Some of you may remember my trials and tribulations with my gorgeous greyhound bitch. She has just turned two and we have been to one show and three or four ringcraft classes.

She is a very confident, happy go lucky girl who if anything has to be stopped from jumping all over strangers and bombing around the place. When we first went to ringcraft it was on a wooden floor which she slipped a bit on and decided from there that she could not and would not walk on it. She then started doing the same on some of the floors at home though often she forgets and happily runs all over them again. Other times she will remember to be afraid and stand on the stairs for a good two minutes thinking about venturing on to the wooden floor.

Aaaaanyway, when I brought her to her first show it was carpeted and she was the only one in her class. She barged around, pulling like mad to get out of the ring and back to my other half, wouldn't stand for the judge and shied away when he came near her. I was EXTREMELY nervous so this would not have helped!!!!

I have since given her a break from ringcraft and shows. I am planning to bring her back to ringcraft in just under two weeks. What I plan to do is:

- Go alone with her, without my partner and other dog
- Apply paw wax before and rescue remedy
- Bring tons of amazing treats and instead of following everyone else at ringcraft and setting her up/running her up and down etc, just let her hang out and enjoy the place and get piles of treats.
- Maybe set her up once or twice depending on how she's feeling

I am hoping this will make her happier. I am also bringing her NFC to a show with my other dog in a few weeks and will again just be letting her get used to the place and trying to make it fun for her.

Does this sound like a decent plan?

It doesn't matter if she still hates showing etc in the long run, we will then give up, but i want to give her a fair stab at it before quitting. I honestly think the slip on the floor the first day traumatised her (she didn't actually fall or anything, just slipped).

My ringcraft judges/teachers say she will get used to it in time and are really patient and kind to her.

Sounds like a sensible plan to me and I agree that as you know your dog best then you should take things at her pace and not compare her to the other dogs at ringcraft. Hopefully by taking small steps like this her confidence will grow and  she might enjoy the experience

However please bear in mind that she may never enjoy being a showdog,as one of mine whilst being a lovely example of his breed with a delightful nature,absolutely hated ring craft and the show scene and is much happier being a much loved pet.

I wish you well and you obviously sound like you love your dog very much

Just a point - do you have a lot of wooden or laminate floors? We have all our floors carpeted except the kitchen which is tiles but mostly covered with mats. When we visit our son he has wooden floors and the dogs are convinced they can't walk on them except when they "forget" and start to relax. They skitter about all over the place. I have also had problems with wooden floors when doing obedience - dogs "paddle" backwards in stays and slither over doing retrieves. Our dogs are also long legged; I could imagine that a nervous dog could quite possibly suffer confidence problems if forced to cope with such a surface all the time.
Also, it was mentioned in an article in Dog World last week that dogs are frequently injured on laminate floors.

I agree with Japmum...sensible plan & go at her pace.....
with my last pup, she just took to ringcraft really easy & other pups of different breeds werent learning as quick as her & one lady commented on it. I just said some are easier to train than others, even of the same breed. She was nice to show as I could be playing with her & winding her up one minute & the next she would be controlled & stood like an adult, who had been showing for years....they dont come around very often like that mind!!

You could always try a bit of DAP spray on your dog before you go in.  My dog pup was scared of venturing into shows because of the noise etc, but I got some from the vet and sprayed it under his chin and around his forechest and that helped him to calm down aswell. :)

Thank you everyone! we have lots of wooden floors at home and she used to be fine on them but since that first class she now remembers sometimes and suddenly can't walk on them!

Delighted to report that my wonderful baby had FUN in class last night!!! The things paw wax and roast chicken can do for a dog! The floors barely phased her and while I didn't ask her for much by way of learning to stand etc we did do some work but mainly she just plyed around and got loads of hugs. She was by no means as confident as she could've been but i was told she was like a different dog - she was far more like the goofy girl I see at home :)

Great keep up the good work

:)

Well done :-)

it just hit me that crufts is in 18 days and Inka is........ Inka! Oh dear!

Don't worry my Inka was due in season between 1st week of January and 1st week of Feb, so didn't enter her for Manchester ch show in January, and entered her for Crufts, so unless she holds off for 3 more weeks, we are bu**ered ;)

oh that's not my worry - my worry is that my Inka hasn't got her head around standin or gaiting or anything like that.... even though Kelsis loves it all! I reckon this'll be an embarassing few minutes for me in the ring :D

>so unless she holds off for 3 more weeks, we are bu**ered ;-)

Oh Barbara - she can't do that to you!  I really hope that she hangs on for you.  It would be so hard missing Crufts for you.

I reckon this'll be an embarassing few minutes for me in the ring :D

Even if that were true you would not be the first or last. I was told rather bluntly some years ago that Valium might help (I declined that advice).

For someone with a patchy memory I am amazed at the level of excruciating detail I can recall from some of my finer moments in the ring. Maybe one day we will all share them so newcomers can see how few are born with perfect handling skills. It might make a great fundraiser.

Just take a deep breath, take a place somewhere in the middle and watch the others--you might be surprised to see even very experienced handlers have their 'moments' too! You'll do just fine and be up here to tell us all about it afterwards :-)--all the best xx

He he, well Inka's daughter Safi, is like that, I swear she has ADD.