My first show in at Manchester on saturday. Yes I know theres nothing like jumping in feet first :-). I had booked him in to an open show for some practice but it was cancelled due to weather. I've looked at the programme to try and work out weather we have to be there when the doors open or can we arrive later ? i dont want to be there at the opening if were not going to be in the ring at say 10 or 11 as I will be on my own with my dog and dont want him to have to hang around all morning ? any ideas anyone?

Many thanks

The schedule says
"1 The Show will open at 7.00 am.
2 Dogs will be received at any time but it is the exhibitor's responsibility to ensure that exhibits are available for
judging when required.
3 Judging will commence at 9.00 am except where stated under the classification for the breed and exhibitors will be
responsible for their dogs being in time for judging.
4 Exhibits may be removed from the Show after their judging has been completed. Exhibits may not be removed any
earlier unless by written order of the Veterinary Surgeon, Veterinary Practitioner or of the Show Management and
then only in very exceptional and unforeseen circumstances which must be reported to the Kennel Club. The Show
will close half an hour after all judging has been completed at which time dogs must be removed.You can never be too early for a show when you are new and have a young dog (in early classes) to show.

Watching judging from the very beginning, will teach you lots about your breed and showing them.

Good luck

Look at your pass and see what breeds, if any are on before you. Then look at the entries online and see how many dogs will be on before your breed. Times the number of dogs on before you by 2, giving 2 mins per dog. See how many minutes that is and ROUGHLY thats how long before you will be in the ring. There will be time taken for change over of classes, sexes, the challenges and change over of breeds but 2 mins per dog is a rough guide. I also subtract 10% absentees from the total num ber of dogs on before my breed.
Hope that helps........its never failed me in 14 years. I like to arrive a hour before my breed judging to settle the dogs.

Diane

Hi just looking at the schedule, it appears your breed are first in the ring. 72 dogs making up 77 entries. I personally would try and get there for 1hr before the breed ring opens just to settle down, yourself and your dog, especially if going alone.
What class are you entered into? Can't recall if you have a dog or bitch, if bitch then yes getting there a little later would be ok, but not too much later..

I have got to a show just as my class were going in, felt very flustered and know i didn't do my best, even though we got placed. I do prefer to be able to sit down and have a drink and toilet run before we go in, that also is inclusive for the dog too..
We each have our own ways of doing things and what works best for us and the dogs..

Good Luck tomorrow.. Will be keeping an eye on your breed, not sure if my good friend is going up there or not..

You could look out for the other total newbies...I can think of at least one pair and I will be the one with no fingernails, he will be wagging his tail :)

We will also be on our own --I haven't even told my (adult) children because I can't be bothered with the squawks of incredulity ("You're doing WHAT!!!). I quite miss my old parrot, at least his repetition had a cheery charm to it. Good luck to you both, anyway--hope you have a great day!

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really must say as the day draws nearer I am begining to panic over the slightest things. Totally silly i know as we are there to have fun and find out what people think of my samoyed male. He is entered in junior dog and Bannerdown special steaks. He is 14 months old and a big bouncy ball of fluff. He is an import from the czech republic that I spotted when he was weeks old. Well actually I fell in love with his father but couldnt have him so I opted for one of his best offspring. I think this is the biggest reason for my nerves, he is not the uk type and I am fearfull that he will not be liked, although I think he is stunning but I obviously would being his owner. JAY15 an early night for you and me tomorrow shame you dont live nearer to me we could have car shared and whinged about the lack of support from our families lol  good luck JAY15 hope you have a great day and lots of fun. Fingers crossed for you :-)

PS Jay15 if you get the chance to wander round. I'll be the  little blonde woman being dragged round by a foreign looking giant ball of fluff lol be sure to say hello

Maddie pack your bag the night before and make a list to make sure you've covered everything. I seem to always forget my pin and have to borrow one at a show..
I always take a flask of hot coffee and each and every time recently i've dropped the flask and split it :-(

But i have to laugh that off otherwise i'd be a bag of nerves.
Make sure you enjoy your time with your new boy!!! I'm sure he'll do you proud!!

