Hi,

I know this may be useless but does anyone have any advice for litter sisters in the same class.  They don't live together but as the other girl is my parents they are very close and are 10x the trouble when brought together.  In the ring they look for each other and often turn around (also when my girl hears my mums voice talking to her dog - which she does constantly she turns to see her).  They are better when seperated in the line but we try to split them up and often people move etc. and they end up too close. 

We've had advice to take them to shows seperately in the future and with open shows this is a possibility but with so few Champ shows and only 2 CC's within a 3 hour drive it makes sense to take them together as otherwise the petrol, catalogue & extra people needed just seems such a waste (you need 2 people for 1 dog or 2).

They had been going to ring craft together but were a nightmare and when we trained them in the local park etc. away from each other we felt like we were getting somewhere. 

I'm going to try seperating them before they go into the ring to try and stop them chasing each other etc. 

Crufts is coming up and i can sense disaster and humiliation looming......

Any ideas people have would be very gratefully received (so far all we've had is give up!)

only thing I can think of is to part company with your mother on entering the show until you have been in the ring. If they are puppies and you stick to a routine they will get used to that and grow out of the fooling around. Or take them to different open shows until they are a little older and do the above at a ch show.
As for crufts dont know what breed you have but if it is a large entry it would be much easier to stand apart.

Me & my mother have had litter sisters in the ring for at least 3 different generations. I think the main difference being we live together. They were trained together & got very used to us both being in the ring together so werent a problem. I know of partners disappearing when the dog is in the ring...ours have got used to us not doing this so take no notice of the other person when they are being shown. Personally I think one should start as they mean to go on & not hide from the beginning.

Try to not be next to each other & if possible 2 or 3 dogs at least inbetween you(this may be difficult if you have small entries). try lowering your voices for the time being it may help??

I agree with Lexy, I think if you keep them apart and then they hear, smell or see each other they will be all the more determined to meet up. My friend and I have half brother and sister who are the very best of friends. They see each other on a regular basis and will totally switch to paying attention if they have spent some time together. Clicker training would be a great way of teaching them to focus on you rather than each other.

Too late for Crufts as you'll have already entered, but is one more mature than the other - could you get away with having one in Puppy and the other in Junior perhaps? Otherwise just smelly treats, not letting them play about until after they've been in, and keeping several dogs in between as you've been trying, is the best I can come up with.

I'm with Lucy -don't enter the same class. Even if you have to have one in say puppy and one in PG or whatever, it can be done all along until both have no other choice but open and is what many do if they have two of their own and only one handler.

Along the lines of what people have already said, but also you could do some training together so that they get used to concentrating on their handler whilst in each others presence, that way they will learn that just because they are near each other it doesn't always mean play time. Do practice your usual in the ring routines while together and not at a show and they will definitely get used to it quicker. Using treats when doing this training will also help. Hope you get on okay!

I would enter one in puppy and one in Junior/Novice

The other advantage of not entering the same class is not wasting money by competing against your own. :)

I had a slightly different problem a couple of years ago with a dog and bitch puppy.
We have two rings in our breed because of the numbers so technically they were split up - but the male used to put his nose in the air and seek her out, standing up like a merekat.
I gave up and was advised to alternate shows with them, that didnt work. How do you guess which judge would like them?
I gave up showing the male.

I have done that for manchester entered my girl in Junior as there are two of her sisters being shown.

Hi,

I'm interested to hear someone managed this ok by constantly training together.  I think we'll try meeting up together to train a couple of times a week.

As for the routine of the show day I'm not sure if that's helping - maybe if they stayed together the night before they would have had their chance to play and then be a bit more settled in each others company.  Yesterday the dogs met at the show and were trying to jump all over each other normally they're a lot more controlled (well a bit at least) they hadn't seen each other in nearly a week (my dad comes in to take my dog for a walk with her mum and sister once a week whilst I'm at work so they get to play all together).  Previously at champ shows I've taken mums dog the day before let them have a huge run together so they're exhausted and then groomed them both up and they've spent the night sleeping together so its not a novelty seeing each other at the show.

We're entered in our club show in a couple of weeks and I have put my girl in a class not entered by her sister so we'll see how that goes as it could be the way forward.  The girls are currently 13 months old so in Junior classes.  We are a rare breed and the biggest breed class I've been in was 4 - often there's just the 2 of us though.  At crufts we will of course get a much better entry so that could help seperate them.

You're also right that the issue is me not being able to get her focussed on me enough so I need to work on that too. 

There's so much more to this whole showing business than just brushing your dog and trotting round a ring isn't there!!!

Thank you for your advice - we've got a lot to work on!

If you can find someone who does clicker training, it really is an excellent way of teaching your dog to focus on you rather than each other. Harry and Jade literally mug each other when they first meet up, but once they have said their hello's and are told they are working, they totally switch on to us and totally ignore each other. :)

We used to train together once a week and that was sufficient (obviously we practice in between on our own). I think the fact that they see the clicker training as a great game with loads of yummy treats, means that when you do want their attention, they are only too happy to oblige.

When the dogs aren't working we allow them to switch off and play. On walks we used to do a tiny bit with each dog individually and part of their reward was then being released to have fun and play again.

Let us know how you get on!