I have a young chihuahua bitch who's just gone 1 year old.

She's a happy, confident and very friendly dog to the point that she has no loyalty whatsoever, and I mean it! She loves everyone and would quite happily be picked up, fussed or walked by absolutely any one of any gender or age, and would quite happily walk away with a stranger... Until you get her in the show ring.

She will walk absolutely fabulously, and strut her stuff to the nth degree. She will stack and stand on the table... until a judge approaches her.
Then she goes into total meltdown.
She will sit down, spin, rear, attempt to climb into your arms and even try to throw herself off the table. Anything to avoid being touched by the judge on the table.
However you could pick her up and pass her to the judge, steward or anyone in the class and she would be absolutely fine, she just will not be touched on the table.

She will do it perfectly at home and at ringcraft. I have a great and understanding ringcraft, and the instructor even has every other handler in our class come and go over her on the table and she will let 9/10 of them do it happily with a wagging tail.

Take her to a show however and it's as though the judge is approaching her with a cattle prod.

We were given some allowances in puppy, but she's 1 now and they expect better of her. We take her to weekly training, train daily at home and enter her under loads of lovely judges for practice and it's just not getting any better, in fact worse.

Treats and toys do not work, she has no interest in either once she steps foot in the ring.

What can we do to improve her on the table ?

(She has had bad experiences in the past with a couple of rough judges which I believe is the root of this behaviour. It is in no means aggressive, and it is very much a fear responce on the table)

How often is she now going into the ring? Maybe attend some open shows but don't put her in a ring and use spare rings later on to get people to go over her when there is less pressure.
Have you had someone else handle her to see if she does the same thing under a judge?

It maybe that she just needs a break from showing for a while, is she due in season or recently had one? Bitches can get rather silly over things in these periods when they don't normally

Usually she has a show 2 times a month.

Originally it was myself showing her, but my partner now shows her and she does the same for both of us .

We've tried her with others from our ringcraft, however she's too giddy / excitable on the floor when her "friends" are handling her, so that's not an option.

She has recently had her first season around 4 weeks ago.

She was getting slightly better and would allow the judge to do her teeth, head and as far as her shoulders, but then would sit or spin when they reached her back end which has always been the problem -  ( Her bad experiences all centred around her back end, one judge picked her up terrier style by the tail and another hurt her tail and made her cry out on the table and a traumatising experience with a vet and a dubiously large thermometer)

Today however all progress was lost and as soon as the judge got to the table she had a total meltdown before they even touched her. So despite all our practice, praise and hardwork she seems to have gone backwards.

I agree with suejaw. Enter NFC (so you're not tempted to show her) and just let her understand that not all shows mean bad things. Making use of empty tables is a very good idea. For now though I'd give her a break. If you push too much she could end up never being able to be shown. It's awful that some judges can be too rough - I've had dogs ruined this way also. However I have a Papillon who was treated roughly at training class and I thought I'd never get him into the ring after that. But we took it super slowly and waited several months until we started with open shows. As Papillon is my second breed I concentrated on my main breed for quite some time and so this dog didn't get to his first ever championship show until this year, aged 5. His first ever champshow and he took the RCC. I'd never have thought it possible at one time.

> It's awful that some judges can be too rough

Isn't this the case!!   One year, at Crufts actually, I had a judge I'd been under before, and who should have known better, get half-way past my entry, stop and yank up (and I do mean yank) a load of skin on her back (of all places) and then move on past.   Why he felt the need to do this I have no idea, but I had to really hang onto her to stop her bolting.   Thankfully she recovered with no further problems in the ring (and he gave her another RBCC).   I had another wearing a very full skirt, bend over my entry (another hound) so he couldn't SEE.   That worried him too.  That day she had a load of rings on her hands, and managed to scratch other entries!

I too would suggest a time out with your girl.   She may just have had too much as a puppy?

> <br />I too would suggest a time out with your girl.   She may just have had too much as a puppy?

This went through my mind as well.

I experienced this with my girl and it was after a visit to a Vet (not our usual Vet) and the Vet had poor handling skills and it was a rather stressful situation getting her temperature taken.  I wished at the time that I had instructed the Vet to stop and have done it myself.  Anyway.  After that experience my girl acted like yours and it was only after a break of a few weeks, just totally ignoring her back end and then a few light 'going overs' of the area that she gained her confidence again and now everything is super again.  Recommend you take a short break (few weeks to couple of months).  I'm certain it would have been your bad experience with the Vet and the thermometer.    Good luck.

Rough judges - River hates rough handling only slightly less than judges who faff around in an almost nervous kind of way and don’t get on with the job.

Last champ show we entered the judge did both, lifting and plonking down his back end unnecessarily hard to adjust his back legs and then dithering about his teeth, getting him upset enough that he wouldn’t even let me show his teeth. Needless to say we didn’t place and we will be avoiding that judge in future...

> Needless to say we didn’t place and we will be avoiding that judge in future...

This is the only way to deal with judges like this - walk with your feet.   Over time, my little black book got very full!!

> This is the only way to deal with judges like this - walk with your feet.&nbsp;&nbsp; O

I found out the other day that River’s breeder and the owner of his sire both kept well away from that show because of that judge.

Lesson learned! I only hope no one ever finds my little black book... I’m rather honest in my opinions