Posing Guide

Before I start, I first have to mention that I am very grateful to all my lovely petz who helped me out in making this by being cooperative and well behaved (for the most part). If you're curious about any of them, feel free to check them out on my crew page! As you are reading this guide, keep in mind that it is written by me and therefore reflects my own opinions and personal preferences. I feel that it's a pretty good gauge of how to pose, as I have gleaned a lot of knowledge from others and have been judging for quite some time, but keep in mind that everyone judges differently, so while this is hopefully helpful to you, following my guide certainly won't guarantee you a BIS in every show!

Posing Catz

The Basics:

There are three main areas that are focused on when judging a catz pose.
1. Tail. The tail should be curved nicely over the back. It should not be straight up, and definitely not sticking out behind the cat.
2. Legs. The back legs should be separated, and the front legs should be aligned so that you cannot see the left front leg.
3. Eyes. The eyelids should be even and eyes should be open most or all of the way. (This does vary, though. See the breed differences below.) Snowman's pose shown above is pretty ideal.

Getting a cat to pose:
I won't explain this too wordily (or I'll try not to!) as I'm sure most of you will be able to catch on pretty easily on your own. I've gone into details below (especially for those breedz who will not readily pose for you), but basically when you take out your cat, pick them up and drop them so that they are facing to the right with their front legs almost exactly aligned. You will have to play around a bit, but for most breedz you will want the left front leg to be slightly visible behind the right at this point. Start snapping the camera, and soon enough, your cat will go into pose. After that, it just takes some practice to snap the shot at the right moment so you've got good tail position (or you can put the camera on autosave and just hold down your thumb on the spacebar. I don't really like to do this personally, though, except with some of my more challenging dogz).

When your cat just won't pose:
Some breedz won't readily pose for you, and this can be very frustrating. But there are things you can do. Check my breed specific instructions below for more specific instructions (especially when it comes to alleys!) but here's a quick little something on the two methods commonly used to pose difficult catz:

The perfume method. This is probably the most common method for getting catz to pose who don't want to on their own. The result of the perfume method is a cat who is posing with the 'sad' eyelid position (as demonstrated by Ghost above). This is not really desirable (except on orange shorthairs), so your cat will probably place lower in shows, but it IS an option. To do this, you are just going to want to line your cat up as you would normally, except facing to the left. Spray your cat with the perfume, and they'll jump around and (most of the time) go into a pose. It might take a few tries for you to get the position of the legs correctly, but it's a surefire way to get a pose if all else fails.

This is generally a preferred method to the perfume method. The 'out-the-door' method can work on any cat, but you won't want to use it except on a cat who is being difficult to pose. It should create the perfectly even eyelids shown by Smore. (I know he doesn't look it, but he's got a meezer personality). When you first take out a cat, they'll usually trot along till they reach your cursor, and then they will sometimes go into pose. So the trick is to get your cursor into a position where the cat's legs will be aligned when they reach you. I can't really give you any specific advice on how to make this work; you'll have to experiment with it yourself, but once you get the hang of it, it's a pretty effective posing method.

Breed Specifics:

Each breed has its own unique style, so I've provided you with examples for each of the 10 breedz that come with petz 4, as well as some discussion of the posing of 'realistic' breeds.

Alley Cat:

Overview: Alleys are quite possibly the most difficult breed to pose. The combination of their demeanor and their awkwardly shaped bodies make this breed a bad one for beginners, because they can be very frustrating. It is preferable to show them with their eyes in the angry position, but even and sad eyelids are also acceptable (though both should place lower).
The challenges: The first and most important challenge with this breed is getting them to pose at all. It is usually preferred that their eyelids be in the 'mad' position, as shown by Thunder, Demon, and Evergreen above, but this is not an easy task. To get them to do this, you have to line them up as though posing them regularly, and just keep taking pictures. They're going to hiss and growl at you for a bit (sometimes a long while) but they'll eventually go into pose with the mad eyes (you have to be really paying attention, though, because sometimes it can be pretty brief!) It is also acceptable to pose them with the out-the-door method, or (least preferred but still accepted) with the perfume method. Another challenge you'll face with alleys is their legs. Evergreen (on the right) is a good example of what I'm talking about; he has super scrawny, awkwardly angled legs. The difficulty here is getting those skinny, funny shaped things to align. You'll just have to have patience. And the last difficulty with alleys is their tail. Thunder has a cali tail (and legs), but the other two both have varieties of alley tail. Demon's is the straight one that just won't curve properly, and Evergreens is the weird kinky variety. These tails will obviously not curve over the back, and you just have to get them as far forward as you can. Any decent judge will be able to tell that their tail is kinked, and you shouldn't be placed lower because of it, so long as you've done the best you can with it.
The benefits: I always find it extremely satisfying when I've gotten a good pose out of an alley because they're such a challenge. Maybe not everyone feels this way, but I'd certainly call it a benefit. Also, if you get a really perfect pose out of an alley, it may help you to place higher in shows because judges will recognize this and sometimes place more difficult to pose breedz higher.

