Product Description

In this eBook, Helen King outlines her proven techniques for selecting a puppy to compete in your desired dog sport. Picking Your Performance Puppy is more than a book about how to pick a puppy, it incorporates diagrams, pictures, and videos to better show you the small details to look for when selecting the right puppy. This eBook is filled with informative photos, drawings and illustrations, as well as real time and slow motion videos to help you see how structure relates to performance.

What allows some dogs to excel in dog sports while others struggle? Why can some dogs turn on a dime and drive ahead with speed? How do you choose the right puppy for you? These and many more questions are explored in this eBook.

Preview

Check out a preview of this e-book here.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Reference Drawings
• Structure Basics
• GETTING TO KNOW THE DOG
  • Fronts
  • Backs
  • Necks
  • Ewe Neck
  • Rears
  • The Pelvis
  • Slipped Hocks
• LOOKING FURTHER
  • Do Your Homework!
  • The "Breed Type" Debate Continues
  • Choosing a Breeder
  • Thoughts on Spay/Neuter Contracts
• OPTIONS AND CHOICES
  • What Do We Want?
  • Pick Your Poison
  • Photos Can Be Deceiving
  • Practice Picking
• YOUR PUPPY
  • From Puppy to Adult
  • Picking Puppies
  • Formulating a Plan
  • Exercise for Puppies
  • Feeding
  • Vaccinations
  • Training
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Credits

About the Author

Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Helen Grinnell King was being led around on a horse long before she could walk. Dogs and horses have been a major part of her entire life. Her mother raised Boxers in the ‘50s and ‘60s so Helen’s education of canine structure began at a very early age.

Helen grew up on a horse, riding every day after school and spending nearly every Saturday fox hunting and Sundays competing at hunter/jumper shows around New England.

In 1966, Helen spent the summer in Ireland at a school for equestrian studies. While there, she learned the importance of structure and how it relates to performance. She attended many horse shows in Ireland as well as sales and fairs and this exposure to hundreds of performance animals helped develop her eye for what it takes for an animal to excel in performance. She also rode some open jumpers while there and that taught her that structure is crucial not only to winning but to safety and soundness as well.

In the 1970s, Helen raised and showed harlequin Great Danes and Basset Hounds as well a few other breeds. She owned and/or bred many AKC champions including the breed winner at a Great Dane Club of America National specialty as well as multiple Group and all breed Best in Show winning Basset Hounds. One of her Basset Hound bitches produced 8 AKC breed champions from only two litters and was awarded the Register of Merit title from the BHCA as a top producer of champions. Helen also bred one of the first dual champion Basset Hounds (field and breed champion) and to this day there are very few dual champions in the breed.

As an award winning sculptor, Helen has studied structure in depth to enhance her understanding of conformation and how it relates to movement.

She and her husband, Mel, bred successful race and performance horses for many years. One of the Connemara stallions Helen bred and owned was immortalized as a limited edition Breyer model. “Rocky” was well known for his many championships in hand and over fences as well as great successes in dressage and eventing. Recently, the American Connemara Pony Society awarded the first ever prestigious Premium Stallion Certificates. Two of only three awards given went to Rocky sons. Standing just 14.1 1/2h tall, Rocky often won open jumper classes over horses that towered over him.

Helen has been an Inspector for the American Connemara Pony Society for many years as well as a Connemara judge and seminar presenter. She attends seminars and lectures with the leaders in the field to continually sharpen her eye and hone her skills.

Helen’s lifelong passion has been the study of structure and how it relates to performance. She has observed hundreds of dogs in agility to compare conformation and performance as well as tracking the puppies to maturity from the litter evaluations she has done.

With her extensive, hands-on knowledge of structure and performance, Helen’s evaluation techniques and insight into effects of structure on performance will teach you how to look at dogs in a simple, easy to understand way that will help you evaluate your current or future agility dog.

Into agility since 2001, she and Mel have competed successfully with their eight dogs in USDAA, UKI and AKC.

Mel and Helen can be seen running the chicly shaved standard Poodles (and one little Border Collie):

• ADCH MACH 7 Josephine MFX, SACH, CD, RN, HIT, VCX, CGC
• MACH Isabella RN, O-EJC, EAC, OGC, NTC, AAD, JM, HIT, VCX, CGC
• MACH 5 MeMe PD3, RN, HIT, VCX, CGC
• MACH 2 Charisse Poodle NF, RN, HIT, VCX, CGC
• Crush (BC) MX, MXJ, MXF, TM, HIT

And the two young rising star daughters of MACH 2 Charisse Poodle:

• UPGRAYEDD NAJ, HIT
• Barque NAJ, HIT