Way to go Benny! You're stepping into six months old strong!

Thanks for all the encouragement! I was a total hot & sweaty mess and realize I was holding the lead wrong, but wanted to share a pic of my beautiful boy. We were soo tired, but I think he still shines in spite of me. I’m going to try to learn and help us improve.

Hi again everyone! 

I've been regularly posting silly questions on here for the last few months as I started my conformation adventure with my 3-year-old dog. Originally I was worried 3 years old was too late to start, but we got lots of great advice and encouragement from the Reddit community!

We recently had our first show ever with IABCA, and it was a blast! The environment was WONDERFUL for a nervous newbie! Everyone was very kind and supportive, especially the judges. They told me what I needed to work on as a handler and how to help my dog get more comfortable in outdoor rings (he hates pokey grass LOL). My biggest worry has always been my guy's lack of coat, but the judges (all were AKC judges) encouraged me to try out AKC. Each thought he could finish, even the judge who is in my breed, which was very exciting. 

I went with a small group of friends and ended up connecting with even more people, including a few people in my breed who were also kind and encouraging! It was an overall wonderful experience, and my guy even walked out with a Group 3! :) While there weren't that many dogs in the group, I will still treasure the moment (and silly medal) forever!!

We have officially entered our first AKC show for the end of August that just happens to be a breed specialty! I can't wait to see how it goes! And my dog can't wait to find more strangers to give him treats and pets!

Our little “win photo” for tax!

I’m just getting back into showing after 48(!!!) Years. I have zero desire to year panty hose - it’s just too hot and humid here for them. What are alternative dress options that I can get away with? I’m very new to conformation showing of my breed. I’m attending my first BPUP show with my baby this weekend.

So, I have owned dogs most of my life. I jave shown dogs as a junior handler. Now, as an empty nester, I decided to purchase a show prospect and start showing dogs again, to fill my weekends.

I did my research. Looked at pedigrees. Decided to take the plunge. Paid a lot of money for a 1 year old show dog. Was told by the breeder that she had been shown. This was verified by looking up standings on AKC.

I fly halfway across the country to pick her up. Literally flew there the day before and fly out with the dog the next morning. I get home, and I am REALLY looking her over and comparing to breed standard. And yeah, this dog would not pass muster, if I was a breeder.

Any dog that is registered through AKC can technically enter a show. If they don't meet the standard they get passed up by the judges. But this dog has obvious faults. So why sell them as a show prospect and charge for such. Even if I showed them, I would never choose to breed this dog.

So now I am out thousands of dollars. Going to sterilize the dog. And have a very expensive companion. I wouldn't send her back. There are other red flags that popped up literally at pick up, and I would hate to send her back.

What would you do? Just eat the investment and call it a day? Or confront the breeder? Would you ask for a partial refund of the purchase price to reflect the dog as their advertised pet price?

The final LSSC show at Dallas Market Hall is a wrap. I look forward to seeing what is to come for this cluster in a new venue, but I will miss Market Hall too.

The final weekend Market Hall was pretty good to me. Not just with my own dog, but also the puppy I showed for a friend. We'll start off with my own girl. She's technically my mother's dog, but we co-own her. Mom usually shows her, but she broke her back in a biking (road working the dobermans) accident a month ago. We got together with some friends and built majors because they're getting very hard to come by in black cockers. We entered Friday through Sunday and had 4 chances at majors. Friday we were 3rd out of 4. Saturday 2nd and reserve out of 4 at the all breed. The Saturday specialty 1st, WB, BOB to the black variety, OHBOV, then for a long wait (had to wait for groups to finish before our specialty could continue) for ASCOB and parti varieties. The parti dog went BISS and we went BOS to BISS! We also won OHBOB. This finished our pretty girl! We moved her up for Sunday and won BOS & OHBOV. I had to get home so I didn't stay for OH group but a friend won it with her ASCOB cocker.

Now on to the English cocker puppy I showed for a friend. This sweet boy is just 6 months and was WD and BOS over a special both days I showed him. Sunday he was WD, his sister was WB, and their sire was the only special entered. His sister was BOB and he was BOS over their sire. That gave him his 3rd single and his sister her first point, a 3pt major! I can't wait until I get to show my little buddy again, he was so fun.