Black & White Shorthair:

Overview: Black and White Shorthairs are the only other breed besides alleys for which the 'mad eyes' pose is acceptable. It's actually not very hard to get one of these catz to pose, but they will always have the mad eyes (unless they are a mixie with a different personality). You should never be marked down for it.
The Challenges: There actually aren't too many challenges with this breed. The only thing I sometimes find difficult with these is that their tails tend to be tough to catch in a good curve, and sometimes it can be a little tricky to align their legs just right.
The Benefits: There's not much frustration involved in posing this breed, and it isn't one of the more popular ones. It's always nice to be unique! I really enjoy showing this breed. (I should note that Apple, the cat above, is an equal mixture of BW and orange shorthair. She's got the orange shorthair body type, but the rest is BW).

Calico:

Overview: Calicos are tricky. They are definitely one of the more challenging breedz to pose, but also one of the most popular. They really enjoy attempting to pose, but there is a lot about the breed that makes it really tough to get a good one.
The Challenges: The biggest challenge with these is eyelid alignment. Pictured above are two different eyelid alignments, both of which will place in shows. The only way to get good eyelid alignment is just to persevere. Eventually you should get even lids. Evanescence shows how calicos will sometimes pose with them wide open, while Licorice's are more typical. Calicos usually pose with slightly slanted lids. They'll also occasionally pose with straight across lids. Another challenge with calicos is their legs. For some reason, it's really hard to get the stupid things to line up properly! All I can say is just keep at it, and you'll get them in the right position. It's easiest to see on Licorice (right), but with calicos, it's ideal to have a cluster of pixels sticking out the back rather than the thicker line at the front of the leg. Their tails also don't have a ton of curve, so it can be hard to get those at a good angle too. These catz both are about as good as it gets.
The Benefits: Like I said before, this is a very popular breed. They are sweet and fun, and even though they can be kind of tricky, they're always very willing to go into pose, and you’ll never get frustrated by a lack of trying on their part!

Chinchilla Persian:

Overview: These prissy little buggers can have a bit of an attitude problem, but once you get past that, they aren't all too difficult to pose. They do have a couple of little quirks, though! As you may have noticed from Plato's show picture above, this breed does something a bit unusual with their eyelids. This is the only breed for which it is acceptable for the eyelids to be this closed. It's just that the little critters are so lazy, they don't seem to want to open their eyes all the way.
The Challenges: This isn't too tough of a breed to pose. Really the only thing that can be challenging is the fact that they try to go to sleep a lot, so it might take some serious coaxing to get them to go into pose, and it can sometimes be hard to tell if their legs are aligned when they're super fluffy (with purebreeds, for example).
The Benefits: This is probably one of the least popular breeds. I almost never see these in shows. I always think it is of benefit to you to be showing a breed that most people aren't, as it makes your pet stand out more. They also aren't too tough to work with, but they aren't the easiest breed, so if you want something sort of middle range, they're kind of nice.

Maine Coon:

Overview: One of the easiest breeds to pose, by far. Excellent breed for someone who is new to showing. This breed tends to pose with their eyelids wide open, as displayed by Ayla.
The Challenges: Very minimal. The only thing remotely challenging about posing this breed is getting the tail curved just right. You will ideally want something that looks like Ayla's above when you are trying to catch their tail.
The Benefits: These are so easy to pose. And so easy to align. They've got a wonderful temperament and are a real joy to work with. So like I said, they make a great starter breed for someone new to posing.

