# Show Day Question



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

There's some more experienced show people here who should hopefully respond... but I'll give you a bump. 

Trimming and clipping (nails and whiskers) - do ahead of time in the week leading up to the show. Probably could do nails a couple times in the week and whiskers the day before. There's a lot of really careful painstaking stuff to do as far as ears and paws, and you don't want to feel rushed when doing that. I also think you run the risk of snipping ear leather or taking too much fur off that way.... You still will probably need to do last minute stuff with shears, strippers, and thinners – but that’s just touch up (basically cleaning up what you see after the dog has been bathed and blown out). 

Day of show grooming - what I do at the show depends on what is available…. I’ve been told to do a full bath the morning of the show. When I don’t know what’s available and or know for sure there won’t even be a hose, I’ll get Bertie in the bathtub before leaving for the show – towel him off and head out to the show to dry him there. 

I generally need 20 minutes after arriving or so to “unload” my tackbox and dryer as well as pottying Bertie. Then 45 minutes for grooming. Then generally the rest of the time depends…. I usually try planning on getting to the show site 2 hours before showing. 

If it helps this is what I’m planning to do this weekend, and it’s basically a routine that works for me…. 

Takes me about an hour to drive down to the show site…. But because it’s a lot less stress having less set up stuff to do the day of the show – I will be driving down a day before showing to get my table, crate, chair, and probably a fan set up + plug my extension cord in. If you are reserving a grooming spot, you probably don’t have to stress so much about making sure you have POWER, but seriously the less you have to do the day of the show, obviously more time you can just focus on what you need to do with your dog. I will also check to see what’s available as far as bathing. If tubs, I’ll bathe there at the show site. If just a hose, I’ll use the clean bathroom and bathtub at home before leaving the house morning of the show.


I’ll also do a lot of the other stuff like trimming nails and clipping whiskers. And (coughs) – taking advantage of a day off and taking the dogs swimming. J 


Day of the show – I’ll get there with a couple hours to spare. Get my dryer and tack box set up. If bathing there at the show, I’ll do that right away and get him dry…. If lots of time left over, he gets to hang out in the crate for a while with me right there, maybe a little walking around too and shopping. I normally buy bait from a specific vendor when showing… 

Know before bathing at shows how much time you need to dry your dog. If you have a dog who really fights the dryer and or for whatever reason you can’t get him dry quick enough with your dryer – do the bath the night before. You don’t want to be miserable and stressed at the show. It’s supposed to be fun. 

About 15-20 minutes before showing – I’ll do last minute stuff. If he’s been in the crate, I might lightly spritz with something before running the dryer again. Gets rid of any flippies…. 

Then I take my chair ringside, get my armband, make sure I put a bait bag and water somewhere close enough to the “waiting” side of the ring (where you will be stacking/moving up before the individual exam) if need be…. And pretty much I’m up there and get to see the class before goldens judges, etc… to see where people are setting up when entering the ring, pick up on what the judge is looking at out there (what more experienced handlers are doing to get ahead out there*), and just hang out and relax until you go out there. 

*I guess an example of this watching a prior class at a recent, I saw a lot of the more experienced handlers REALLY slowing the gait down when doing the individual d and b. They were more successful with the judge on that day than the other handlers moving the dogs faster.


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

Thank you! 

Is there a real advantage to bathing the day of versus the day before and then spritzing him and redrying the morning of the show? Pretty sure I read that there's no bathing area on site. I've signed up for several days so I'm hoping that the first round will be a learning experience and I'll get more comfortable as the week progresses.


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## flatcoated (Feb 3, 2013)

For a first show (?) with a puppy, I personally would not bathe day of and dry at the show site. You want him to be a happy and relaxed as possible, and that means you yourself need to be as unstressed as possible. Worrying about drying, etc in a busy show environment is probably more stress than either of you needs at this point. Right now, less time on the table at the show site is likely to be better for both of you, and if you get him all bathed and just have to worry about fine-tuning, he'll still look great. Once you're both comfortable with showing, you may or may not want to reevaluate.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Christen113 said:


> Thank you!
> 
> Is there a real advantage to bathing the day of versus the day before and then spritzing him and redrying the morning of the show? Pretty sure I read that there's no bathing area on site. I've signed up for several days so I'm hoping that the first round will be a learning experience and I'll get more comfortable as the week progresses.


Their coats look and feel the best right after they've been bathed and dried. This is why a lot of your bigger handlers bathe the dogs the morning of, and each morning of a show. Even when spritzing it isn't just wetting down the top coat, but soaking right to the skin before drying. 


