Well with this years crufts nearly over for another year. One thought has crossed my mind.

How long does it take you to prepare a dog for a show whether it be a championship  or Open

I show labradors btw and I got 2 and their ages range from 8 months to 4 years old

I am fairly new to the showing world

It depends on the breed. For my breed (dalmatians) they need a bath the night before, their nails filed short, teeth cleaned and that's it! In all about half an hour.

well mine shouldn't be bathed within 2-4 weeks of a show.....

other than that, general maintenance re claws, teeth.... I try and brush every day for a week up to a show, and strip ears back if required....

I've never tried stripping anything other than ears, and wouldn't know where to start really 

quite an easy breed I guess ;)

if i had to do a dog from the rough [clipping, trimming, nails, teeth, bath, dry and finishing] it would probably take 3 to 4 hrs!. but i clip one day teeth & nails and back stripping the next, bath and finishing the night before the show.......
oh by the way....american cocker spaniels
Pauline

A bath the week before followed by blasting dry - a couple of days later I comb out all the dead coat that always comes to the surface after a bath then groom through thoroughly and thin out the excess hair on the hocks, feet etc I also clean teeth if required

The day before I spray with water and brush briskly against the lay of the coat lifting the hair at the roots to create body and combing out the feathering around the ears and down the inside of the front pasterns.

I repeat this about 20 minutes before showing and just before I go in the ring I brush up the coat around the head and ears to enhance the expression and create a frame around the head.

....of course all this is assuming that my dog has any coat to begin with - usually they hold a fantastic coat until the envelope containing my Champ show entry slips into the post box - then wooosh it's gone !!!!!

Yvonne

I have heard of work being started a few months before on things like road work to build and tone muscle.  Is this an ongoing thing for show dogs ro for certain breeds. Is there anything else I should know about

>Is this an ongoing thing for show dogs

It's an ongoing thing for all dogs, isn't it? Keeping them fit and in good condition?

My youngest Gordon takes approx 30 minutes to shampoo then at least a further hour to hour and a half  to dematt and blow dry! (depending on how long I have left it since his last bath) Stripping and thinning ect is ongoing. 

My oldest who has recently been clipped off used to take an hour to bath, dematt and blow dry! 

I always bath the night before a show

Jill

there are times when I dream of having a short coated dog!!

My problem at the mo  though is my youngest is too young to be thinking of road work. Any suggestions on how to tone her and her muscles to make her look abit better in the ring and hopefully her movement okay

With the Yankees, they need to be bathed every 5 days roughly, with the final one on the morning of the show if possible, i fnot the night before.  Bath/blow dry takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.  then the pre-show trim on the day before, perhaps another hour, counting doing feet !  (The bane of many an American Cocker owners life, trimming the feet).  Back strippinng is a constant thing through show season, not just pre show prep, as of course if excercise and toning. then add in the actual final trim and groom at the show, about half an hour.  Showing a Yank is not for the faint hearted or those short of time, if your added it all up and then averaged it out, you are probably looking at at least 10 hours per week.  The pugs are much easier, depending on the coats I bath either the day before, or for the dogs with a fluffier coat a couple of days before to allow it to lie flat again.  Then the routine nail trim/file, whisker trim and nose/wrinkle creme.  All in all about 1 hour, plus about 15 mins at the show for a final brush and polish, last minute loose hair removal and shiny nose oil.

bye
Gwen

Hi,
With my breed we start end of december / start of January, depends on the dog.
As my breed is hand stripped, most of us take the coats out fully any from after LKA to early January. They we leave thier coats for three weeks and then start scrapping every week. Depending on the dog and when you take the coat out, depends on the quality of coat for Crufts. We are already discussing when to take out the coats for Crufts 2009!

with an afghan you bathe it the day before, and that can take between 2 and 4 hours per dog, depending on the nature of the coat, some are finer and easier than others. At the show there is a good deal of brushing out and fluffing out going on. Of course there is preparation of all the stuff too.....packing of brushes, treats, boots and coats, crates, leads.....

My breed is fairly easy to get ready for a show.

First I bathe them, the night before.  Then I add some "show sheen" to make their coats shiney, but it also de-softens the coat.  Cant have a soft Min Pin Coat!

Then its on to the nails, which can take forever, since they dont like getting the nails done.  When I first got my one pup, it took two people holding her, plus another doing her nails, and it still took almost an hour to do 16 nails!  But now with that one, its down to one person, and about 10 minuts, slow progress but progress none the less.

Then I clean up the ears (trim inside), and clipper the neck (makes the neck look longer), and under the tail (makes them want to keep their tails up, when sometimes they like to pin them down if they dont want to show that day). 

Then its whiskers, and it doesnt take long to do that.  Maybe 5 minutes.

If I have to do complete grooming (like let the ears get hairy, or whatever) it can take just over an hour.

But usually I do the whiskers, nails, ears, tail every three days.  The teeth are brushed daily.  Exercise/toning is done everyday, and if the weather is too cold then I put them on a treadmill instead of taking them for longer walks.  More attention is placed on tone during the last couple weeks before the show, but its a constant ongoing thing.

It would be interesting to hear from poodle people how long it takes them to put their dogs into a show clip and such.  As well, as Old English Sheepdog People.  (Noticed at shows, a lot of grooming is drawn out....like some people spend hours apon hours to get their dogs ready, and others of the same breed can get their dog groomed really fast.  Then there are the breeds where grooming is never finished, and you see them grooming at ringside, and even in the ring!)

Hi colette...(Brighteye) Please try to  relax a little ;)  and not uptight, and try and enjoy your girls.. especially your youngster...

I dont get to meet you often enough at the shows..but you are doing very well... you have a couple of nice girls there.. and you will do reasonably well with them... your older girl is now coming to a nice maturity and from what I have seen in the results recently.. just coming into her own.. I haven't seen her  for a few months.. but word filters back to me ;-)

as for your young girl... she is now 7 months.. so yes you can get her out road walking to build up her muscles.. just dont overdo it.. a nice lead walk of around 40mins will do her just fine.. every day... remember.. I have 2 here the same age lol ;-)  ... you can get to a stage where you can be too protective.. you need to find a happy medium.. good road/lead walking.. without overdoing it...   lack of 'good' excersise can be just as detrimental as over excersise...

I know you desperately want to make sure you do everything right.(we all do :) ). but dont get bogged down.. make sure YOU enjoy it along with your girl... make it fun...

just as a guide.. My two 7month pups are now doing 2 miles road walking per day... this take around 45mins.. at a gentle pace with the odd sniff .. not a road pounding slog :)  but they are both developing quite differently.. McGhie (girl) is building up a good musclebody very like her mum (Tia)  McKenzie (boy) is slightly heavier in bone and body, and muscle is taking slighly longer to develop... and is more like his grandfather :-)