# First Show!



## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I entered Jack in his first show over memorial day weekend! I've been working on grooming but am having our breeder-friend groom him a couple of days before the show to avoid any of my grooming mishaps! I'll be handling him myself and am going to be working with him more than usual over the next couple weeks. 

My goal is for him 1) not to try to chew his leash in the ring (sigh.); 2) to have fun and be happy while at the show; and 3) to keep his attention on me as much as possible to avoid any crazy puppy antics. That's it. I'm really not looking for much this time around! I know that even if he wins his class (of 1-2, most likely) it's not like the judge is going to put up the crazy 7 month old dog, so I'm keeping my expectations low. I'm a little nervous though! I'm not sure what to wear. I hear women are supposed to wear skirts, right? And a jacket, I'm assuming? Any other advice?


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

Good luck! I'm sure that you'll have fun! Most women that I've seen wear a skirt.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Well good for you! I think you have your priorities right -- just go so puppy has a fun time!
Slater is bad about playing TUG with his leash -- which I do all the time during obedience training b/c it's very rewarding. However I don't want this behavior to crop up at all in the show ring. If we are working on show handling and he goes for the leash, I instantly drop the leash and start stacking him or freebaiting with food...anything but forward motion or opposite pull on the leash. The behavior has pretty much extinguished itself, although he did get silly on me in the ring once!  I just stopped and collected ourselves and away we went.
Best of luck!!!!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

good luck and we expect a full report after the show!


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Ooooh, sounds like lots of fun! Make sure you take pictures and kudos to you for showing him yourself! I think your goals are realistic, but remember if he is a goofball just to laugh and move on. It is way better, IMO, to have the naughty puppy in the ring than to have the shy, tail-tucked but behaved puppy.

As far as dress you do usually see skirts with blazers and good luck finding something with pockets  Bane of my existence. Finding something that fits AND has pockets AND looks good. Of course you can always do dress pants and I did one day at my past show.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I was actually second guessing my decision to enter him last night after hearing that apparently this is a really big show. I had no idea! haha But realistically, even at a recent specialty show with over 100 dogs entered there were only five 6-9 mo. dogs entered with 3 entered from the same litter ....and I have only seen one - if any - at the smaller shows. I'm worried that if there are a lot of dogs in the class it'll turn into a play-fest with Jack as the naughty boy, but I'm sure that's not surprising when that happens with puppies, right? It would just be mildly embarrassing to have everyone watching ringside be like "who is that crazy puppy and the owner who had no control over him???!??!?!?" 

I'm going to take him to a local handling class the two weeks prior to get him used to the environment and having someone touching him.

I have a suit skirt with pockets actually! I'll probably just pair it with a blazer and be done with it.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> I was actually second guessing my decision to enter him last night after hearing that apparently this is a really big show. I had no idea! haha But realistically, even at a recent specialty show with over 100 dogs entered there were only five 6-9 mo. dogs entered with 3 entered from the same litter ....and I have only seen one - if any - at the smaller shows. I'm worried that if there are a lot of dogs in the class it'll turn into a play-fest with Jack as the naughty boy, but I'm sure that's not surprising when that happens with puppies, right? It would just be mildly embarrassing to have everyone watching ringside be like "who is that crazy puppy and the owner who had no control over him???!??!?!?"
> 
> I'm going to take him to a local handling class the two weeks prior to get him used to the environment and having someone touching him.
> 
> I have a suit skirt with pockets actually! I'll probably just pair it with a blazer and be done with it.


IMO, I wouldn't worry about it. When Scout went to her first show she was pretty naughty. She kept wanting to turn around and play with the other dog behind her and she was bouncing up and down on the down and back. However, it was way worth it for the experience. She learned at a young age that dog shows are FUN! I think getting them in that environment is great too (as long as it doesn't overwhelm, I have seen young dogs overwhelmed. Not mine). 

Think about all the different types of people he will meet. And the different sizes and shapes of dogs. Great socialization opportunity. I also think it is great if you can start teaching them at shows that it is ok to be left alone in a crate. Mine was great at home, but is very attached to me and had to work through that one a bit (it was a different place and I was leaving her). And of course, if they have other things like agility I think it is great to go out there and let them watch it.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Oh also meant to add that a suit with slacks is absolutely appropriate for the show ring too. I rarely wear a skirt, mainly because I'm not a fan of pantyhose but also because a black suit with a nice top, I think looks good any way you slice it (plus you have handy pockets in the jacket). Our shows are mostly inside as well so you can wear more layers vs. outside and hot.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

I'm only worried about his antics because on Sunday we went to a local show and he was being a pain. Kind of ADD when the handler was trying to work with him. He suggested not feeding him the morning of the show to get him more focused on the bait and me. I think at first he's overwhelmed a bit but it takes him about an hour to get used to the environment with all the dogs and stuff going on. Luckily the crate thing doesn't bother him one bit. I've left him in a crate a couple of times at a show and he was fine.