Stick close to other golden people and watch what they do and ask questions. Once you develop your own rountine, it takes away any stress because a lot of time you know how much time you need and what has to be done so your dog looks his best.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

How old is your puppy? If he's really young, I wouldn't stress to much over grooming. The more you stress, the more it goes right down the leash and stresses your dog.

I showed last weekend my girl and helped a newbie that was showing her puppy boy that turned 6 months old last Friday, just in time for the show. So here's what we did. I looked him over the week before the show. He needed his toes and tail trimmed. We decided to not do his whiskers. He's a very obvious puppy boy with no chance of winning, but should have lots of fun.

The day before the show, I had the puppy owner take her boy to an indoor swimming pool for dogs. They have a nice bathing/grooming area. She bathed him afterwards. I went over while she blew him out. I trimmed his toes and tail. No fur, so not much else to do. Saturday and Sunday morning we combed him out and played with him. He had fun.

For Lucy I do bath the morning of the first show. I blow her out. All trimming was done prior, so no trimming is needed during the show. If she doesn't get dirty during the show, I just spritz her and blow her out the morning of the next show days.

We both live 10 minutes from the show grounds, so no big deal getting there quickly from our homes.

When at an away show, it's a lot harder. You will be in the position of spritzing and blowing out. Do you have a blower, table and arm? If you do, you are set up just fine.

Lucy's nephew got BOB at 7 months. So no telling where your puppy could go... Unless he looks like a young puppy boy. Can you post a photo?


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

Thanks for all of the advice!!

Last year there were 103 goldens at this show so I'd be elated if we just got a ribbon in his class-and mostly it's for the experience this time anyways. It's my understanding that this show is VERY political. I want to show him myself for the most part and I don't want to spend a lot on a handler before he's really ready to win. 

I have all the tools and supplies and he's used to the table but not a fan of the dryer still-getting better but its not enjoyable for him so I'm hesitant to do it at the show. 

I had a grooming session and lesson last weekend with another breeder and she thought I'd been doing a good job so just some fine tuning there-mainly ears and feet. Still debating whiskers but leaning towards leaving them. Overall she thought he was a really nice dog. My only concern is sometimes on a free stack he'll turn his left paw out and looks a little eatsy-westy. Think his chest still needs to drop some and hopefully it will get better with age. Sometimes it's perfect though. Do the judges typically have you free stack a puppy? 

I'll be on my own for a lot of the show and its huge. Would it be weird to lock up the dryer, scissors, bag etc in a crate with a lock when I'm not there? Would it be weird to put a lock on his crate if I need to run to the restroom? Haha. My thought is that I don't want anyone stealing him or my stuff and surely they'd leave it alone if it wasn't easily accessible. 

At the very least, he'll be the people's choice. We've been on a trip and I've been bringing him everywhere and people just love him. We finally started counting the "wow, he's beautiful" comments and he was just racking them up.....now if only they could be the judge


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

I'm on the mobile so not sure if this pic uploaded. We're in Colorado so his tick collar is on and it's not an ideal stack but gives you an idea.


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

Trying again.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

He looks gorgeous, Christen. 

Yeah - if he's wiggling and moving around too much while being dried - I'd probably just do the minimal misting and "freshen up" kind of drying as opposed to fighting with him too much. You do want to train him to get used to the whole routine. It's not just the part in the ring, but him being up on the table. 

Have to admit a funny - I was freaking out this morning because I went to the show with an unbathed dog (he had gone swimming yesterday and between that outing and going to a private obedience lesson - I did not have the time or energy to do much by way of grooming or even loading the car!). Could not find the bathing stations to start with and was walking what felt like a mile (lol) with Bertie looking all smuggetty smug with wings on his shoulders and flip-flips all around his rump... and an armful of my towel and shampoos! Then when I found the bathing stations, I had to stand there for 20-30 minutes while two people did the most ridiculously elaborate baths I've ever seen at a dog show! 

On youtube - there's a Pure Paws promotional video... basically this guy using all Pure Paws products. I was thinking about that video while watching these people and waiting. With Bertie, it generally just takes me about 2-5 minutes. The better the water pressure, faster the process. 

But all that took about 30 minutes before I could even get my dog bathed! Set me back by 1/2 an hour as far as how much time I had to get Bertie completely dry. Which end of story - he looked downright gorgeous when I was done with the exception of the hair on his withers which I did not get as flat and straight as I normally would have while drying. If I had more time to dry, I probably would have gotten that taken care of. Which I guess goes to show that even when you have a very set "pattern" and routine when grooming, you still get a wrench thrown in the middle of all that and only that routine sort of helps salvage things. If this happened way back when I was still getting more efficient with drying Bertie completely at shows, I would have been in tears with a wet dog 5 minutes before showing, I'm sure. :uhoh: 

Also as far as whiskers go - I didn't get a chance to do those today because I essentially had exactly 45 minutes between bathing and showing and spent that whole time drying! I don't believe it always matters though. 

