Hi, I have a 6month old puppy bitch, and she is fantastic, a sweet, loving baby, full of fun and confidence. I have been taking her to ringcraft since she was 13weeks old as well as puppy school and she loved both. However, a fortnight ago, at ringcraft, she backed off from judge, same judge every week, and shes never had an issue before. I practiced with family members going over her and she shied away from my dad, which is strange as she loves him! Found she was a bit better with female members of family. At her first show last week, there was 2 judges, a man and a woman, she stepped away from male judge but was fine with female judge, but at her show yesterday, it was a female judge she shied away from. She is happy for them to look in her mouth and go over head and neck, its when they get halfway down back she sidesteps into me? Keeps eating her bait so not that bothered but its obviously not ideal.
I don't think shes coming into season as my male not reacting at all, and no clinical reason shes doing it.
Question is, do I practice more, perhaps introduce a cue word and reward or do I leave her a few weeks with no-one going over her, not sure which way is best? Shes super happy when meeting people and having people pet her all over, but she seems to sense the difference when they actually go over her.

I would give her a break for a few weeks :-)

Similar happened with my bitch at 6 months - she wasn't keen on having her back legs/back end area gone over and the ringcraft said "oh, we'll need to work on that area more".   I disagreed, backed off for a while, and she was back to normal after a break from it.  I believe that had they persisted, they would've created a problem that didn't really exist.

As it happened my bitch came into season at approx 7/7.5 months and I think the behaviour was directly related to that.  It could be the same with your bitch even if she's presenting no other obvious signs.

So ... I would leave her for a few weeks ... do something else she enjoys  :-)

Im having the same problem, altho my pup is younger. I wonder if teething might be the cause of the problem..

Since the problem starts halfway down her back, is it possible that she is having growing pains or that there is something medically causing her pain in that area or her hind end? It might be that the men who have gone over her don't have as light of a touch as the women which is why she didn't like them going over her first. Obviously there are plenty of other reasons for her backing off judges, but since she is fine with the front/teeth (which is where a lot of dogs have issues) I would rule out something medical.

Thanks for your reply, I did wonder about that, but I've had her a full health check (I'm a vet nurse and she comes to work with me every day, so got Vet to look over her after the first incident)
With regards to her being happy abut mouth being examined, since I've had her I've taught her the command "teeth" which means someone is about to look in her mouth, so I wonder if that has helped, as she is expecting it and doesnt come as a surprise. Wondered if I could teach her a command to let her know shes being examined, practice with me doing it first and saying something like "touch" to her so she expects it?

you could try standing her the other way around, a friend did that when there boy kept trying leaning when the judge moved down his back.

Going into her second 'Fear period' possibly.
Rest, fun and no stressing about it.

Didn't have time to read others comments but is she coming into season? What breed is she and is she eye checked.

I don't think its a season, shes only just 6months old and a RR puppy, and my male entire showing no interest. I do think its a fear phase as tonight my husband was taking the bins out and she was in garden and she ran away from bins, really not happy about them being moved and shes seen them being moved every week since we got her! Threw some biscuits on the ground beside the bins and she did go eat them, so left it at that. Will take things easy with her and hope that she comes out of it soon.... She's normally such a happy confident puppy, don't like seeing her nervous!

The reason I asked about eyes was I had a collie who was eye tested clear as a baby but started doing a similar thing at about that age I had her retested but didn't tell them anything about her original testing and they came up with PRA/CEA clear but short sighted which mean when things were at a distance they looked blurred which panicked her but close up she could see what ever it was clearly and was perfectly alright. Just a thought as most specialist cannot pick up on it. The other thing about the season sometimes they start to show unusual behaviour well before it starts and some dogs do not take any notice at the beginning I used to run 4 males and 3 females together.