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## inge (Sep 20, 2009)

How exciting! Please take some photo's (or have someone take photo's of him and you in the ring!)


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

Have a great time and make sure Jack has an even BETTER time! :wavey:
Some suggestions if I may be so forward. :uhoh:
If your breeder has agreed to groom your pup for you a few days prior to the show I would recommend you do NO grooming for several weeks before. If you make a mistake with scissors close to the show date even an experienced groomer may not be able to fix it. Just amke sure your his coat is clean, nails are trimmed, ears and teeth are clean.
Secondly it may not be much time but have you looked into a local club that may offer "show handling" lessons? It is well worth it if you can find one.

And these suggestions come to you from someone who wished he had been able to take advantage of these two items before his first venture into the conformation ring. :doh:


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

inge said:


> How exciting! Please take some photo's (or have someone take photo's of him and you in the ring!)


I will! I have no idea how he'll look but we shall see. (Maybe we'll have a "win" picture from his class!) 

Literally, getting him to stand still and look somewhat stacked is an accomplishment at this point. He's turning into a teenager! My breeder-friend is going to do a mock show with me and observe my stacking abilities this week. In all honesty, I really think that it will be a raging "success" if he stands still, doesn't pace (since I seem to cause him to do that for some reason) and doesn't chew his leash. LOL


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

AmbikaGR said:


> Have a great time and make sure Jack has an even BETTER time! :wavey:
> Some suggestions if I may be so forward. :uhoh:
> If your breeder has agreed to groom your pup for you a few days prior to the show I would recommend you do NO grooming for several weeks before. If you make a mistake with scissors close to the show date even an experienced groomer may not be able to fix it. Just amke sure your his coat is clean, nails are trimmed, ears and teeth are clean.
> Secondly it may not be much time but have you looked into a local club that may offer "show handling" lessons? It is well worth it if you can find one.
> ...


Good to know! I will stop any grooming right this second (except for nails and teeth.) There are handling classes once/week at a local club. I am going to try to make next week and the following week. I would go tonight but I don't have my show collar yet - it's in the mail on its way to me! I can borrow one from my friend I'm sure though, if necessary, for next week. As I mentioned above, I'm also doing a mock show with my breeder-friend and one of her dogs. So hopefully it'll go well. I was just offered to join into our (future) handler's set up for the show that day, so that makes me feel a bit better knowing we won't be out in our car trying to do last minute touch ups!


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## AmbikaGR (Dec 31, 2007)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> Good to know! I will stop any grooming right this second (except for nails and teeth.) There are handling classes once/week at a local club. I am going to try to make next week and the following week. I would go tonight but I don't have my show collar yet - it's in the mail on its way to me! I can borrow one from my friend I'm sure though, if necessary, for next week. As I mentioned above, I'm also doing a mock show with my breeder-friend and one of her dogs. So hopefully it'll go well. I was just offered to join into our (future) handler's set up for the show that day, so that makes me feel a bit better knowing we won't be out in our car trying to do last minute touch ups!



Sounds good to me although I would not let not having the show collar stop me from going tonight. I would go even if all I had was a flat buckle collar. 
My first show I brought our vacuum to use as my "dryer". :doh: Maybe you can remember when vacuums had an outlet on the bottom that you could use to blow/inflate things with. So being part of a handler's setup sound good to me. 

Again GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

AmbikaGR said:


> Sounds good to me although I would not let not having the show collar stop me from going tonight. I would go even if all I had was a flat buckle collar.
> My first show I brought our vacuum to use as my "dryer". :doh: Maybe you can remember when vacuums had an outlet on the bottom that you could use to blow/inflate things with. So being part of a handler's setup sound good to me.
> 
> Again GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!


Maybe I will then! We have a loop lead that I bought at a show that I could probably use. 

And for the record, I used our shop-vac to blow dry Jack this weekend since we haven't received our dryer yet. LOL


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## rappwizard (May 27, 2009)

Good luck and yes, bring back loads of pictures! Your Jack looks very nice--nice spring of rib for his age from the photos that I see (I am into rib spring right now--eagerly awaiting ribs to pop!) so I notice those ribs from the get-go!

Wear nice, but super comfortable shoes too. Sneaks look out of place--but I'm sure you know that--as well as heels of any sort. I have a couple of pair of Easy Spirit that I wore when I showed my veterans--I know people have all sorts of brands that are favorites. Also, one of my veterans needed a lite meal on show day to concentrate on the bait--I would feed her just a handful of kibble--my other--he had his ears up in his sleep--didn't have to worry about expression with him.

