Bones and Stuff

Dedicated to my taxidermy collection and future projects @curiosities_curation @konawhatnow

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Fisher Cat Mount

For my sophomore seminar class, I mounted a fisher cat. The largest life-size mount I've done to date. I struggled with tucking in the lips.

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Desk Mount Gang

My fun gaggle of different mounts surrounds my desk at home. I enjoy displaying some of my smaller mammals and birds here.

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Flying Squirrel

My most recent mount, and probably one of the most unique in my collection, is a flying squirrel. He's a wonderful addition to my collection, the fur on this mount is outrageously soft. He does remind me a bit of a pancake though.

[farmdog]

shadow, the sheep-dog (1948)

illustrated by lucy gee

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A Quick Guide to Dog Shows

I tend to see a certain amount of confusion about how dog shows work. So I'm going to break it down here. Note that this is based on the Canadian Kennel Club and might differ based on organization. It is basically the same as the American Kennel Club. If you watched Crufts, some of the classes and awards have different names, but operate in a very similar progression.

There are multiple "stages" in conformation. This is where I see the confusion.

CLASS:

So, you sign up your dog for a dog show. They are going to be entered under their BREED. Within their breed, they will be entered in a CLASS. A class is basically just a category under which they are judged. The main classes are usually:

6-9 month old dog (often called Junior Puppy)

6-9 month old bitch

9-12 month old dog (often called Senior Puppy)

9-12 month old bitch

12-18 month old dog

12-18 month old bitch

Open dog

Open bitch

Canadian bred dog (the dog was born in Canada)

Canadian bred bitch

Bred by exhibitor dog (the dog's breeder is also the dog's handler)

Bred by exhibitor bitch

These additional classes are also common:

Veteran dog (7+ years old)

Veteran bitch

3-6 month old dog ("Baby Puppy" does not compete for points, but may compete for "Best Baby Puppy")

3-6 month old bitch

Dogs within the classes will be judged based on the breed standard, but in the age based classes the judge will be keeping in mind that they are still puppies. Your dog may be eligible for multiple classes, so you choose the one you think your dog has the best chance of winning. For example, I have a 20 month old English Cocker Spaniel dog. He is eligible to compete in Open dog, because dogs of any age can compete in Open. He was bred in Canada, but I did not breed him, so I could enter him in Canadian bred, but not bred by exhibitor. I choose ONE class to enter.

Alright we're in our CLASS. Each class is then judged based on the breed standard. Each class will be judged for 1st through 4th place. The 1st place dog or bitch in each class will then move on to the WINNERS ring.

WINNERS:

The winners of the dog classes will compete for WINNERS DOG. The winners of the bitch classes will compete for WINNERS BITCH. There will also be a Reserve Winners Dog (2nd place) and a Reserve Winners Bitch. Note that the winners dog and bitch may be puppies.

BEST OF BREED:

The Winners Dog and Winners Bitch will then go on to the BEST OF BREED ring. They will be joined by dogs and bitches of their breed who are already show champions. Champions have already won enough "points" in previous shows to receive the title of champion, and do not have to compete in the CLASS or WINNERS stages. The judge will now look at the winners dog and bitch and all the champions, and choose 1 to be awarded BEST OF BREED, meaning they are the best dog or bitch overall. The judge will then choose a BEST OF OPPOSITE SEX, meaning the best dog of the opposite sex to the best of breed winner. If the BOB is a bitch, then all the male dogs will be judged for BOS. The judge will also look at the Winners Bitch and the Winners Dog to choose a BEST OF WINNERS between the two. The judge will also choose a SELECT DOG and SELECT BITCH, for the best champion dogs after BOB and BOS. Sometimes the judge will also choose dogs to be given an AWARD OF MERIT, to recognize exceptional quality in dogs who did not receive BOB, BOS, or Select.

BEST PUPPY IN BREED:

The judge will then call in all the puppies, dog or bitch, that were not defeated by another puppy. These puppies may have been entered in any CLASS, not just the puppy classes, because you can also enter puppies in Open, Canadian bred, or any other non-age-restricted class. The judge will choose an overall BEST PUPPY. However, if the BEST OF BREED dog was already a puppy, that dog will automatically be awarded Best Puppy as well.

GROUP:

Now there are many many dog breeds, and the breeds are divided into "groups", which is usually indicative of their function. Groups have different names and divisions in different organizations, but the CKC has 7 groups: Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting, and Herding. Spaniels, setters, pointers, and retrievers are in the Sporting Group. Sighthounds and scent hounds are in the Hound group. Herding dogs are in Herding, and so on. Every breed within a group will have the BEST OF BREED sent to the BEST OF GROUP ring. Each of the BOBs of the different breeds will be judged against their own breed standard to determine which of them is the best. There will be a top 4 dogs awarded in each group.

There will also be a separate competition for BEST PUPPY IN GROUP. All of the BEST PUPPY IN BREED winners will compete for this. If a puppy was also the BEST OF BREED winner in a particular breed, they will compete in the group and puppy group.

