Hi all, I am very new to the world of showing. I am about to enter my pup into his first breed show (he did an AV class at a charity show the other week, was 6th out of 16 and behaved very well) but wondered how many classes to do? He will be 8 months on the day of the show, so will be in minor puppy, but should I do puppy as well? As I say, I am new to the dog world, I normally compete with my horses at dressage, and always do 2 classes as it seems a waste of time to go for one. It's £15 for first class, but then only £2 for subsequent ones, and I don't want to travel for an hour for one class if everyone then says 'oh, you should have done 2!'.

Need to enter today, so advice please :-)

I'd do both Minor Puppy and Puppy, but no more than that. I'll never forget my annoyance at only entering Minor Puppy at a champ show (large class, pup came 4th) instead of both puppy classes. Puppy class was surprisingly small, and the places were won by minor pups that had been placed 5th & 6th!

Good luck!

If it is a breed with large entries at a championship show I would stick to just the one class, and a stakes class like puppy stakes, otherwise both puppy classes.

At smaller shows I would do say three classes, breed class AV group class and puppy stakes.

Thanks, I think I will enter both, for the sake of £2!

It is a champ show, but at the last one there were only 10 entries in Minor Puppy and 8 in Puppy, much lower than I was expecting. However it might be different at this show, there might be huge entries, but I'll give it a go, it's all experience for him :-)

Jeangenie - thanks, that's a good tip! If the second class was as expensive I wouldn't bother, but might as well do it as we'll be there, and as you say, would be annoying to have not entered and wish you had!

Brainless - there's no mention of stakes - could you briefly tell me what that is please?

In my experience it varies greatly between breeds -in some breeds the same dog can be entered into two or three classes, in other breeds it is more or less frowned upon and a pup entered in more than one class almost gives out a big red flag saying "novice owner!" -why don't you ask your pup's breeder what he or she would do?

Hey there,

We have just entered our pup for his first champ show and have entered him for the minor puppy and stakes class, in the hope that he will have time to "chill" after the first. I was advised not to enter 2 together for pups, so that he didn't get bored and naughty :-)

I think it is a case of each to their own though :-) after all, Setters aren't renowned for being the best behaved dogs in the world, especially at 6 months!

Nicki xx

I usually only do one.

Oh no, now I've got conflicting advice and I've gone and entered :-(

Did email breeder who said enter, but hasn't replied to my second email yet so I thought I'd ask on here as needed to enter tonight. Oh well, I am a 'novice owner' so if that's what they'll think of me it'll be true ;-)

Can I just not do the second class if it's not the done thing?

I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to just not go into a class you're entered for, if you're actually at the show.

I've never come across the theory that it's not the done thing to enter two breed classes with a puppy - it certainly isn't in my breed (all the experienced exhibitors of long standing do it - so perhaps it's just a breed thing. For a novice exhibitor to enter a stakes class would raise eyebrows ...

what breed is it you have ?

If its minor puppy and puppy you have entered then I wouldnt worry, its something alot of people do, especially with older puppies at the top end of the age range for minor puppy.

He's a flatcoat, and I've entered minor puppy and puppy :-)

I've just checked the results for the April champ show and the same puppy was 2nd in minor puppy and puppy, so it's obviously ok ;-)

> I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to just not go into a class you're entered for, if you're actually at the show.
>

Not it's not, however if you won the Minor Puppy & missed the puppy class you cannot challenge for best puppy or best dog, you can withdraw from AV classes to be eligible for BIS/BIG/BPIS/BPIG, but not the breed classes

If you get binned in the first class & miss the second, no one will say or do anything-it's polite to tell the ring steward that your dog won't be in it's next class.

The KC are not that draconian.

Well, a little update - I'm glad I did enter both classes as he didn't come anywhere in minor puppy but got VHC in puppy :-)

Next show we will be doing puppy, but as he'll only be 9 months I feel he will be a bit young for junior (and he's not very big!) so was going to enter AV Gundog puppy stakes (it's a gundog show) as well as breed puppy - does that sound ok?

We're fairly new to showing and just putting our puppy into his first shows... Live in hope that he could win his puppy class and then challenge for the breed and so on... The only thought I had with regards Stakes classes is that if you have a breed that is in the ring early (ours are often first in at 9.30am) Stakes are usually after everything else has been judged so it can be a really long day for the pups. 

If we've not had a good reception in the early classes with out other dog, we've often left before the Stakes start knowing she probably would stand a chance anyway..

Thanks for that - yes I did think there might be lots of waiting around! As it's not too far, will probably just do the breed puppy. There's another show nearby where there's no breed classes, and the only AVNSC Gundog is junior, so was going to do AV Puppy Stakes Puppy Dog and AV Special Beginners Stakes Puppy instead as he'd be against his own age  - he does look immature against junior dogs of his own breed. Could we do the 2 stakes or do you have to enter AVNSC if there's no breed class? Gosh, it's all so confusing compared to dressage!