Have loads of fun for you and your pup! What a wonderful day it will be, no matter what the outcome! If you remember who is judging, you can check around and see if the judge is especially good with pups (or not). Some judges are just so forgiving of puppy antics and smile and let the handler take their time to settle. Others could be on Mount Rushmore. I'd have to say that more judges love the puppies. One judge I had a chance to speak to said to me that, and again, this is just one person's opinion, it was not expected that young puppies be perfect statutes. That's part of their charm.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

rappwizard said:


> Good luck and yes, bring back loads of pictures! Your Jack looks very nice--nice spring of rib for his age from the photos that I see (I am into rib spring right now--eagerly awaiting ribs to pop!) so I notice those ribs from the get-go!
> 
> Wear nice, but super comfortable shoes too. Sneaks look out of place--but I'm sure you know that--as well as heels of any sort. I have a couple of pair of Easy Spirit that I wore when I showed my veterans--I know people have all sorts of brands that are favorites. Also, one of my veterans needed a lite meal on show day to concentrate on the bait--I would feed her just a handful of kibble--my other--he had his ears up in his sleep--didn't have to worry about expression with him.
> 
> Have loads of fun for you and your pup! What a wonderful day it will be, no matter what the outcome! If you remember who is judging, you can check around and see if the judge is especially good with pups (or not). Some judges are just so forgiving of puppy antics and smile and let the handler take their time to settle. Others could be on Mount Rushmore. I'd have to say that more judges love the puppies. One judge I had a chance to speak to said to me that, and again, this is just one person's opinion, it was not expected that young puppies be perfect statutes. That's part of their charm.


Thank you for the compliments. Jack's body is really balanced at the moment and looks pretty good right now. His head is another story...he's looking a little long or something. Of course we think he's adorable, but objectively I know that part of him is not his strong suit at the moment! But he moves beautifully and he's still growing, so we'll see what happens once he matures! 

I hope the judge is forgiving of his antics. I know there will be some...particularly if there are other dogs in the ring! No matter what, I think it will definitely take him some time to settle. But if he's hungry he may be so focused on the food that he'll settle more quickly.


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## vixen (Jul 26, 2008)

good luck I been showing my lad for just over a year I started when he was 9 yrs old it never to late wish I started earlyer to be honest, but my life didn;t suit this for some time. I wear a shirt and jeans in the ring, contable foot wear is a MUST so I wear tainers, I always think you should look smart but a suit is just to formal for a gundog, you should wear to match your dog if it was a tou breed then it be different.

I wear a bum bag (fanny pack in the us, right???) with my treat and cloth to wipe Max's mouth if he dribbles to much. Here we Iver free stand or stack I free stand as Max tences up to much if I stack. He always anoyes me cos he will stand nice and not wag his tail, then will wag his tail but thow a back leg out.

I not great at doing feet, I gonna have the done proffetionaly one day its getting the money for it, once it done I can learn from that, tail is easy the rest I leave, to many golden are trimmed in the show ring over hear I personaly thing it ruins there outline if your dog has bad comformation it doesn't matter how much you try to hide it by grooming the judge will feel it.

anyway I'm going on

good luck and most inportantly have fun


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

rappwizard said:


> Good luck and yes, bring back loads of pictures! Your Jack looks very nice--nice spring of rib for his age from the photos that I see (I am into rib spring right now--eagerly awaiting ribs to pop!) so I notice those ribs from the get-go!


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

Going to a handling class tonight! I went last week to practice with our breeder friend. She showed me what happens in the ring - since apparently I never actually paid attention to the protocol - and we practiced with some of her experienced show dogs in front of or behind Jack. I'm SO happy we did that so that it's not so unknown tonight. 

Stacking has been a little difficult since he's so wiggly. I've heard that most judges like puppies and are a bit more forgiving with them, so hopefully that will be the case with us. Do you all have any good bait recommendations to hopefully curb some of his wiggling? He really likes the Natural Balance duck and sweet potato roll but I'm wondering if there's something else that's REALLY smelly that'll hold his attention better than that?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

All I can say is be careful about bait you don't want it to cause him to be overly wiggly. I had to ditch bait when I went back in for Winner's when mine was 6 mos because it made her even more uppity and less controlled!


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> All I can say is be careful about bait you don't want it to cause him to be overly wiggly. I had to ditch bait when I went back in for Winner's when mine was 6 mos because it made her even more uppity and less controlled!


