I have a 3 year old greyhound bitch who is extremely bright and clever, she takes to things very quickly and i work with her a lot as it has helped her overcome various issues. Essentially she was raced 3 times and left in the pound to be put down a few months before turning two, so we can surmise that she never left the kennel much at all between 8 weeks and 1 and 3/4's. Not good. She is a great girl now and very friendly and happy to meet anyone, people or animals, on walks. However, when going to ringcraft or training classes she completely closes off and can't seem to hear or connect with me or my partner, she goes into a fear trance almost. She improves greatly over time but is still extremely reticent which is very much at odds with the bubbly, hyper pup you would see at home or on the beach. She goes to a variety of busy outdoor events now and loves them but something about show venues/training venues seems to trigger a bizarre reaction in her. Anyway, my point is we have worked on the pre-beginner exercises and i would love to compete with her and see how she got on, and hopefully it could become our little hobby, as i show the other dogs i feel bad for her being left out of activities at times. However, a few things - no.1 I am worried that we would enter, go along, and she would turn into trance dog and not do a thing and be scared, no.2 she could not be farther from the expected breeds..... i only ever see collies at obedience here and don't quite want to be laughed at!

To answer point 2 first of all: I have worked in competitive obedience with first a saluki lurcher, then a SALUKI!!! and now with an American cocker and an English cocker. Don't dismiss it just because of the breed and especially in the lower classes (Pre-Beginners to Novice) you see a wide range of breeds these days. Go for it if you fancy it and show them what a greyhound can do. :-)

Point 1: she may have some bad experience with competition venues in the sense that she cannot handle pressure very well! It is most likely your tension/expectations that she is picking up on. Sighthounds are extremely sensitive to this kind of pressure.
I would do perhaps a whole year of just training rounds and using the training rings (where you can take toys and food in) until she is more relaxed and happy about those types of surroundings and you get more confident in her.

PS. Despite my most un-typical breed choice I have NEVER been laughed at but always admired for giving it a go. Yes, we have a laugh and joke about certain things that my saluki did or didn't do, but it was always light hearted and never nasty. Although my saluki never won anything major, he did get placed occasionally, and it is good to show people that even the most awkward breed can be trained and have fun with obedience! :-)

Thanks lurchergirl! she has only been to competition venues a handful of times and never competed, she seems to just find the environment stressful, despite loving meeting innumerable dogs on sighthound walks i organise each month. She is a bit of a funny creature, no doubt due to her very poor upbringing. Thanks for your comments re the breed, I would really like to give it a go and make a special hobby for the pair of us and she loves to learn and work so you're right, what's the worst that can happen?! ;)

Well done you btw, i would love to see more hounds working over here :)

Go for it!

If she really hates it then you don't have to enter any more shows.

Besides you'll never know unless you try it :-)

The very FIRST time I ever competed in obedience (not that I've done it many times!), there was a Greyhound in the same class as my dog. And his owner/handler was in a wheelchair! They did really well and would have beaten my dog had the Greyhound not broken the down stay.

In the lower classes you will see all sorts of breeds.

The uptake in obedience here is very small, for instance a recent *big* show had 7 dogs!!

someone does obedience with a pug, and a papillon, so you go for it if you do not like formal obedience try the rally-o you might both like that

Go for it.  As Lurcher Girl said you do not have to compete, you can enter and ask to be marked as a training round, I did that with one of my girls to start with, the feedback and tips you will get are invaluable.
Over the years I have seen lots of different dogs doing both Obedience and Agility classes and a lot of people would enter just for fun.
If she will take them, as you are doing a training round you can take treats into the ring (Just make sure you don't drop any) as the other competitors will not be pleased. I have found that the sight hounds tend to be more keen on toys and raggits than food, so if that is the case with your girl, you could do a little bit and then take her off for a play.
Good luck I am sure you and your girl will enjoy it and meet lots of lovely people, just think of it as a day out with no pressure and then you can both relax.
Keep the first visits quite short, and as she gains in confidence and starts to enjoy her little outings you can do a bit more.
Just a thought but would she be happier with another dog with her, sometimes just travelling with another member of the pack helps, especialy if they are very confident.