Orange Shorthair:

Overview: Orange shorthairs are a very skittish breed, as you probably have noticed. 'Sad eyes' (shown above by Betty) are completely acceptable on these, as it reflects their personality. It's the only breed for which this is the case. This is another breed that I wouldn't particularly recommend for beginner showers.
The Challenges: With Orange Shorthairs, the main challenge is that they will not want to pose for you. You'll want to use the perfume method, and they'll end up with the 'sad eyes', which, like I said earlier, is ideal for this breed. Once you get them lined up properly, though, the rest isn't that much of a challenge.
The Benefits: I personally adore this breed. They're tricky to work with because of their scaredy-catness, but they are so precious, and if you get a good pose out of them, they tend to do really well in shows.

Persian:

Overview: This is another easy to pose breed that I'd recommend for beginners. The eyelids you see here are in typical Persian fashion; sort of tilted but not quite in the 'sad' position. They just look very...chill and relaxed. Which is, of course, the Persian way!
The Challenges: Honestly, the only thing that's even remotely challenging about these is that sometimes when they're really fluffy it's hard to tell if their legs are aligned properly.
The Benefits: This is one of my favorite breedz. Persians are so adorable and hilarious! They are also easy to align, and their tails curve nicely. (I do have to note that Star was a little hard to align because of her non-persian legs.)

Russian Blue:

Overview: Russian Blues are another easy to pose breed. They will pose with their eyelids straight across just above the top of their iris, as displayed above by Joy. This is another one I'd recommend for beginners!
The Challenges: None, really. Unless they've got another breed's body style (like Joy does), they should have an extremely easy time with everything.
The Benefits: Posing Russian Blues is always a completely frustration free experience! Their legs align easily, their eyelids are always perfect, and their tails have a nice curve to them.

Siamese:

Overview: Because they prefer to pose in their specialty styles (see below for description) Siamese are pretty hard to pose, and you'll generally have to use the out-the-door method (preferred) or the perfume method. They can also be difficult to align properly because of their thin legs. Work at it, though, they're worth it! Definitely not a beginner breed.
The Challenges: There are a couple. The main challenge is just the eyelids, though. Ghost demonstrates the lovely, even eyelid placement that is the product of the out-the-door method. It takes a few tries to get a perfect pose with one of these, most of the time, but you should be able to get it eventually no problem. Their legs, as I mentioned before, are also a bit tricky, just because they're so thin. It makes aligning not so easy.
The Benefits: This breed has gorgeous tail curvature (notice and drool over Ghost's perfectly curved tail!). And you can also enter specialty shows with them, in their own pose style (again, see below for more details), although these seem to have died out in popularity.

Tabby:

Overview: Tabbies are also easy to pose. Their eyes will be wide open, and they are eager to go. Another excellent one for beginners.
The Challenges: Pretty minimal. It can be kind of hard to get their legs to align sometimes, because there's something weird shaped about them, but other than that they aren't very hard. (Kryptonite's legs are atypical. She's a mixie!)
The Benefits: Good tail curvature, love to pose, easy to get a good pose out of. They've got a great temperament too, and are really enjoyable to work with. I adore all my tabbies.

'Realistic' Breedz:
There are many, many of these 'realistic' breeds floating around out there. They are popular especially among people showing in the PKC. I have a few 'realistic' breed catz, just because I like the breed, I think they're pretty! Generally speaking, these tend to be easier to pose than some of the originals, but it's not always the case. Some examples below to give you the basic highlights:

Amarillo is a sphynx. This and a few other realistic catz breeds are extra easy to pose because they have addball tails which never move out of the curved position. Some sphynx don't actually have adball tails, I can't remember whether or not Amarillo's is, to be honest (though I believe it is). Either way, an extremely, extremely easy breed to pose all around.

Jasmine is a siberian. There are several other breedz out there similar to this one, with the fluffy bodies and thick tails. As you can see, they line up very nicely, and their tails curve beautifully over their backs. This is about the same difficulty as most realistic catz breeds seem to be with posing. About on par with maine coons or tabbies.

Dawn is an ojos azules. These are deceptive. They SEEM easy to pose, except for one really annoying detail. That ridiculous tail. It's almost impossible to catch it at a curve. Dawn's pose above has the correct curve, but you have no idea how much time I spent taking pictures before I managed to click at the right moment. It goes to show that not all realistic breeds are easier to pose than originals.
If you are interested in any of these breedz, or any other realistic breedz, I recommend you wander over to my links page and use it to go to the PKC. There's a massive list of them there.

Common Pose Issues:

In this picture, Franklin displays how uneven eyelids can make an otherwise beautiful pose look a little off. Uneven eyelids are quite a common issue; make sure to get them as even as possible in order to maximize your chances of placing high in shows.