*** bathroom or food breaks, maybe ask somebody set up with you to keep a vague eye on him. I get nervous leaving Bertie alone because not only has he been known to let himself out of crates before, but I've seen how spectators behave when nobody's around. You shouldn't be visiting somebody's crated dog when the owner isn't right there, but people do. I mentioned this before, but I saw a near miss happen with a crate door opening up and a golden nearly escaping - this while it was just spectators right there visiting with the dog with no owners or handlers in sight to monitor! I was right there and would have rushed in to grab the dog if the spectators hadn't quickly pushed the dog back in and secured the door. I did stand right there until they walked away, and let the handler know when she came back... but I guess she wouldn't even have known anything happened if I weren't right there to see everything.

*** Tack - shut tack boxes and put your dryer away out of sight. And I would not leave unsecured at show sites when you go home at the end of the day.


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

Megora said:


> He looks gorgeous, Christen.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Hahaha. I would have flipped over the washing and drying fiasco at this point. 

I didn't even really think about spectators but good call on that too. I've gone to this show every year for years so I have a decent idea of the layout. Guess I'll just play it by ear once I see where I'm set up and who is around me. 

Since he's a baby I don't have a tack box but can fit everything I think I need in the bag with the dryer. Think I'll get my grooming table and arm set up the night before and then bring the more expensive stuff in and out each day. 

This is going to be a major learning experience! 

And stupid question-where do you pick up your arm band and get checked in? Typically at the ring? And how early can you do that? In the past goldens have always shown early. Im hoping and praying for a slightly later show time so I have time to study the judges patterns and get Cooper socialized and calmed down. He's been doing well with people and kids on this trip and jumping a lot less so making progress there. Now if his handler/trainer can just get it together we'll be in good shape


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Check your judging program. Whatever time the goldens class is - maybe head out there to the ring about 10 minutes before to get your arm band. You can grab your number earlier - if your steward and judge are there for earlier classes, they generally will have the armbands available... but you don't have to grab early though. 

Other thing to kinda be prepared for - sometimes whether you are the first class in a ring for the day or first class after lunch, you might be waiting for the steward and judge to come back before you get the number... and they can even be really behind to the point of handing numbers out seconds before the classes start. In which case, make sure the others know you have a puppy dog and need to be first in line. Generally if there is a line up, people will be nice and ask anyone behind them what they are showing and let people who need to get out there sooner to go ahead of them. 

Tear the sides slightly for the rubber band to go through- that keeps the number secure. Don't say your dog's registered name aloud at the ring. You don't want the judge overhearing and people to get miffy about that. If you know the number or have your armband info from the superintendent, you can hand that to the steward so they can pull your number. If you don't have your number info, just ask if you can look at the catalog to confirm and point yourself out to the steward. 

If you are very early and haven't had a chance to watch where people are setting up and/or what patterns the judges are using - don't worry. The steward or judge will tell you where to set up if in doubt, or you can ask as you go in. And the pattern is generally a down and back - either straight across or diagonally. I've been showing for almost 2 years and I still have not had a L pattern or anything else thrown at me in AKC (I had it happen in UKC, those crazy UKC people!). Some judges if they have a really big class will direct traffic more - which case just pay attention and don't stress too much.


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## Christen113 (Dec 3, 2014)

That's reassuring. Last week in class they asked for a half circle and then free stack in front of the judge. Had I gone first, I never would have ended correctly. Everybody there can say what they want and get a good laugh but we all have to start somewhere


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## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

If a show is Sat & Sun, I bathe my dogs Thursday or Friday, blow them out, and trim everything possible. If I come from out of town, I set up my crate and table the night before at the show. That way I only need to arrive with my dog and show clothes and can get started. I typically don't bath dogs at the show unless they're out of coat and need some fluffiness. My dogs carry good coat and it lays perfectly straight so I don't need to rebath on day of show. I will wet them down and touch up spots but I don't go crazy. At the show I will then trim whiskers and any stray foot and ear hair that fluffing them has brought out of place. 

A good suggestion is to know how long this little routine takes you so you're not late. If you're a 6-9 puppy, you need to be ready at the stated ringtime. You can allow 2 minutes per dog if you have a breed ahead of you. 

Ex. 9:00 AM Ring 2
Retrievers (Labrador) 7-12 (5-2)
Retrievers (Golden) 5-5 (2-1)

There are 26 labs ahead of you, at 2 min per dog, that's about 52 minutes until golden judging. I would be at the ring, ready with my puppy by atleast 9:45.


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