If she will take them, as you are doing a training round you can take treats into the ring (Just make sure you don't drop any) as the other competitors will not be pleased.

Treats are not allowed in a proper competition ring even if a round is just worked as a training round. Treats can only be used if special training rings are set up which some clubs do (to raise funds for charity). :-)

There are a lot of different breeds competing in obedience now, specially in the lower classes. I know someone who has competed very well with his lurcher, now working A with her. Just go for it. Make sure you get your training done, even entering some competitions 'not for competition' so that you can train her in the surroundings, get her used to what's going on and that being at a competition is fun. Even when you enter your first few competitions you could go with the intention of doing training rounds (absolutely no food allowed in a ring :-O ) again so that you can make it really fun for her, and for you.

Make sure you've got a good grounding in the exercises. There's the KC Good Citizen Special Pre-Beginner classes you could enter - need the Bronze award first, but it's a stepping stone from pet classes and formal obedience classes, with the opportunity of gaining a place at the finals at Crufts. One section for collies and collie crosses another for other breeds.

If she works for a toy you're well away as you can then do your training rounds. If she becomes a 'trance' dog then, doesn't matter, you've got a nice toy (not squeaky) to try to get her out of it!!

If you've got a good club nearby to help you along with training for the exercises, otherwise, just go and have a go. I guarantee no one will laugh at you ... a whole show had to be re-arrange one year when my (collie) girl broke pre-beginner stays to do a perfect C sendaway in ring next door :-O :-O (pretty silly C person though using a tennis ball for a trained C sendaway right next to the stay ring) ... I can tell you, one of my first comps and I didn't know what to do - rush after my dog, call my dog, stand there whistling and looking skywards pretending I didn't even own a dog!!  Not a single person will laugh at you if it all goes belly up ... they've all been there, done that, and in truth most people at competitions are so engrossed in what they're doing and focussing on their dog they're oblivious to whoever else is working :-D

Get yourself there!

I think different clubs will have different rules !!! If yours don't allow you to take treats in then you will have to abide by their rules. The club I was at it was allowed as they were also a training club and the venue was used for classes during the week.
Nothing to stop you having treats in your pocket, and the smell of liver on your hands and treat her when she comes out.
One of our trainers used to have a toy held under is armpit, and raise his arm and drop the toy on completion of the excersise, when he competed he always used to put his hand under his armpit as if he was placing a toy, but there was nothing there, but he had made the same movements as he did in training. The dog was given the toy when he came out of the ring.

I think different clubs will have different rules !!! If yours don't allow you to take treats in then you will have to abide by their rules. The club I was at it was allowed as they were also a training club and the venue was used for classes during the week.
Nothing to stop you having treats in your pocket, and the smell of liver on your hands and treat her when she comes out.
One of our trainers used to have a toy held under is armpit, and raise his arm and drop the toy on completion of the excersise, when he competed he always used to put his hand under his armpit as if he was placing a toy, but there was nothing there, but he had made the same movements as he did in training. The dog was given the toy when he came out of the ring.

It's nothing to do with different clubs and different rules, it's KC rules. Food is not allowed in the ring regardless of what the club wants to do. And carrying food in your pockets under test is also not allowed and is cheating.
Pretending to have food in your pockets or hands is of course allowed - though most dogs don't fall for that one.

The Operative word is under test We are talking about training rounds here, which at our club were done after the class.
I am fully aware that to carry food in a test is cheating !!! Thank You very much.

If you are going to jump straight in with Championship shows, and large Open Shows then you will find that the rules are very strict, but companion shows and rallies tend to be a lot more relaxed. So perhaps that is the place to start.
The thing is to get the dog as relaxed and comfortable as possible.

