# Female long in body, what can I do to hide it?



## cbrand (Aug 9, 2009)

I think keeping the front of the back leg and the back of the front leg longer helps to visually shorten a dog.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

check out this thread: http://www.poodleforum.com/showthread.php?t=3907 I talked quite a bit about how to shorten the look of a long body...

But yes, essentially you want more hair on the back of the front legs, and the front of the back legs.
Why? To shorten the visual gap between the legs and visually shorten the look of the length of the body.

Also take it short at the point of the chest, and the point of the butt, to shorten the look of the body too. I mean SHORT too, you can use a 5F or even 7F down the ass end! I use a 5F on Paris all the time down her butt.

And leaving a crest on the back of the neck, as well as slightly more on the 'front' edge of the tail (as it stands up) to do the same thing as the legs.

Annnnnd, don't leave it too long on the topline unless you have a long neck and/or a nice big topknot (too much hair on the topline will shorten the neck) but at the same time you want it short under the body too, to make the legs look as long as possible (which counters the long body)

Basically, if it's minor you can make them look a million bucks, but if it's a massively long body then there's not a whole lot you can do to 'fix' it, but you can certainly help it look better. 

Read the link anyway, I posted pics as well there!


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## kanatadoggroomer (Jan 24, 2010)

I don't know if bell-bottom legs would work if you want to visually shorten the body. I would think that straighter parallel legs would work better to give the illusion of length of leg <and therefore shorten the body>


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## Paris-London (Mar 2, 2010)

Thanks, wish I had someone to show me in person but I may be able to figure it out now! LOL


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## Savannah (Jan 15, 2010)

cbrand said:


> I think keeping the front of the back leg and the back of the front leg longer helps to visually shorten a dog.


Yep, that and keeping the butt & chest tight. My standard is just a little long in the body as well, so I do a couple things to keep him looking square.
There's the two tricks mentioned above, but also my favorite (sneaky) one: if you shave the feet only to the toes instead of up to the ankle, and scissor the cuff so it's nearly touching the ground, you will create the illusion of a much longer leg. Bell bottoms are great too. Just a little more volume at the bottom of the leg draws the eye vertically and takes away attention from a long back.

I've also found that accentuating the tuckup helps, leave about 1/4 inch more hair on the bottom of the chest, but trim it very short in the waist area.


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