The alignment of the front legs is extremely important in a good pose. In this picture, Smoke shows you how a pose can go awry when the front legs aren't lined up. I purposely picked a picture for this where the legs are close to show that it's not just the majorly off legs that are an issue. Smoke's legs are just off enough, though, to be noticeable by the thickness behind the right front leg and it completely ruins the pose.


My absolute worst posing pet peeve is tails that are facing the wrong way! As a new shower, I recognize that a lot of people make this mistake (I did), but you should learn quickly. Your pet will not place if their tail faces backwards. As for the picture above, Sarmina's tail isn't quite to that extreme, but it isn't curved like it should be. Tails like this will either prevent your cat from placing altogether, or will make it so they never place above 3rd or HM. It takes a long time to accumulate points that way, let me tell you!


Sand shows a much more common issue. His pose is great, but there's just one problem. Most shows do not accept left facing poses. Because of this, I recommend always taking right facing poses so that you can be sure you can enter any show.


Here you can see Harry at three levels of fatness. I used the petza brainslider to get him to the very thinnest he can be, and then used it again to put him to the fattest. He just looks so much healthier when he's at his normal weight. And because he looks healthier, it makes his pose look better. Some petz will look better if they're a little heavier, especially if they're a naturally thin breed, but you generally are going to want to keep them in the 50-60 range. Harry shows really well how different they look. I don't think I've ever seen a too fat cat in one of my shows, but I see skinny ones a lot, and it's a real problem. I can always tell. So feed your catz properly!


Sienna is just showing the difference between a posed and unposed cat. This isn't a common issue, but there are some people don't seem to recognize that there is a difference.

Things you should NEVER do:

So you got a perfect left facing pose. What's the harm in just flipping it around so it's a right facing pose? Well, technically, that's editing. And that's definitely not allowed. On the left is Dust in a regular, right facing pose. And on the right is Sand in a pose that's been flipped (I used the left facing pose from above for this, FYI). You can see how the back legs are reversed from how they are supposed to be. Clearly, it's easy to catch if you do this. So pretty much just don't bother trying. If I see anyone with a flipped pose in one of my shows, they won't place, and I will say something to them. I know that sometimes things happen, and I'll forgive it of you once. However, if you give me a line like "my cat will only pose to the left!" or if you do it again, I will ban you from my shows forever. Because that's crap. If your cat will pose to the left, it'll pose to the right too. I promise you. Also, I don't have a picture of an edited pose, but editing in any form is absolutely not cool. Sure, maybe you wanted better eyelid alignment but it's taking forever. It doesn't matter. Don't edit the pose. This is forever banned from my shows kind of activity. Just keep in mind that you're showing a pixilated pet. If your pet doesn't place in a show, how devastating is that, really? Try again, and eventually you'll get a placement quality pose. This applies to both catz and dogz...I won't repeat it in the dogz section. Just remember, there's no need for immature behavior. (/soapbox)

Specialty Poses: Siamese

There are two types of Siamese poses, which are usually only admissible in specialty Siamese shows. These poses really shouldn't be judged against the standard pose, because the criteria are completely different, so how do you know where it should place? I’m not going to into great detail about them, as there are rarely any shows held for these poses anymore.
Pose #1 (on the left) is the Stretching Pose. This is the more popular of the two among specialty shows. What you see Peanut doing here is the gist of it. You basically want to catch your meezer when he/she is at the peak of stretching, and with their head back and tail extended like Peanut displays here. The only thing I would say about his pose is that his front legs could be a little better aligned, but they're not terrible. It's hard to get their legs to align perfectly in this pose the way you can get them to do in a standard pose.
Pose #2 (on the right) is the Sitting Pose. For this pose, you want to catch your catz when their left front leg is folded over their right, and their tail and head are both up like Peanut's are here. However, I would never host a show with this pose myself (nor have I actually ever seen one, except once, now that I think of it) because I don't know the exact criteria on what makes one of these poses better than another.

Posing Dogz:

The Basics:

There are two generally accepted types of poses for dogz shows. These are the "Profile" pose (also called the "Dane" pose) and the "Dali" pose. Typically these two types should be judged separately, as it is hard to effectively judge them against each other, though they are sometimes judged together. So to start off, I'll describe each separately. If you want to learn more about the "3/4" pose, which is another type of pose sometimes accepted in shows, you'll have to look elsewhere as I don't consider it when judging my shows. Please note that while most of the pictures in this guide are of original breed dogz, I do dedicate some guidance on posing 'realistic' breedz as well, so don't worry that I've forgotten them!