BEST IN SHOW:

The 7 BEST OF GROUP winners will go on to compete in the Best in Show competition. Remember, they are being judged based on their own breed standard, and if they fit their own standard better than the other dogs fit theirs. So the best in show judge is looking to see if this Cocker Spaniel is a better Cocker Spaniel than this Shetland Sheepdog is a good Shetland Sheepdog. It's not a "this breed is better than this breed" competition. This is why you will sometimes unfortunately see an unsound dog win BIS, like a German Shepherd with bad hips or a Pekingese. The judge doesn't think they're actually the prettiest dog ever and what a pretty dog should look like, just that they best fit their breed standard. Unfortunately some breed standards emphasize traits that are unhealthy. A RESERVE BEST IN SHOW winner is also awarded for the "2nd place" dog.

There's also a separate BEST PUPPY IN SHOW competition for the BEST PUPPY IN GROUP winners to compete in. A puppy who already competed in the BIS ring might also compete in BPIS. However, if a puppy won Best in Show already, they will be automatically awarded Best Puppy in Show as well.

There may also be a Best Baby Puppy in Show competition, for the 3-6 month old puppies. They would have also had a group competition. The Baby Puppy category is meant to prepare future show dogs for the ring, so it is focused more on fun and providing a good experience for the babies.

A RECAP:

A dog will compete under their breed in a CLASS

Class winners will compete for WINNERS DOG and WINNERS BITCH

The 2 Winners will compete against the Champions for BEST OF BREED and BEST OF OPPOSITE SEX. The Winners will also be judged against each other for BEST OF WINNERS.

The Best of Breed for each breed in a group will compete for BEST OF GROUP. There are placings for 1st through 4th place.

The Best of Group of each of the 7 groups compete for BEST IN SHOW and RESERVE BEST IN SHOW.

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New Dorm, New Pelt Wall

I keep forgetting to post this here, but the pelt wall has finally been hung to begin the new school year. I even got a new fancy corner shelf to display my soft mounts and skulls.

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I Shall Fix You

For those who've been following along with this blog for a while would remember my 1st soft mount a raccoon. There were a shit ton of mistakes I made when creating him. My first mistake honestly was trying to soft-mount a raccoon. He should have been a traditional mount from the start.

So I've made it my goal to remount this fella properly this time. Getting the makeshift armature out was no problem, the only thing traditionally mounted was the head. Since this mount is less than a year old it was able to rehydrate the face rather easily. While cleaning up the inside of this face I am worried he doesn't have enough extra skin around his eyes to properly tuck.

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Club Ideas

Hey everyone! I run a taxidermy club at my college and with the new fall semester, I am starting to plan some events. I am looking around for some new fun ideas, our club can get approved funding for events but I need to know the supplies ahead of time. So far we have butterfly pining, owl pellets, and bone jewelry.

No wet specimens due to chemicals. We would like to mount some mice but that would require me and the other club leader to skin over 40 mice on our own.

All ideas are appreciated!

[howtoskinatiger]

Taxidermy foxes at the State Darwin Museum in Moscow, showing the variety of colors created through captive breeding.

(via Evrim Çalışkanları)

[fyanimaldiversity]

Relevant to my interests.

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Here’s a larger/better quality version:

And some close-ups of the foxes:

via Darwin Museum on FB

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I want to have this in the future 😂

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Amazing to see them all mounted next to each other.

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My Largest Mount

I realized I've never actually posted any pictures of him which is just criminal. The largest mount in my collection is my very handsome bobcat. This fella just has some beautiful markings, very defined spots. His face was mounted up pretty nicely as well, seen a lot of bobcats out there with some Garfield like cheeks.

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Bird Bundle

Incredibly dusty bundle of birds, had to break out the airbrush to get that mountain load of dust off. The birds are pretty intact, they're on the older side but don't have any major balding.

Birds

A skinny European Starling

Angry Pheasant

Very dusty Blue Mallard

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Alaskan Lynx Pelt

One of my favorite and softest pelts is my Alaskan Lynx's pelt. Otherwise known as the Canadian Lynx. These guys have some of the softest fur around, much softer than rabbit and mink in my own personal opinion.

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Hanging Bear Pelt

It's quite incredible to see this large pelt all hung up, I feel like bear pelts tend to be a bit rarer on the wall hanger side due to how much room they take up. Also, it's a pretty big deal to get bear hunting tags so most hunters want to get them fully mounted or turned into mounted rugs.

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My Tanning Process

My Tanning Process by Valley Fur Shed (Instagram, Tumblr) Skin The majority of the pelts I work on are case skinned, unless requested othe

just finished writing up my tanning process! it's not necessarily a tutorial, i would have to write a book for that haha, but it's a detailed explanation of how i personally do things to get the results that i do. hopefully it's helpful!

this is probably a good place to also link the tags i have for some of these steps which have some more information on them that i've posted here

all general tanning/vulture culture info

skinning

fleshing

prepping

salting

pickling

shaving

degreasing

oiling

breaking

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amazing guide

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Pretty Fish Pocket Knives

May post more of my pocket knife collection since I think it goes rather nicely with my taxidermy. I get my knives all second hand from thrift stores, antique stores, and flea markets. The pelt underneath is an American Badger.

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Federal Duck Stamps

The strong urge to enter the annual Federal Duck Stamp competition but the unwillingness to pay the entry fee and use traditional mediums in a realist style. Oh, what could a boy only do?

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Fishy things

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Oh how I love random fish shaped pocket knives