im yet to get my showing days on the road but am working on it as we speak....my reason for this thread is iv had butterflies for days now..im not showing at crufts but i cannot wait to go..been before and loved it but this year im exited!
Anyway,how do you feel just before you enter a show?did you get help with your first experience?im on my own which is making things really hard cos im not as brave as i used to be i find it hard to even go up to someone and speak to them im just as bad on the phone...
id like to know if alone or if some of you felt the same and i think im just being curious as to whats normal i suppose.x

I still get butterflies going in the ring, more so if I have chance of doing well, than if I think I have no hope.

When I look back now I didn't know you actually had to do more than just hold the dogs lead when in the ring and do what the judge asked you, my dog stood there like a sack of spuds, with her sires owner gesticulating, get her attention, show her some food, do something!!!

I had previously showed small livestock, and there you simply hold onto the buns on the table and the judge examines them, so no handling skills other than making sure randy bucks didn't spray you, and bite their neighbour, and of course you didn't handle your won exhibitors, you simply got out of their pens the ones the judge/steward called for.

The best thing is to attend ring-craft, not only will it teach you and your dog what will go on, but you will make friends and hopefully if your first few shows are general Open ones you can arrange, or are just likely to find some of your fellow ring-craft attenders there, and it is fun to support each other, otherwise if you don't know many people in your breed or other breeds it can be very boring, waiting for your classes.

Be brave an introduce yourself to fellow breed (and generally) exhibitors (not while they are busy preparing their dog).

Some people feel at first that it's cliquey, but it's only like being new in a job, school mid year, or half way through, when the others already know each other

Been showing over 30 years and still get nervous....I am afraid I am one that uses the brush as a 'something to do 'tool..so I tend to overhandle .Luckily my dogs don't pick up on it down the lead and all behave ! I don't even eat or drink before I go in the ring. I have to make myself breath and concentrate when getting a first , or even pulled out as afterwards I completely blank it , and someone asks what did you beat , who was in front of you , who was behind, what did the judge say to you ...hopeless...!
I watch the others , how the steward has set them up  for the Judge , how the Judge likes her ring , does she table first then walk , or walk then table ....(toy breed). I personally never go first in the ring.
People on the benches next to you will chat , or hopefully they will.If you are on your own hopefully you have a friend or someone benched near you who will watch your stuff . Hide your bag , some of who use crates  hide them at the back under a towel /bedding and lock the crate.

> Hide your bag , some of who use crates  hide them at the back under a towel /bedding and lock the crate.

As I was a lone exhibitor I always wore a bumbag to keep all valuables in (purse, debit card, phoen, keys and passes, sometimes compact camera), and the front pocket for bait.

Makes you look pregnant if your jacket swings over, but safer, LOL

Thank you SO much for the replys.its been really nice and interesting reading them.its good to know im not alone on the nerves bit...i used to sing on stage and am very good and people loved my entertainment but i got to the stage of just feeling dizzy being sick ect before i went on stage up to days before so now i dont sing...AT ALL not karaoke nothing i just cant...and people know i dont sing because of it...i just really want to show and have my 'own thing' i do you know?i reeeeally dont want this to happen to my showing...i dont think im bothered about being on my own on the day or the actual show itself i really think its the not knowing what to do ect...

I went to ring craft and they were all very freindly but i made a boo boo i made a few trips there and never went back...

was kinda hopeing i could bother someone at crufts to volenteer to help me get into the game lol...

And bumbag i use when we go to the beach or fun fair ect dont do bags so yeah thanx good tip ;-)

Hi tamara, as you described almost exactly my feelings when I started a couple of years ago I'll just focus on the rest of your questions: the only help I had was the encouragement of other people in the breed. My family are at best not interested and my sons could only be forced to help on one or two emergency occasions with bathing or trimming amid much huffing and puffing.

I took myself off to a very well known groomer's to spend a day learning to trim my dog, and since then two people in our breed have given me a day of their time to show me how it should be done for the show ring.

I wasted a lot of time early on in ringcraft classes because I was too nervous to speak to anyone and ask the questions I should have asked. I am not one of those people who are gifted handlers, I have to work at it and I am still learning by my mistakes and the kindness of other handlers, judges and breeders who know that a well placed word of advice (and that includes a kick up the backside) can make all the difference. I see inspiring people and their dogs all around me and I watch them in the ring. I have finally found a great ringcraft class and hope one day to live up to the potential of my dog. In the meantime, we have the best fun and we've made some great friends.

