hi everyone, here is a little tale to give all you well weathered showers, and those of you concidering showing a little light relief. Last sunday i took my young bitch to her 6th open show, and put her into puppy and open (yes i know). she is 8 months old and came first in puppy ( the competition was absent) so she also won best puppy. open was an extreamely numbing experience, the other dogs were all so much bigger than her and so experienced, well she came 5th (out of 5 ) ever had those days when you wish the ground would open up and swollow you?.  we then entered av puppy were we were very unceremonously "binned". i then hung around for the next hour and a half waiting for the group winners classes. oh thank you so very much to the lovely lady with the collie and bridgette for putting me straight on that one, ( for you newbees you have to be an unbeaten puppy to enter these classes. i very discreately made an exit ivia the back door when veryone i had met was not looking. i am not going to tell you what open show i was at, or my real name, or what breed of dog i have. those of you  who read this forum will know who i am.
has it put me of off showing? no way i am meeting some really nice people and some lovely dogs, giving manchester a shot in a couple of weeks, just hope we manage the day with out any dramas.

Don't worry :) we all make mistakes, and its not just newbies neither ;)
(made a couple myself)
See you at Manchester :)

:)  I know of many people at their first show went into open as well!

Well done for getting through it and at least you are going back for more :)

Good luck at Manchester!

Er... someone put me right if I'm wrong, but I thought you had to be unbeaten by another PUPPY ? to be ineligible for best puppy??  So OK if you'd only been beaten by adults??

Not to worry, GSD2004, I was in an open show with my own bred pup who beat all the other terrier pups [not on the group system, and in several classes ;)  (she won all her classes)]  only to find all the pups she'd beaten in the best in show puppy ring :rolleyes:  not really sure how they managed that but it didn't do them any good, she came 3rd out of a whole leisure centre full of pups :D :D    Not bad for her first show :)

I'd been showing for 5 years and still didn't understand what went on that day :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Don't let it put you off, you get out there and have some fun.  And don't always rely on other competitors to put you right about these things ;)  sometimes it's best to ask a ring steward to confirm things ;) :)

she was beaten in AV puppy.

At least as a newbie you had some excuse. In October my girl won BOB at an open show, I have been showing for 5 years now and have won numerous BOB with my boy so I know the rules pretty well. However my girl had never won BOB before, and like a complete nitwit I forgot to withdraw her from AV Toy and was beaten there! :rolleyes:

ps Dill if all those other puppies had been beaten by you in various AV classes, I would say that a very bad lot of stewarding was going on!

Sorry GSD2004 - missed the bit about AVpuppy  :( :rolleyes: 

Lucy there was an appalling hash at best puppy but as it was about 5.30pm I wasn't about to start complaining :(  After being there from 9am I just wanted to go home :(   Others outside the ring were commenting on it tho which is how I knew I wasn't imagining it ;)   some of the culprits were seasoned exhibitors too ;)
It was the worst show I've ever been to, sleety rain all day, a very cramped Leisure Centre, and all puppy classes were on last. Our first class was at 4pm    We couldn't go wait in the car as it was absolutely freezing :(

I made a similar mistake when I started out, I put my 7 month old puppy in PUPPY, JUNIOR, & POSTGRADUATE (she was in this class with 5 big males...lol).  It was a nice experience as she won all three classes and went on the win Best Puppy, Best of Breed and Reserve Best Puppy in Show... LOL :-) :-)

:) yep made one like that myself :rolleyes:
Put her in PG, which she won, but I'd also put her in Open (why?) which she came 2nd. But She was called in for the challenge and got RBOB so it wasn't too bad in the end :) But I know now not to do it again :P

I've done a similar thing with my first show dog. I entered him in junior and open at his 2nd champ show - open at a champ show.. what was I thinking! Anyway, as it turned out he won junior and there only was one other dog in open, but he looked ridiculous standing next to it. It was my boys father, a well known champion in full coat, standing next to a leggy, bald youngster. The judge didn't withhold and we were 2nd. Knowing what I know now I was very lucky.

Blimey Jakarta, I wish my mistakes turned out like that!! :-D

I've just entered my first proper dog show. Having a retired-Greyhound I get to cheat a considerable amount and have entered Ebony in the Special Racing/Coursing class at Crufts. As yet all we have won are BIS and classes at Companion Dog Shows, but a number of show Whippet and Greyhound owners thought he looked good for a racing bred dog so thought I'd give it a go. So if you see a very lost looking person with a big black greyhound at Crufts you'll know who it is!