thanks maddie11881, indulging in a modest panic already by practising trimming Jack's ears (he isn't going in the ring, but he's relatively amenable to being treated to the scissors) before I launch myself on Bean. Jack now has one 'good ear' and one 'teddy bear' ear and the last I saw he was off to hide behind the TV. I have to work all day tomorrow, come home and get Bean in the bath and then sort him out, pack a little bag with everything I know I will be lucky to find AND somehow pretend all this is perfectly normal to my completely unsympathetic family...easy! In bed for 9? Not a chance. And debating how early to leave here to make it to the ground in good time. I will look out for you...I will be the rapidly greying shell shock victim accompanying an extremely inquisitive WSS hoping to find a lifetime supply of socks to hide/chew.

what am I TALKING about...we're there on Sunday, not Saturday! I feel better already :)

> I have got to a show just as my class were going in, felt very flustered and know i didn't do my best, even though we got placed.

This was the situation for us today.

The traffic was awful all the way up for us, and add the fog to that we arrived at 10.00am just as Open dog was finishing with a Junior bitch to show (if judging had not been held back for 15 minutes we would have missed our class). 

We had aimed to arrive at 8.30 half hour before judging, which with only bitches to show would have been perfect.

Needless to say the bitches mind was elsewhere, she didn't really have her mind on what she was doing, the result third of 6, which I was thankful for!  She was much better about 1.30pm when she went into Junior Bitch stakes and got 4th.

lol JAY15 hope you have a good day on SUNDAY. I will let you know how I managed to survive the whole episode when I get home on saturday. I have to bath My fluff ball tomorrow. It takes around 4 hours to bath dry and comb him through so as soon as I finish work its hell let loose on the poor dog.

Barbra I will be happy to get a 3rd. Infact I will be exstatic if I manage to controll my steam engine of a dog in the ring. Well done to you and your dog too in stakes. 4th thats a great result :-)

Thanks for the info, advice and tip suejaw I never thought about a flask. Must buy one tomorrow!!. I will set off at around 6.30 to get there for around 8 ish.

My boy has blown his coat in the last couple of weeks too but this doesn't bother me as I think he has a good frame so no need to hide behind the hair.

Must try to sleep now instead of thinking dog-show-panic-dog-show-panic-bite-nails-panic lol

thanks everyone :-)

~What is the boys registered name so we can look for it.

Good luck Maddie, I`ll be there Saturday too, I`ll keep my eyes open for you.

You won`t miss me I`ll be the one with a giant white (well whitish) brillo pad on the end of a lead :)

Hi ,Samoyeds are on 9

Tracey

Hi Barbra His kennel name is Danik Dash of Zolo Orleansnow. Make sure you come say hello !! ;-D

LOL Lisakom brillo pad ;-D what breed is it? Do say hello ;-D

Thanks Simkhona1 I will make it there for around 8 hopefully so I can calm myself down before my impending drag round the ring ;-D

good luck all x

thinking of you maddie11881 for your big day tomorrow and hope you both have a fantastic time--good luck with your boy, and don't forget to tell us all about it!

> Make sure you come say hello !!

Unfortunately we were there yesterday.  Good luck.

Just got back. We didnt do well at all. We were 6th out of 6. Dash totally hated the place the noises totally freaked him out. All he would do was bark and cry even in the ring his ears went down and he barked and cried like a baby. He wouldnt trot he just pulled and pulled as if he was desperetly looking for a way out of the ring. He wouldnt stand, even for his favourite fresh chicken. His tail was down. He was really unhappy bless him I feel awfull that I have stressed him out. At ring craft he is fine. I tried walking him round the show to calm him but every time he saw a door he bolted to get out. His breeder showed him in the Czech republic as a puppy but she did say that he was nervous and needed calming. He was very nervous of noises and people when I got him but today I can honestly say I have never seen a dog so stressed. Every clatter every bang even someone sneezing and his ears went back his tail down and all he wanted to do was get out of the building. I'm hopeing that the open shows might be more relaxing for him. My poor baby!

I didn't put him in the bannerdown steaks it wouldnt have been fair on him

Well you have learnt something from the experience.

A lot of the shows from May onward until September will be outdoors weather permitting.

With indoor shows you know you will have to work at things so taking him to busy shopping arcades, train stations etc will help greatly.  Also arriving early, or even camping at the show so that he can get used to things on an earlier day before being shown the next.

Actually in the stakes if you had stood at the back he might have been better, as it would have given him a lot more time to get settled.