But if you talk about competition obedience, then you talk about Open and Championship shows! I believe this is what the OP is talking about as I understood she is already competing with her other dogs (but may be I am wrong in which case I appologise). Companion shows for example are more relaxed and although there are obedience classes there, they do not count for competitive obedience purposes (in other words, a win in those classes gets you nothing in terms of competitive obedience)... though they are of course very useful to get a dog and new handler used to things.

PS. Interesting about your club's show... because through all the year's that I have been competing I have never been allowed to use food in the ring, not even for training rounds. The only time food was allowed was in specially set up training rings. But perhaps some shows are more lax re food in training rounds, I don't know. I haven't come across them yet.

Perhaps it is because you are down South, depends on the judge and the stewards, but I have been fortunate to come accross some lovely people who have been willing to spend a bit of time helping dogs and owners after a class.

So Inka, to settle the debate ... are you talking about 'proper' obedience competitions, ie those run under Kennel Club rules and fall into the category of Open or Championship, with classes ranging from pre-beginner to Open C/Champ ... with some shows putting on the splendid KC Good Citizen Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes thus offering a lowly entry into Crufts? Have to say I too, like LurcherGirl, took it for granted that's what you were enquiring about. Or are you talking companion shows?

I assume the other shows you do are show shows? I know nowt about them ... goodness, are there Open show shows and companion show shows in those too? ;-)

Inka said that a recent Big show there was only 7 dogs, that is why I assumed it would be quite informal.

Ah yes, 7 wouldn't really constitute a big show at most KC ruled shows. I never did well in shows with small classes ... like 7 or 20. If there were 30-40 in the class, that's when we did well ;-)

I did quite well with my Springer Spaniel till we got to out of sight stays, she decided if Mum was going she was going with her LOL. I also did Agility with her, she was very acurate but used to stop for me to catch up !!! (I am not much of a sprinter) My other dogs have done KCGC Gold but my Springer only did up to Silver because of the out of sight stay involved, she used to get very stressed, so I decided that enough was enough and we just did fun things with her after that.
She was nicknamed the Velcro dog at the Club as she never left my side, she did perfect heal work, but some judges would knock us as she had her head forward and not wrapped round my leg. But I have never had to worry that she will take off and not come back so every cloud as they say.
She is the only dog I have had that has suffered with seperation anxiety as a youngster so I think that may have had a lot to do with it, but they are a all different.

I am talking about KC shows but as i don't live in the UK our shows in general are far smaller. I show my two males in conformation/KC shows and am interested in starting my girl in KC shows, so in pre-beginners. :)

I agree with the others, go for it! I used to compete with my Cavalier so less usual breeds can do it! You might also consider rally obedience if you find your girl not enjoying the more formal side

Some other breeds currently working in obedience around here include lurchers, SBTs, EBTs, CKCS, cockers, springers, Polish lowland sheepdogs, Italian spinones, labs, Italian greyhounds, and loads more- some very successfully. My most recent lineup had an Aussie, GSD and X in it for example and that was at novice level. A staffie was placed in C just yesterday at a show I was at. You will often see many lovely goldies and GSDs at shows too. You may have to be inventive in your training sometimes but there's no reason why you can't be successful with a greyhound :)

Pre-beginners judges will usually expect some things to go wrong for a number of dogs, and I would be surprised if they were not encouraging anyway. We all started off there at some point and we've all had the bury-your-face-in-your-hands moments.

Obedience doesn't have to be boring, if someone's dog "doesn't enjoy" it you need to look at the training first not just jump ship (to a sport the KC are in the process of ruining, as is my limited understanding :p). It can be a very rewarding sport for you and your dog, go for it as others have said!

From another 'other breed' person.

>to a sport the KC are in the process of ruining, as is my limited understanding :p

If you mean rally, you're absolutely right, they are making it far too fussy and far too many instant elimination rules. Nobody I have spoken to who does the other 2 organisations' versions of rally obedience has any intention of doing KC rally, and there's several hundred dogs registered between them!

Yes I do mean rally. Sounds about right when the KC get involved :D