Hello everyone, a newbie here :)

I know very little about the realities of showing, so I was just wondering how and why the show people on here first got into it and what one needs to do/consider if they are interested in getting involved.

My knowledge extends to... finding/waiting for a pup with show potential. Oh and that there exist such things as 'ring craft' classes which I'm guessing are connected!

I've been showing animals all my life. Started aged 12 with guinea pigs, progressed to hamsters, rats, gerbils, mice and eventually rabbits, then in 1990 started showing cats (and still do). I'd shown dogs on and off since 1982 or 83, just a few times a year at local shows, but always really disliked it -found it very boring. Then in 2000 acquired another breed, has absolutely NO intention of showing her whatsoever, but I was going through a divorce and at the same time met my current husband. I still lived with my ex as I had nowhere else to go, my new man lived with his parents after his divorce as he had nowhere else to go, and so whenever we met up, we had to go out somewhere. Did all the usual things like dinner, cinema etc and eventually decided that let's try showing the Malinois -her breeder had never pressured me but I'd had e-mails from the owner of my bitch's aunt and she kept suggesting I should take her to a show at some point. So we entered a show just for a day out -and because I no longer had to stick to local shows so it was easy to find a show - my ex didn't have a car. Found that when showing THIS breed we got totally hooked, we made so many new friends etc, and after about a year the bitch started winning which of course spurred us on even more. The rest is history.

From my own personal experience I'd say that what matters more than anything else is having a supportive breeder that will be happy to answer all questions and help out. My previous boring experience included arriving at shows and not knowing anyone, the new experience was arriving at a show, meeting up with my dog's breeder and being introduced to lots of other people, many of which have become firm friends.

Im new to showing, i use to be terrified of dogs actualy, then when i moved to wales and went to college my new friend as 12 small dogs and showed one of them. I also had to go to a great dane breeders every week with college. Eventualy got over my fearof dogs and my friend asked if i wanted to come to a fun dog show with her, i realy liked it and we did some more and i took her to an open show. She got a second dog to show so she couldnt handle both at the same time so i took one in for her, But she then lost her conifdence handling (thanks to another owner who wasnt nice) and asked me to handle at at other shows. So when i got my own dog i decided i wanted to show with her and started going to class with her, i had been befor with my firends dogs so knew the people there. Entered a few show and went from there.

I'm a little like Marianne in that I showed small livestock (Rabbits) so naturally when I got my first dog (not my present breed) I wanted one I could show.

My current breed came 20 years ago when I( was divorced with two pre school children.  When youngest was old enough to leave with grandparents for the day I started showing.  I can't drive due to my sight so had to rely on friends from Ringcraft.  I then met a nice lady in the same group who gave me lifts.

When I bred my first litter my very first puppy buyer started showing and giving me lifts to shows.  She now also has bred (after around 15 years in teh breed) and made up a champion from her first litter of pups. 

From her second litter this year the pups are just coming out, and she is supporting the two new owners who are new to showing, they both went to their first show last week.

In fact one of them had originally contacted me and I suggested they come to a show and they were able to meet their breeder and the dogs there before the pups were born.

Generally ethical breeding is only part of a hobby/canine occupation.  So any potential new owner interested in that activity should find the breeder more than happy to encourage them, after all surely they are breeding in order to prove their breeding in their chosen sphere where possible.

Hello Alice, I guess I'm the opposite end of the spectrum, raised in a family that never had more than one dog at a time and knew nothing about showing anything at all. I have four now, three dogs and a bitch puppy.

I got into showing by accident in my early 50s (!) after treating myself to a much longed for dog once I began working from home and my children had left or were on the verge of leaving home-. I bought my first dog with the intention of working him, which we did in a very amateur but fun way. I tried him with ringcraft (he hated it) and showed him just once before it transpired he had a retained testicle.

I acquired a second dog aged 10 months about 16 months later on pet home terms from a breeder who had shown him as a junior, but with 6 bitches she never keeps dogs beyond 9 or 10 months. Jack was my 'practice' dog and I show him at open shows. I then had a real stroke of luck acquiring my third dog from lines I had always wanted, and I remember saying to his breeder "will you mind if I don't show him?" Famous last words! In an effort to support breed club activities I took him to the breed champ show three years ago aged 9 months, with no ringcraft practice to speak of, and he qualified for Crufts first time out, though as the club chairman told me, he'd been placed in spite of my handling. Cue much ringcraft in an effort to avoid shaming the dog and providing club members with a store of after dinner tales to keep all and sundry in stitches. Needless to say Bean's early success was no indication of things to come--he did qualify the following year, but his transition between puppy, junior and postgrad classes was not easy becuase by comparison to others in his class he was always under-developed.

So moving on to this year: Jack has grown up and won his reserve CC at the club champ show just over two months ago. Bean has qualified again for Crufts and is slowly racking up points for his ShCM. And most of all, we now have Bean's niece, sired by his litter brother who is the top winning dog in our breed for two years running and by a bitch I have admired since she was a puppy. Rye has just turned 6 months and went into the show ring for the first time three weeks ago, and she loves it.