The Dane, or profile, pose is what you see above. Note that any breed can do either pose, there's no rule. You really have to try out each individual dog to decide how to do them, but in my individual breed listings below I mention which pose I feel each looks best in. (It is still your call, though!) I find posing dogz to be a little bit more trying overall than catz, just because dogz don't tend to go as naturally into pose as catz do, and they're a lot more fidgety. Just as with catz, there are three main areas focused on when judging a dogz pose:
1. Head. The head can be tricky, and there are several things you need to pay attention to. If the dog has pointy ears, like Chevelle does, you want the left ear to match up nicely behind the right ear. There shouldn't be any ear tips poking out to the side or anything. You also want the left eye to be completely or almost completely invisible. It's ok if you can see a little of it, but you don't want too much. The head should be uplifted, but not awkward, and the visible eye should be looking at the camera. The dogz' overall demeanor should be proud and puffed up looking.
2. Legs. With dogz, you want both the front and back legs to be as aligned as possible. It can be pretty hard, especially with some of the original breed dogz, to get the left legs to disappear completely from view, but do your best. (I'll discuss this further below)
3. Tail. The tail doesn't tend to be as big of a concern in dogz. You will notice when looking through the breed specific descriptions that many breedz have small tails, no tails, droptails, or tails that are draped over their backs. When I'm posing dogz, I usually don't even look at the tail unless it comes out really strangely in the picture. Normally judges will look to make sure it is curved properly (if it exists), but they won't spend too much time worrying over it.


When posing a dog in the Dali pose, you will want to do everything the same as the Dane pose except for the obvious. I won't bother explaining it all again, except for the head. The head is facing the camera full on rather than looking straight ahead. For this pose, the dogz' head should be as straight toward the camera as you can get them to put it. Their eyelids will usually be in the slanted style that all three dogz display above. Their eyes should be looking straight at the camera, and they should look proud and confident. Their head should not, however, be too high, as this is called overposing, and makes the dog look ridiculous. Now I've put three dogz above to show you some subtle differences between a perfect pose and an almost but not quite perfect pose (some of this is relevant to profile poses as well). Ariana (right) is my all star - her pose couldn't get any better. You might be thinking that I'm insane and all three look the same, but they don't. Let's start with Icicle (center). It may not look it, but his head is not quite centered. You can tell this easily with most original breed dogz, because there will be a pixel missing at the top of the nose when they're perfectly centered (like with Ariana's pose). Icicle doesn't have that missing pixel, which means he's just shy of being perfectly centered with his head. And moving on to Whiskers (left) as much as I adore him and want to pretend his pose is perfect, it's not quite. Look at his feet. Ariana and Icicle both have perfectly lined up feet. If you draw a straight line down from the end of the left back foot, it will touch the exact same spot on the right back foot. In Whiskers' pose, that line would take a nice little slice right out of his poor foot. The best way to align all original breed dogz is by lining them up at the wrists (which then usually lines up their feet) because often their legs will not entirely disappear.

Getting a dog to pose: Like with catz, you'll want to take out your dog and line them up so that their feet are aligned. Start snapping pictures, and eventually they'll go into pose. Usually they start by doing a Dali pose (not necessarily a good one, though!), and will go into Profile pose from there. They tend not to put their head immediately into the perfect position, and you may have to try several times, or wait for them to move their head into a few different positions before you finally catch them in a good spot. Dogz also tend to be a lot more wriggly than catz are, and they'll probably frustrate you by jumping out of position quite frequently. I do not recommend trying to pose dogz if you aren't in a good mood, because I can almost guarantee you will want to throw something if you do.
Breed Specifics:
As with catz, each of these breedz has its own unique quirks. I've collected poses to represent each of the 10 original petz 4 breedz, as well as some examples from some of the 'realistic' breedz, and here I'll basically discuss which pose each breed looks better in, and some of the difficulties you may run into with each.

Bulldog

Bulldogs are not an easy breed to pose. Personally, I think they look a lot better in the profile pose (which is how I posed Chowder above), but their heads are kind of awkward shaped and it can be really hard to get them to look nice. If you're just starting out posing dogz, I don't recommend these because they can get really frustrating. Chowder brought a whole separate challenge with his chi ears, but either way, it's the bulldogs' bulbous heads, I think, that make them so tricky. I've never attempted to pose a purebred bulldog, though I know it can be done (with a LOT of patience).