Never mind maddie11881, you'll go on to do better another day. I half expect similar myself tomorrow, I want to get there desperately early so Bean has a chance to acclimatise to the noise and activity, but it may well not be enough. All we can do is try it out and learn. My oldest boy was very reluctant at ringcraft, but in his only show he did try, it was me that wasn't up to scratch--he was third out of three (and I'd already left the ring because I couldn't believe they would want us in :)

Never mind Maddie, it was very noisy and busy over by the Sammies, I did have a wander past a couple of times with the brillo pad (Komondor lol) think I must have missed you.

I did meet a lady from here though with a lovely young BSD...... *waves*..... but never thought to ask her name dohh.

MAddie, I am sorry that your boy didn't enjoy his day! It was rather noisy and, unfortunately, there were a couple of Australian Shepherds that were VERY noisy and set to have anything that went near their benches!

I hope that he is a bit calmer next time. Certainly, the outdoor shows are less noisy and the echo isn't there.

When is your next Champ show?  

LIsakom I did see you. I was watching you show your Komondor. I was sat across from the entrance of the ring on the dog bench with my sammy. Little woman shoulder length blonde hair grey speckled jumper black trousers with a big stressed out sammy. You got 3rd am I right ? I wanted to say hello but another sammy person came to talk about dash and by the time we were through talking you had gone. Your brillo pad as you call him is beautifull and sooooo big. He moved lovely. I thought he was going to take the class

Scarlettwynta hi there. It was very loud in there. I have booked him onto a couple of open shows next month. His next big show is bath in may so I have a bit of time to try and desensitize him.
Barbra I tookj him to the car boot this morning and although he didnt like the noises he was fine with the people going past him. I will be taking him to a  lot more places that are busy and nopisey in hope this will desensitize him

Hopefullly the open shows will help him settle a bit and you have a fair bit of time before Bath. I won't be at Bath but will look out for your boy's name in the catalogues during the year and I will come over and say hello.   

thanks scarlettwynter that would be nice. Always makes a difference having someone to talk too when your nervous and feel like a fish out of water. (as I did yesterday) :-D

JAY15 how did bean do? hope you had a good day :-D

Hi maddie11818, thanks for asking--Bean didn't place in a class of 8.He wasn't happy with the judge examining his mouth and he definitely looked  the baby of the class, but in fairness if I was a better handler I could help him--I need the training more than he does. His litter brother looks much more grown on and he won MPD and went on to get BP and Res CC Dog, and his older sisters (Bean is a repeat mating) won CC Bitch and Res CC Bitch, so it was a great day. We'll live to try again! Scuttling off under cover of darkness without letting the family know what we're up to lol

**Waves to Maddie** yes I did see you :) I think I walked passed you a couple of times too, yes we did get a 3rd in both his classes , we are usually only in classes of about 4 so to be placed 3rd out of a class of 10 we were very pleased.

Thankyou for the lovely comments about Tangle, yes he is a rather large boy lol.

Hope to see you out and about soon with the lovely Dash (he`s a big boy too lol).

lol Lisa we'll know next time who's who. I love the name Tangle. Yes dash is a big boy too he's at the top of the height for the breed. Ya know what they say.............. BIG IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

Jay15 sorry to hear Bean didnt place. But never mind theres always the next show and the one after and the one after that :-D

That's the spirit, "one time on the cart, another time under it" as the Polish saying goes.

We watched the Sammi's as they were in the ring next to us (AVNSC),lovely to watch but I noticed quite a few were very jumpy.Mind you my CED didn't settle and didn't like that annexe,very echoey,a little cramped and felt pushed out the way.
I was so pleased with my little girl and surprised she did so well.

Congrats to you and your girl. Yes it did feel cramped and very echoey. It really upset dash. Took him to ring craft tonight and he just wasent himself. Tail down eyes wide and crying. Everyone commented on him asking what was wrong. He even started growling at the other dogs. I am very worried about him at the moment. :-(

I am sure given time,he will settle.Dogs are very sensitive but give him a couple of weeks.I took kezzie to ringcraft last week,just for a practice and it was match night after(I wasn't staying for this)The hall is very small and it was heaving.She wouldn't settle and was violently sick when I took her outsideI think she was stressed.Jude