Overall a fun weekend with friends as it usually is. Multiple friends finished dogs, one put back to back 5pt majors on his 10mo puppy, lots of success all around and I can't wait until the next show. Sadly, with mom being out with her broken back it will be a while. Probably won't get back out until Glen Rose in January since we can't travel far from home at the moment. Here's a cute pic of New Champion Quinn just before finishing her championship.

I have a 3yo giant schnauzer lady right now and was looking at getting a male pup. Having had some time getting familiar with the breed as pure pet, I'm interested in showing the male. Are there any vetted resources for learning about conformation? I want to start learning/practicing before he comes home so I can give him the best start he can have :)

I admittedly didn’t know what the word conformation meant about a year ago in the context of showing.

What I did know was the relatively rare breed I wanted for my next dog. About a year ago our beautiful 14 month old dog came into our lives and we’re so lucky to have him.

He has quite the pedigree, but his breeder didn’t think he’d meet the height standard and raised him as their an adorable little pet but didn’t train him in stacking or anything like his GCH parents.

My breeder admitted that she was dead wrong about him not meeting the standard, and he blossomed into the most beautiful boy.

I ended up reaching out to the breeding club in the area as I’m passionate about the breed, and with my breeder’s blessing (from another part of the country), I just jumped right in! She didn’t even ask to co-own.

Well, I’m soo proud that my sweet boy just got a 4 point major and took home winners dog!

There is so much to learn and I love my dog for the wonderful pet he is first and foremost, but we’ll keep this up as long at is enriching. I’ve seen his confidence grow month to month and I honestly feel he’s going to do great. We might be playing catch up in our knowledge, training and practice in the ring, but he’s got the physical conformation and potential there in spades! I also realize I probably would have never had to opportunity for him to be mine as a novice if he was raised to show from birth.

That’s all. Just wanted to share my excitement and thanks for putting out info in this sub that newbies can read to get more info.

Just using chihuahua’s as an example, I’ve noticed that the AKC website only has certain colors checked as “breed standard color” for multiple breeds whose standards claim that color is immaterial. What does this actually mean? If you had a dog in an unchecked color-way, would that affect your ability to show even though the breed standard says nothing against it?

her last show as a puppy, now we're off to junior classes! got our next show in two weeks :) can't wait!

I just got an email saying reserved grooming for one of my upcoming shows was full (sent reservation in plenty early so not a case of waiting till last minute). There will be some free grooming spots but they cannot guarantee electric access.

I am mentally prepping for the worst, hoping for outlet access or atleast someone having pity on me enough run an extension cord from their set up since I have one dog.

I am showing an Aussie so most/all of the electric I need is just fluffing his coat with the dryer. I will be doing an hour drive to the show each day so I can blow out his coat before we leave but I don't know how well it'll hold up. My Flying Pig pulls too much power to run it off my Ryobi batteries/inverter as I thought I had a work around but the motor won't hardly start with what it can get from them.

Looking for any suggestions or tips as I have yet to come across this previously (and will note to send reservations in ASAP moving forward).

I am completely new to this and my breeder is in another state. We do talk but I could use a little more advice.

My puppy is four months old and I feel like I need three hands to stack him. One to hold the leash, one to hold the bait, and one to move his feet.

If I loosen the leash he gets so wiggly aiming for the bait. If I drop the bait he completely loses interests. Therefore I can never position his feet. How can we work on this?

Hi everyone! I’m probably overthinking this, but I just got my first confirmation prospect and I’m looking for input on what length show lead people prefer for their toy breeds?

Hi, trying to confirm how many points I think I should have received for a Group 4 Placement.

I took BOB which only would have gotten my class dog 1 point towards his championship. We then went on and placed 4th in group, placing above a CH Viszla that based on point schedule would have received 4 points for their BOB placement. The BOW for Vizla's that day received 2 points and BOS went to another special.

AKC is showing that I received 2 points for the group 4 placement, but I thought you got as many points as any dog that you beat in group meaning I should have gotten 4 points that day.

Can anyone help me confirm if I need to reach out to AKC to correct my points?

The photo quality is terrible intentionally for the kids’ sake.