Chihuahua

I prefer posing Chihuahuas in the Dali position because of their ears. It's really hard to line up their ears if you put them in profile pose because of how big they are, and they tend to look kind of funny. Charles (left) has accumulated a LOT of points with that pose, so it seems to be about as good as it gets. Both he and Maggie (right) have good foot alignment, though I think Maggie's is slightly better. These guys are actually not that hard to pose, but their main challenge is the weird ears and the fact that it's hard to tell (in dali) when their heads are centered.

Dachshund

I don't have a lot of experience with this breed; Silver is my only one! Neither of these poses is actually very good, to be honest, and I'll be replacing them ASAP. I kind of think these look better in profile pose because it goes well with their long body, but they do fine in dali as well, so it's really your choice. Dachies aren't too bad to pose, you just have to watch it because of the stumpy little legs. Make sure you still get them aligned right!

Dalmatian

This is one of the most popular dogz breeds. They are probably the best one to try if you are new at showing dogz, since they're pretty eager to pose and look nice while doing it. Obviously, the preferred method for these is the Dali pose (like Raspberry is doing), since it is named after them, but as you've seen above, you don't absolutely have to conform to that if you don't want. Moon looks very sharp in her profile pose. I talked a lot about aligning them and such above, so I won't go into it again.

Great Dane

Danes are probably the other favorite breed, alongside Dalmatians. They're another good one to try if you're new to showing, because they're pretty common and judges tend to know them well, which makes people more willing to help you out if you're messing it up a bit. Obviously, the preferred pose for these is the Dane pose, like Razor (left). However, occasionally if one throws me a really good dali pose, I'll use it. Wicca (right) has been doing really well with her dali pose.

Labrador

I think labs look really nice in profile pose, but they can go either way. Dali pose sometimes looks a little weird with the eyebrows and the ears, though. I don't actually own any dogz who are predominantly lab (I adopted Temporary specifically for this posing guide. She has now gone the way of the recycling bin!), but I know they aren't too tough to work with. They tend to have lovely dispositions.

Mutt

Mutts can be a little awkward. I guess it's your call, but I usually pose them in profile pose, as I find that they tend to look odd in dali. You can see also from the picture above that they tend to do the same thing with their eyelids as calis do. So save yourself the frustration and just go profile! They're really sweet, and totally worth the effort to get a good pose in. I don't actually own any mutts, I should add. This is another I adopted purely for the purpose of this guide.

Poodle

I don't own now, nor have I ever owned, anything that was predominantly poodle. It appears to me, though, when I experimented a bit, that they don't particularly like to go into poses besides their specialty pose (see bottom of guide for a quick explanation of that pose). I couldn't get the purebred into pose, so I sort of cheated for the guide by using Muffin, who has a dalmatian personality. I feel like they look best in the profile pose, because in the Dali pose, the gigantic head ruffle sometimes blocks the eyes and makes them look really silly. But I think it would depend on the poodle.

Scottie

I think that Scotties actually look just as good in either pose type. Xena looks better in profile, I discovered, but she's alright in either one. Not the easiest breed to pose, but not terrible. Again, because of the shortness, you have to be careful about their legs.

Sheepdog

I adore sheepdogs. I think they have the greatest personality, and I have so much fun with them! They do well with either pose, so just do whichever strikes your fancy. I'm really in love with Ella's pose (left). It's about as perfect as can be. But Musty (right) retired really quickly with his dali pose. (Notice the perfectly aligned feet and the missing pixel above the nose?) They certainly aren't shy about trying to go into a pose, and they come out pretty nice if you catch them right.

Realistic Breedz
I think there are even more realistic breedz for dogz than there are for catz. I compiled several examples from my own crew to make some comments on, but this is just a scratch at the surface. Some of these are easy to pose, and some are hard. You'll really have to experiment on your own, because obviously I'm not going to describe every single one! People tend to think of realistic breeds as being 'easier', which I think is generally fair to say with the catz breeds, but it is definitely not the case for dogz. Yes, these breeds are usually hexed so that their legs align better than the original breeds, but there is nothing easy about posing some of them, trust me.

