Our little girl was doing so well in the show ring until we went under a judge who, for some reason, felt the need to pick her up.  She will not stand on the table now and at training last night tried to nip the person going over her.  Has anyone got any ideas of how to get her out of this as I dont want to risk her biting a judge at a show.  She is very fearful now of people touching her even in my arms, I have thought about just letting her stand on the table and getting people to just give her titbits without touching her in any way.  I am so annoyed at the judge for picking her up as she was doing so well and now is so scared of anyone coming near her.  She is ok with family members and people that she knows touching her and is ok with other dogs as well.  Any one got any ideas on getting her over this I would be very grateful x

I would be interested in knowing too.

It is all fear and it cannot be rushed, so your thinking is spot on -to start with she need to regain the trust of strangers and not be touched at ALL. The process has to be slow -for some dogs that could mean weeks, for others months or even years.  If she is reluctant to take treats off strangers, have them drop them in front of her so there is no pressure whatsoever on her. (Don't ask her for a formal stand either.) Don't get anyone to touch her until she is perfectly happy to accept treats by hand, and at first just one quick stroke, nothing else, then off the table at once and lots of praise.

Thanks to you  Goldmali that is what I was thinking of doing with her, hopefully we can get her back to her old self and she starts to like the shows again xx

My girl was like this but got more and more grumbly until she did snap at a judge. Hers was a gradual increase in dislike to showing although in the ring she would stand like a princess and trotted round like she was enjoying it, she just didn't want the invasion of being touched by strangers.
Off the table she will be fussed but once she's had enough she takes herself off.

She knew a show table from the grooming table and vets table because she was fine on these, it was the show environment that stressed her I guess.

I took her to training where they didn't touch her just spoke to her and treated, I also took her to ringcraft where you can explain and they know how to treat it. Sadly all these things with her did not work so I had to give up showing her.

I hope you get it sorted but like has already been mentioned it could be a long process.

Has she been checked over?  There is fear involved of course but I am wondering if the judge inadvertently hurt her as well which has caused such a strong reaction.

We took out little girl to a show to just let her soak up the atmosphere and whilst there she allowed people to touch her. We have had her on Zyklene and it seems to do the trick taking the edge off her nerves.  We wasnt going to put her in the ring but my eldest daughter who doesnt normally handle her took her in her class.....she was all over the place moving around as she doesnt know her but she DID stand on the table and allow the judge to go over her and wasnt stressed out at all :)   she wasnt placed but we were over the moon that she had allowed someone to go over her without moving a muscle.  We are going to carry on letting my eldest daughter show her for a while as we are now thinking that it may be nerves going down the lead with her handler thinking ...will she stand will she wont....fingers crossed that with a differant handler she gets over this and starts to enjoy the ring again.  x