three weeks. And BTW, WAY more cooperative puppy than mine were at that age!

Enjoying the discussion on this :: anyone else want to contribute ?? I ll try and find some shots of this pup growing up tonight when I get home from work::but will leave it for awhile longer to post the next stage!

I am sorry it is not the best shot or angle but it is the only one I could find : she was around 3 weeks for the shot and was struggling a little hence the fingers right under the belly to support her and reassure her.

She seems to be pushing her front legs forward so not as relaxed as she could be, her body is supported as are her back legs making it too hard to get a true picture

Sorry Claire

Rhona

Rhodach wrote:She seems to be pushing her front legs forward so not as relaxed as she could be, her body is supported as are her back legs making it too hard to get a true picture

Sorry Claire

Rhona

Thats ok Rhona :: I posted this pic more to give people an idea of how to hang them : I couldnt find any younger or better ones at the time :: so I figured well this is better than nothing :: hoping others will post thier pics too

This is the same bitch at 3.5 weeks :: will add more another day :: just to let you see how she is developing: when I found this pic it states they were 3.5 weeks so I am figuring that the other one was around 2 weeks : sorry for the confusion

She is doing well posing for the camera in the startings of a stack.

from the first hanging pic, I didn't like how her legs shot forward, instead of hanging straight down in a line. Would this indicate a short upper arm in relation to length of shoulder blade? I don't mean to insult, I am just trying to make sure what I think I am seeing, is what is there?

I have a litter that is two weeks today. All five of mine are doing that. I wanted to post their "hanging" pics on the forum but I'm waiting on someone to help me take the pics. It' really hard to see their front and try to see if their front is too far forward when they do that. I thought if I kept practicing they might relax more but no luck so far.

I don't think the pup in the first pic was relaxed and pushing it's front legs forward trying to make contact with something solid.

They are more co operative as newborns and do actually just hang there.