Easier to pose:

Tequila (left) is a Tibetan Mastiff. Rusty (right) is the grosspitz variety of the German Spitz breed. There are several other breeds like these, and others not so similar to these, who are super easy to pose. Both of these breeds look great in both poses - Epic, my other Tibetan Mastiff, did really well with a couple of different profile poses. They just look really sharp. If you're just starting out with realistic breeds and want something easier, I completely recommend one of these breeds, or one of the other similar looking breeds. Labradors also seem to be an easier one to pose (the realistic breed version), and I know there are others. I'm not compiling a whole list, though.

Medium difficulty posers:

Sprinkles (left) is a Spinone Italiano. Princess (right) is a Lowchen. There's nothing especially difficult about posing either of these breeds, but they can be a little tricky. I think the Spinone Italianos look like complete crap in dali pose, but Lowchens look great in both (however, I've been failing lately at getting dali poses for either of my Lowchens). The thing about these breeds (and the majority of realistic breeds) is just that it's a little tricky to get certain parts lined up quite right.

Difficult to pose:

Ecstasy (left) is a Bedlington Terrier. Phantom (right) is a Borzoi. Bedlington terriers were definitely NOT made for posing. They're a complete nightmare to get into pose, but they're so awkwardly cute! Borzois are very popular, but very hard to pose (or pose correctly, anyway!) Phantom is actually not even quite right. His legs I'm pleased with, but his head needs to be a little more to the left. There are some breeds like this though - they have awkward body shapes, weird heads, or something else about them that just makes them challenging to pose. Neither of these two breeds looks good in dali at all, as a side note.

Unique challenges - weird fur:

Rex (left) and Roma (center) are both Portuguese Water Dogs. Night (right) is a West Highland White Terrier. I put these here to highlight a posing challenge that the other breeds above don't have. Fur ruffles and fur that covers the eyes! Night's fur doesn't cover his eyes, but some of his breed actually do have that. And either way, he's got that weird fur ruffle thing by his legs that make it hard to tell if he's aligned. With dogz whose faces you can't see, the challenge is knowing whether they actually are in pose. I've been taught with PWDs that you can tell because their tail will dip over their back (when they aren't posing, it'll be above their back) but other breeds don't have this and you just have to be able to tell. I really, really don't recommend showing breeds with weird fur things going on unless you've had a lot of experience showing other dogz first, because it can be really frustrating.

Common Pose Issues:

Whiskey is doing what dogz typically do when getting into the profile pose. You may notice that they will move their head around into multiple positions, often none of which are useable. He's certainly posing, but his head is just not in the right position. You can see too much of his left eye, and he just looks awkward because of it.


Tera's head alignment is quite good, and she's standing proudly, but I didn't do a good enough job aligning her legs before I started picture taking. You can see way too much of her left legs; they need to be back more.


It can be pretty obvious if you aren't feeding your dog well enough. Look how awful Frosty looks when I brainslide him to 0 fatness! And he looks just as bad at 100. For dogz breeds, you really want to stay in the 50-70 range (it varies depending on the dog), or else they start to look quite unattractive. No one is going to place a dog in a show who looks sloppy like Frosty does at either weight extreme. As a side note, none of these poses is placement worthy anyhow, but that's not the point of this particular catigory.

What isn't a pose: I've noticed that with dogz, especially, people will try to enter things they think are poses but actually aren't. So here's some examples of things that aren't:

Elana is doing a pretty good impression of being in pose, but notice how her head is kind of relaxed and her chin is lowered. She's basically standing with her head off to the side a bit, looking at me. Also, her mouth is slightly open because she's barking. Her leg alignment is terrible too, but that was obviously not the point of this picture.

Moon is definitely not posing. Her eyes are looking at the camera, but her head isn't really facing it, and she's not all straightened up and looking her best. Also, as a general rule, if their eyes are wide open like that, they aren't posing. Even if she were stretching upward more.

Volaticus certainly looks adorable, but really he's more like stretching than posing. Notice how his eyes are not fixed on the camera, and he doesn't have that puffed up 'I'm showing off' look about him.

A little something about poodles

I don’t own any dogz who have poodle predominantly in their lines, nor have I ever, so I’m not really particularly qualified to talk about them. But I DO know that they, like Siamese, have their own special type of pose. You can see the dog above looking all prim and proper in the special Poodle pose, although I couldn't tell you how good of one it is. It is extremely uncommon for people to host poodle shows, so if you have a poodle who won't pose regularly, you may have to accept that they may never show.


I hope you learned something from this guide, and that if nothing else, you'll be able to have the confidence to start posing your petz correctly and entering them into shows. Good luck, and enjoy!