my litter is now just about 6 months old and have their first champ show in a couple of weeks. A friend has entered her male puppy but is worried because he is undeveloped at the moment. His "equipment" is  very small. She is worried that the judge may not be able to find 2. He is entire and both can be felt when he is sitting on her knee but when standing it is hard to find both. What age do males start to grow? it is so long since I have shown a male I really can't remember if this is normal at 6 months. Another worry is that the judge, a male in this instance may do a lot of searching for both and hurt or upset the puppy at his first show. Any thoughts welcome.

Suppose that judges check in different ways - I usually notice 'them' on the back of my hand when checking the upper back leg and if I don't then I place the palm against the area where they should be. Now with pups it is possible they are small or are retracted with the experience of being examined by a stranger, now I have not found this as yet but if I did I think I would not probe but ask the handler about it and in my own breed would be happy to accept their assurance. This is however me and my breed and it is impossible to say what another judge in another breed would do - I would though trust that no judge would be heavy handed as it is so important not to upset pups, or risk damage.

That sounds fairly normal to me at 6 months, every breed can be a bit different and it even depends on the line within the breed in terms of what is normal for development. Try to do your homework on the judge and make sure the judge isn't known for being heavy-handed. Unfortunately some judges just are, whether they're doing it intentionally or not. (I have a list of judges I would never show a puppy to for this reason.) Once in the ring, there's no harm in telling the judge that it's the pup's first champ show as a hint to the judge to be gentle.

The boys bits often drop properly when they have a hormone surge at around 7, 8, 9 months of age.