My first time in the ring was a disaster, my dog spent most of the time on his back or running round in ever decreasing circles, the judge wrote in his report, that he was sure he was a very nice boy if he could have got near him! i was so embarrassed, but I got lots of advice, watched all the judging, lots of people just wander off after their class, its a good idea to stay and learn!  saying all that, 4 yrs later he was a Sh Ch so NEVER GIVE UP!! you will make lots of friends, and hopefully you will enjoy every minute of it.  Im just about to start showing in France, and after all these years I am really nervous! new people, new techniques! But cant wait for next month for our first show. Good luck, enjoy Crufts, but it is manic there, the summer outside shows IMO are so much nicer and more relaxed. Have fun

My first show was total insanity, I had puppies from 2 breeds and had no idea what to do when they were both scheduled first in their rings! Luckily my Cav's breeder had come to the ring to support (and enter the litter sister she had kept) and she ended up flinging her puppy's lead at the steward and taking Henry round as well when I hadn't managed to get back from George's ring in time. Then I arrived back and was asked to take him round again myself, of course he was a total nitwit from excitement and both our lack of experience, but still got 3rd out of 5, beat his litter sister, and we were hooked from then on! :-)

My first time in the ring was only oct 2010 and tilly wouldn't show her teeth and all she wanted to do was lick the judge, i went bright red the judge was very nice about it tho, and we got vhc which was brilliant, but i nearly didn't pick it up until the judge called me back in the ring saying "don't you want this "lol i was so embarrassed and went the reddest i've ever known to.
Afterwards the judge came and spoke to me and said don't give up i have seen worse but complemented me on how nice my bitch was and i've never looked back. I still get very nervous and still go red but i am getting better.

Good luck you will get the bug so just enjoy yourself.

nessa

Tamara,

I started some small open shows at first, there were hardly any entries and I can honestly say that I wasn't that nervous, not sure why but as ive gone on i've got more and more nervous, more so with the breed I currently handle. I can say that the more open shows you do the more it relaxes you.

What breed do you have? Maybe we can find someone in the breed to speak to once they are finished in their class?

You sound just like me, when I'm very happy or very embarassed I go BEETROOT! Sounds like a lovely judge though.

He was very lovely thank god or could of given up right at the start.
My next show was the following month and we got first and best puppy and because i didn't know what i was really doing i missed the next group so who knows what could of been, but we live and learn and i'm still learning even after a year. i know what you mean about going red and i've gone through all the shades of reds. And i wouldn't change it for the world i'm hooked lol.
still abit daunting at champ shows but i have only been to 2 so far as don't drive,am changing that now as have booked my first lesson in about 2wks away so onwards and upwards lol

nessa 

First went inside a ring in 1984 and still hate it with a vengeance! It's so much easier to show cats or hamsters or mice or rats or rabbits -all animals you just place in a pen and then you walk away and there's nothing more you can do. The judge doesn't see you and you don't influence the judging in any way as you don't influence the animal's behaviour. I'm absolute rubbish at handling dogs. I can do it if I have to (which usually is a couple of times a year at most), but I avoid it as much as I can. I prefer sitting ringside watching my dog being handled, seeing how it moves compared to the others, how it holds its ears and tail etc. Maybe I should have been born in America LOL. I've been so lucky in that my second husband turned out to be a natural at handling and my 16 year old daughter is also very good and they don't get nervous! They just get on with it, despite me sitting ringside and at times criticising them (and praising them too of course). I think I'd have given up showing completely if I'd had to continue handling myself as I hated it that much. It wasn't until 2002 that my husband started handling and my daughter started 2008 I think it was. Maybe it's that I started with other animals and didn't show dogs until 1984. Also for me the worst part is moving the dog as I can't run to save my life (once around a ring and I'm almost falling over -in fact I HAVE fallen over inside a ring!), so it's easier with toys, much easier, but I still don't like it. Mind you the times I've been criticised have made it a lot worse -so really I should know better than criticise others myself! There was the time the breeder of my Golden said I shouldn't have shown him at a championship show as my trimming wasn't good enough, the time I handled in a breeder's group and made such a hash of it the breeder was shouting for my husband to come and take over, and similar. So these days I just admit it to everyone: I'm rubbish at handling and I know it. :)

I don't remember an awful lot about my first time handling except that my puppy stopped in the ring and had a wee in the middle of judging! He was only 4 months old -you can show pups from 4 months in Sweden.

