I am about to leave for ringcraft in a moment and taking connie, who has not been before. She has a problem with pulling in a flat collar and lead, which she learnt in her previous home and we are working on, but I use a halti for walking her with the other dogs/pushchair if I am not walking her for training.

I have seen a husky at ringcraft before with a halti on, will I look bonkers if I take Connie in hers? I will take a rope slip lead awell, for if she calms down a bit, but she has never been anywhere like that and I suspect she'll get excited and I wantt o be in proper control. I might just sit on the sidelines with her. I hadn't planned to take her tonight, but for various reasons now am.

Thanks!

Explain to the people who run the ringcraft that it is a work in progress. They should be ok, especially if they see you trying to put the slip lead on.

I always walk in with my dog on a halti due to him getting so excited by all the other dogs there.
Also a friend brings her Newf in with one on.

We remove them for the actual training though.

I would say you could keep it on for any length of time you feel the need to.

me too suejaw! my boy gets excited when i pull into carpark and i need to keep headcollar on for first 5mins until hes calmed down slightly and said hello to everyone lol.

I took one of my youngsters for the first time on Monday night - he was really only going to sit on the sidelines, I wanted to see his reaction.  It was a "fun" night.  He was so keen to greet dogs and people alike, that he was invited to go in the "best mover" class.  He was an idiot, and I ended up trying to walk like a crab, trying to avoid getting tripped up!  Everyone was delighted to see his enthusiasm, although I'm sure his rosette was really for being brave! 

> will I look bonkers if I take Connie in hers?

No, nowhere near as we did on Monday, but boy we had fun!  Honestly, people will be extremely understanding.  Enjoy yourself! :-)

Thankyou everyone!

We survived! :-)

I took her in with her halti on as she got excited in the car park and started choking herself on the slip lead. Sat on the sidelines for a bit, then tried her with her slip lead on again. She was Ok, and paying attention to me (although still excited!) so we stood in line and ended up 'visiting' the judge twice. She was abit distracted, but really good and stayed ot heel brilliantly whilst running up, although looking around like a tourist!

I am thrilled with her over-all, to be honest.

I've been waiting to see how you got on!!   Distracted is normal, what a lot of new things to be distracted by!  I am so glad that you enjoyed it - I knew you would!

Thanks. She was actually a bit better than my other puppy, who is now 8 months and has been going to ringcraft since 13 weeks!

Connie has her first show on 25th October, but she'll JUST be out of puppy then and into junior, so hopefully she'll keep up the good behaviour. She stood beautifully in the car park afterwards, typical! I'm not sure she even went to puppy classes with her previous owners, although they said she had, so I am thrilled with her.

Thank you so much for being so supportive, it's really appreciated.

Hey - standing beautifully in the car park can still be admired!  Isn't it daft that we can sit here waiting to find out how things went?  Almost as excited as the OP?  I am thrilled for you.