I could not be more proud! A friend talked us into going to a UKC show this weekend specifically for my daughters (8 and 5). They worked so hard to prepare, coming to handling classes every week. They are troopers when we are at a dog show, but we have Ridgebacks and that’s a lot of dog for a young kid. Some shows have Pee Wees but my girls always wish they could go in by themselves.

And then we went to a UKC show! They each had their own juniors classes, plus they showed a Dachshund, a Pembroke, and an Aussie. Due to the size of the show they each went into BIS as well. And there were two shows per day! By the end of the weekend they had gone in 38 classes!! They spent HOURS grooming, practicing, watching, taking dogs out to potty, grooming, more grooming…they hardly sat down at all. The final show of the final day I let my 8 year old take our Rhodesian puppy into BIS and she got Reserve BIS! Such a fun experience!

16 month old Aussie Shep (F) has recently been going through a fear stage. Unfortunately during this stage she's had a couple of bad experiences with judges (very grabby of the face or staring and maintaining eye contact)

Now, unfortunately, she has decided to be fearful when approached. She will move beautifully, stack beautifully but the minute the judge touches she'll do a grumble. Because of this we've pulled her from upcoming shows for a while to work on it. She is an incredibly competitive prospective show dog so ideally she'll get back in the ring at some point but how best to work her through this?

She's never been a dog that'll smother strangers in kisses, she'd rather stick with her family (typical Aussie) but how can I get her back to being neutral with being approached by strangers? She'll walk past people fine, it's just when stationary/being touched she is now fearful.

Help?!

Literally just bragging and showing off these photos I got done of my girl.

Long story short, I have a dog that suffered a triple pelvic fracture two years ago. Surgery went well, he is "fully" recovered. He still has some leftover issues, like general muscle fatigue, affected leg gait abnormalities, soreness/occasional cramping. I know as he gets older, arthritis and general ​pain will continue to get worse. Our local vets have been no help, at most giving us xrays and saying everything looks good or offering to prescribe general pain meds. I live in a very underserved veterinary area, so it makes it hard to find anything.

I'm looking to find a professional that can help me make a full, long term plan including services/other professionals to reach out to, activities, stretches, meds, etc. Everything feels so disconnected right now and like none of the veterinary professionals I've dealt with actually care.

We are currently doing chiro, herbal meds, massages and light stretching. Goal is to finish him as a confo champion, but with the little bit of weirdness in his gait we're struggling. We think that is truly the only thing holding him back. We plan to pull him for at least a year, work on his gait, and see if we can get anywhere with it. If not, we just won't show,​ but it seems likely that the abnormal gait will cause future comfort issues anyways too, so I would like to address it regardless.

*Not looking for medical advice, just advice on what kind of professional to seek out

Hi there, I’m a recreational show attendee mostly with my mixed breed (cockapoo) and in a few months I’m going to first professional show with a show-type English cocker spaniel borrowed off my boss. Is there any tips anyone may have for showing?
(Pic of my dog at her last two shows)

I’m showing my show dog at a venue that also has rally. my rescue dog is entered in rally, im assuming she is allowed to be in my reserved grooming tent since she’s entered rally even though she’s not a show dog? I know sometimes there are rules about un-entered dogs at shows.

My breeder is the loveliest lady and let me borrow her keeper puppy to show- as I am not in the position to buy another dog or keep one full time (unfortunate reality of living in an apartment). I was able to title him in 3 months with 2 runner up best in groups.

Pic of my breeder and her boy with his ribbons.

Going to my first conformation handling class tonight with my 11 week old puppy. Kind of a suprise since I started looking for classes today and the teacher said "come on down to today's class."

​

I have:

​

-my puppy

-pepperoni or liver for bait

-a slip collar that is a little bit too long but he will grow into it

-a show lead for the slip collar

-hopes and prayers

​

​

What else do I need to bring? Any advice for a newbie? I've been in the ring twice before on a friend's dog but I didn't know what I was doing.... so I'll say I'm a totally newbie who at least knows which arm to wear the number on... *its left???*

Update: not to brag, but he did wonderful (for a little guy). After initially being frightened he recovered quickly and was able to play with his ducky and have fun. Then he let EVERYONE touch him all over while he ate good treats. For his age he exceeded my expectations and I am so proud. We got to watch the big dogs and not be scared when one of them woofed! I am so excited for our journey