My breeder was really helpful when I first started, from choosing the show, completing the entry form and understanding the rules; as well as preparing and training the dog for the ring :)  Luckily there were a few of us 'from the same litter' - literally, with several pups headed for the show ring and 3 of us were very new showing.  We found that we soon started to swap news via email as well as supporting each other when we met up at shows.  It made a huge difference.

My ring craft were pretty good too but in practical terms it was often the people stood around the ring that helped the most.  We were in AVNSC much of the time when I first started so we had plenty of breed variety either in there with us or stood ringside watching and so many of them answered my questions, or prompted me if I looked gormless (often!), and more than once pointed me in the right direction.  I still see and speak with these people 5 years on :)  Even just listening and watching, without asking questions, teaches you quite a lot

If you have the time before you start showing do go and watch.  Buy a catalogue so you can keep track of who is who and watch what goes on in the ring.  I found it was the small things that used to trip me up, like when did I have to go back in, what a 'challenge' was, what awards meant we could go into the Group judging, when and how to withdraw from classes etc.  We never have puppy classes in our breed at open shows and, if they give us more than one class, the 'youngest' is usually Post Graduate so I always had to check if we were the only puppy in the ring or who else to watch to see which of us placed higher.

At my first show the Steward was brilliant - I told her I hadn't done it before and she stood near me as much as she could and explained what I was expected to do, and when.  I think she also told the judge who was very careful to show me what a triangle was!!  Even so, I dropped the lead on my dogs head amongst other things.  My fringe was also so long that, whilst I held my pup in a stack, all I could see of the judge was her feet.  I could have kissed her when she gave us Best AVNSC Gundog Puppy - and I lit up like a Belisha Beacon.

There are a few books that I read cover to cover too which were a great help with terms and rules.  I can list the titles if you're interested...

We've only been showing a short time and did have the breeders support the first time (they also entered the show)

It is much easier being at a show knowing you are also a ringcraft member as chances are, there will be another exhibitor from the club somewhere around.  Even if you don't know their name, it's good to have a familiar face.

As suggested, I have a bum bag to carry money and phone.  We did do a few fun shows before but the set up is different so not sure it helped really!

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">There are a few books that I read cover to cover too which were a great help with terms and rules.  I can list the titles if you're interested...

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id be very interested thank you..

LOTS of useful info here...

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">What breed do you have? Maybe we can find someone in the breed to speak to once they are finished in their class?

im not allowed to say am i??
and thats what i was hoping to do although im on my own tommorrow and i KNOW im a coward and ill wander around ALL day hovering around those i think look approachable(not busy)but ill worry im bothering them....

i would like someone to have a chat to on the phone or visit or help me ect..dogs is what im passionate about...no one i know is interested in dog im on my own...ill be going to crufts alone or not go at all ever...be FABULOUS to get help and info,im like a sponge at the mo...

i did enter my girl to a show once i still have the books that i bought the number they gave me and the rossette she won i felt such an idiot...i didnt know id done it all wrong....i entered her into a junior class as she wasnt exactly a puppy,she was the only one in the ring and i felt like i wanted the ground to swallow me up....BECAUSE i was the only one lol...
the steward i have to say helped me out tonnes and also a lovely lady totally not in my breed made me sit with her knowing i was on my own....lovely lovely lady....i just really need to get a foot in the door and i know i would really get bitten by the bug....i cannot wait to see all the gorgeous dogs strutting their stuff...
NOTHING to do with the trade stands oh no lol

Of course you can say what breed you have or have an interest in :-)

I can see a black and tan in your avatar, is this the dog you're talking about?

>im not allowed to say am i??

Unless you have a litter of puppies potentially for sale you're free to mention your breed. :-)

im not allowed to say am i??

Yes you are as you are not talking about breeding.

I can see a black and tan in your avatar, is this the dog you're talking about?

no,that young beautiful lady is wilma who now lives in canada with her new mummy she is a puppy i bred a few years back...she was very good at herding!! hence the rosets.x

I now am into (not that i dont love my rotties because i do and always will) toy poodles.Ive had a love for them all my life as my nanas mum and nan always had toy poodles,funny i dont know why i didnt get a poodle first but hey ho i have my two girls now so...yes toy poodles....

Yes you are as you are not talking about breeding.

i never knew this huh!!