That's what I'm worried about! I'm worried that there will be 1 dog in our class - him. He'll win (yay! but then......:uhoh and when we go into winners he'll go crazy! Maybe I'll just see how he does tonight and go from there. In his obedience class he's one of the best behaved and is always used as the example dog. So I'm hoping that his obedience class experience will help him in this venue also.

What bait were you using? Do you use something different now?

Were people nice to you when she lost it for a bit?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> What bait were you using? Do you use something different now?


I cut up one of those Nature duck rolls at that show. This past show I used the popular salmon fudge recipe that has been posted before. I actually didn't use bait that much, and one day not at all. Things went by so fast, I didn't have time to quick draw treats. I try to vary what I use though...



goldenjackpuppy said:


> Were people nice to you when she lost it for a bit?


Oh yeah, she was a puppy and nobody expected her to be perfect. She was cute and had fun. And as I've said before some of the better behaved puppies I have seen have been a bit uncertain/fearful (tail-tucked, etc). Wouldn't you rather have a wild puppy grow into a stable/confident adult with spark than a well-behaved but nervous adult no spark?


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> Oh yeah, she was a puppy and nobody expected her to be perfect. She was cute and had fun. And as I've said before some of the better behaved puppies I have seen have been a bit uncertain/fearful (tail-tucked, etc). Wouldn't you rather have a wild puppy grow into a stable/confident adult with spark than a well-behaved but nervous adult no spark?


That's true. He does have spark! haha 

When is Scout's next show?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

goldenjackpuppy said:


> That's true. He does have spark! haha
> 
> When is Scout's next show?


I don't know. Not for awhile...probably not until fall when she is around 18 months. We are going to go to them here and there for fun/practice until she is ready to win points.

But good luck at your show! I think they are fun as long as you make them to be and don't let yourself get too caught up in the drama


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> I don't know. Not for awhile...probably not until fall when she is around 18 months. We are going to go to them here and there for fun/practice until she is ready to win points.
> 
> But good luck at your show! I think they are fun as long as you make them to be and don't let yourself get too caught up in the drama


I do worry about that a bit...but almost everyone I've met has been pretty nice and helpful. The ones who haven't been nice are not my favorite people anyway, so I don't really care what they think. I do think people will laugh if he goes crazy...I probably will too! I'll let you know how the handling class goes tonight...that will be a good test I think. I'm going to bring a couple different bait options to see what works best.


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## HiTideGoldens (Dec 29, 2009)

So our first handling class went pretty well!!!! I'm feeling much better about our show next weekend! There were a lot of puppies there, and I felt better knowing that mine wasn't the only one trying to play when we were lined up. I had never seen it before, but now know what people mean when they talk about dogs who just do NOT enjoy the ring. Some of the dogs were really scared and/or nervous. One 2 year old rottweiler bitch was literally cowering with her handler, almost in a fetal position, and wouldn't even stand up. I guess she's entered in a show this weekend! Yikes. I don't think I could do that to my dog, she just looked miserable!

Lucky for me, Jack was really happy and wagging his tail the whole time....the "judge" even commented that he seemed really happy and eager to please. She joked that "his tail certainly works!" when she was going over him the first time. He did fine when both the main judge/teacher and a junior handler (who I think is trying to learn the ropes of judging) went over him and had no issues there. His stacking left something to be desired, but I knew that would be the case. I'm going to work on that more. 

Overall, Jack did pretty well staying focused on me and his bait...but of course had his moments. (He found himself a 5 month old Samoyed girlfriend, who I think he's now in puppy-love with.) He moved well and the judge said that I corrected him well when we were gaiting. She told me (I didn't know this) that there's no shame in starting over if he starts galloping or doing something crazy, since the judge will likely make me start over anyway. She said it's always better to show that you know you need to start over than have the judge tell you to do it again. Which makes sense. He didn't pace at all any of the 5 times we were up, which is just so weird. He's done it almost every time I practice with him at home. But maybe it's just the environment or maybe I've learned how to get him in the right position. The main judge/teacher was really helpful in offering tips and even though it's a "limited instruction" class she was very helpful to all of us and stayed really positive throughout the class.

I'm definitely going back to the class next week to practice again and I think I'll keep taking him. It's $2 per class, which I think is a steal! My friend told me that other handling classes she's been to are $30 per class. I actually think I would pay the $30 for this class! This was a really good experience for me and gave me more confidence heading into next weekend. I'm also happy to know that Jack seems to enjoy being in the ring and is happy while doing it. 

Thank you all for your support in this endeavor. It's such a new and unfamiliar thing for me and I really appreciate all the advice and tips.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

That's great and you got some good advice! Remember that you paid the judge to be there so don't be afraid to take some time to make your dog look his best! I can't wait to see pictures and here how it goes


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