I wondered what is the best dog mags/newspaper to get as a beginner to provide helpful information for showing, obedience, agility etc.   Shows, training, and stuff about all the basics and progressions and general overview to help beginners get started and gain in skills etc....   I've had a look and so far just found rather specialist rather then general and I'd guess one of these is but but I'm not sure which one. Some just seem to be show reports...which I'm sure gets to be very meaningful a some point but I can't remember wich we looked at but for the price of it it contained nothing in it I cold see as helpful.   Or there re the general pet level mags which are way way too basic and general and so also not helpful.

So thanks your tips will be appreciated. .

My Mum and I buy Dog World, theres a lot of critiques and information on who has won what around the shows.  Unfortunately once you have been to one show you seem to get hooked and you get an unhealthy addiction to do with anything about the dog showing world!  My friend prefers Our Dogs so it is a case of horses for courses.

Jan, did you get the e-mail I sent you ??
Gabrielle x

Yes and thanks so much.   I've found the place on the map now too.

I am confused about the bathing advice... Should I bath them first?  ....with this bad weather they are not all that clean and sweet smelling!... they think it's great but really it's not nice.  :rolleyes:  )  ...but when I bath them their hair sticks up and at ringcraft I was told not to bath them... so ideally which is best? 

Thanks.

It depends on the breed.  My cocker I would bath the day before but with a harsh coated breed you would want to do it much earlier than that.  Most breeds, if they are correctly coated, will clean up and keep fresh for a considerable time with a jolly good groom.

Hi Tenaj,

I don't know what breed you have but with my own breed, washing at least a couple of days before hand settles the coat better for on the big day.   With the likes of my male, he was washed pre-SKC and his body coat looks lovely & shiny now, so I would probably just pop him in the bath to wash his legs and underneath to freshen him up for the next show (3rd June).

Thanks to both of you two. I have Aussies. I think I detect the aroma of Urban Fox Eau de toilette so I think they will get a bath!

At one time that smell would have seriously worried me...but now I think nothing off it. Oh dear.....
oh to think I used to be so house proud!

Mine are Aussies and I'm being kindly offered some grooming help rather then needing to clean them up for showing. It will be great to know exactly what I should be doing. 

Unfortunately once you have been to one show you seem to get hooked and you get an unhealthy addiction to do with anything about the dog showing world!

Oh I do wish people would stop saying that to me! I really do find that alarmingly worrying! In fact worrying is an understatement!  :cry-hysterically:

To be honest I think I am quite addiction phoibic.... which is proberbly what worries me most !  Already I feel I am fighting a loosing battle.  Are there any books on safe addiction-free dog showing! Or maybe addiction-preventative pills or someting?  ;)

Are those the main mags?  If there are only two I might try both for a while and see which I like best. ( ....I will most probably go for the one with the most pics in it )

for obedience you will  REALLY need either DTW or OB info
DTW is weekly
OB info fortnightly

DTW
http://www.dogtrainingweekly.com/shop/shop.php?maincat=&sid=sid976d3ae782a303b9a4ceb85ba5c30cfa&c=ex&page=11
ob ifo
http://www.obedienceuk.com/ObInfo.asp

they come thru the post

Thanks.  Can I order these by post? online they seem to just use paypall but I might be missing something....maybe I should join up with paypall.

We found a CO training class now so instead of plodding on being top of the class we can now proudly begin again at the  bottom of the class.  So the more I can read the better.

yes,i do, just email them!

oh brill ,who are the trainers?

I'm not sure who the trainers are but it's Wakefield dog training club who do loads of different kinds of training to all levels which is quite petrifying but the people seem all very friendly and helpful. In fact based on one visit their friendliness level is above the norm for a club of any type. THey have very high level people training there so I will try not to look at what some of the dogs there can do! 

Okay....lol... is it just me being hopeless?... but where is the email address? 

Thanks.

I've just started competing in both agility and obedience. I wouldnt say there is one specific mag thats helped me - more like bits and pieces. But the agilitynet and obedienceuk websites have been very helpful.

Theres also a  couple small booklets by Sally Rowe called 'your first agility show' and 'your first obedience show' - I wouldn't say they were fantastic - the agility one I had failed to say anything about needing to get my dog measured before my first show - but they were helpful putting a newbies perspective on things  - what to expect, what you'll need, how they run etc. ( You can see them here --> http://www.agilitywarehouse.com/product_detail.cfm?id=1266)

you can also get the agilityvoice and agilityeye magazines they have articals in about the correct moves etc in agility, and how to help train certain things like best way to introduce the tunnel, they also have the results of shows around the country in and, also the dates in the diary for the agility shows.
carol

Thanks to you both.

Oh any good DVD's you can reccommend for actual agility .   So far I have quite recently bought the Greg Derrett foundation DVD which is really good and still leaves me with heaps to work on.