On ringcraft, we have been to local classes, which unfortunately weren't that good; we now travel over an hour each way to get to a really good class, and we do a lot of training outdoors. I also invested in 1 to 1 classes with one of the top handlers in this country, and he has helped me in a million ways that I would not have had in a class. So I guess the message is: join your breed club(s), don't assume you will get the training you need all in one place so  don't be reluctant to try other ringcraft classes; go to as many shows as you can (of all types, it's a good apprenticeship); watch the best handlers you can find (I am embarrassed to say I barely looked at other dogs in the ring and only concentrated on what their handlers were doing) and watch other breeds, too (plenty on YouTube, good and bad); ask lots of questions, you'll learn faster...and be sure you enjoy it for its own sake, because it can be expensive and hard going before you win your class again :-).

If anyone had told me even 5 years ago that I would be taking my dogs out like this I'd have fallen over and cried laughing. It is seriously addictive and dangerous to your wealth, but fantastic fun.

> how and why the show people on here first got into it

I used to go with my mum. I remember meeting up with all the other kids at shows, we used to roam around in a gang. I'm sure we were a terrible nuisance! Later when I was all grown up and had a dog of my own, it seemed a natural progression to showing her.

I think things are better now in that there are ringcraft classes which can be so helpful to newcomers. You can make most of your mistakes before you hit the ring!

I was an animal mad child, my first love was horses but always loved dogs. When I had a serious riding accident in 1990 which would effectively keep me off horseback I started to look at dog for a competitive hobby. Spent 4 years studying the breed at events for show and work, and studied pedigrees of dogs that pleased my eye and identified lines I was interested in owning. Only then did I contact breeders regarding pur hasd of a puppy. I then waited some time for the pup from lines I wanted

Once I had my puppy was thrown into a whirl of obedience, gundog and show training. Attended local ring craft and met some people who are now very close friends. OMG how hard was it to perfect this standing stuff ... Looked so easy from ringside !!!! Feels like yesterday but in reality 18 years since my first show / working pup came home :) That dog taught me so much - he achieved a stud book no in ring and also in the field being a field trial winner.

Totally hooked on dog show / work to this day, still have dogs with bloodlines with links back to those of this first dog. No one told me how addictive this stuff can be and how much money you can spend but I regret not one minute. I have made wonderful friends along the way and have had the pleasure of meeting many many wonderful people from all over the world and best of all the dogs share my life and sofa day in day out.

K

Need a Like button klb

I had horses and used to take them to shows so after having children and the horses going as no time, I desperately wanted a dog.  It wasn't till the children were 10 that I we had my first dog, (kids were frightened of dogs) but we started a few fun shows as an activity for them to get involved with. Daughter wasn't keen but son with ASD was.

When daughter was 12 I thought we would try a open show to see the difference.  She was entered in the handling and qualified for Richmond at he first show so we thought we should follow it through.

We only had a pet dog so over the following year, although we had to be entered in the breed classes to go in handling, and we did have some good breed places, handling was the prime business for us and good friends forged.

It drew us into learning more and we attended breed and health seminars, met lots of helpful friends and eventually bought another dog to show and increased the breed places inc gaining his stud book number. 

Daughter now judges as well as showing and the experience on her Cv led to an unconditional offer of a college place to study vet nursing followed quickly by TWO job offers at vets for jobs she hadn't applied for this summer.  She is now a trainee vet nurse and paid a reasonable wage at 18!  Not bad for someone who didn't want a dog and was frightened of them.

We hope one day to buy a new puppy who will be shown and hopefully start our line, by then hopefully DD will be a qualified nurse too.

I was never allowed to have a family dog although always wanted one. When I left home I looked around for my first dog (knew nothing about showing), the stud dog owner suggested we showed him, so we asked a lot of questions and gave it a go. Have shown on and off for over 25 years, also competed in agility, heelwork to music and obedience depending on the dog. Never looked back.

Born into a doggie family and taken to shows as a child. I was bought my own dog to show ( a cocker from the famous Lochranza kennels) as my family breed was boxers and I couldnt manage them in the ring.

As an adult Ive bred and shown most of my life then downsized to a toy breed to save my back!
I bought the best two bitches I could get my hands on ( which took a great deal of study, watching at shows for the finer points of the standard,networking and time!) and the rest is history :-)

my ex husband bought a dog. when dog was 1.5 yrs old and daughter was 2.5 yrs he left me. i decided to try out a dog show as the dog had been pick of the litter by breeder, he had been back to her and she still thought he was good. first show he wond two first and BOB. that is how i go started. spent a fortune on show made a lot of friends over the years. stopped showing a few years ago, had lots of 'me' money, bought a house, did other things with my dogs that they enjoy. ie working them picking up, so, instead of spending money we were getting paid to do something we all enjoyed!...... and would never go back to showing. once you get over the addiction you see there is life after showing. when i think of the money i spent over the years, i feel embarrased. i didnt breed so the money came from my earned money.

My parents had hound breeds (deerhound, borzoi, greyhound) in the 1940's and 1950's when I was a child and showed them (not extensively though).  They were hobby exhibitors and never bred.  I took up showing my own 20 years ago after raising a daughter and it has been a wonderful experience to meet so many like minded people and make so many friends.  I have kept to smaller breeds being easier to manage exercise wise due to my husbands disability, though my dream was to have had a borzoi again in the family with so many happy memories as a child of the wonderful pair my parents had.  My daughter now lives in Holland and shows extensively which has been a great opportunity to experience the European shows with her, and to see the seemingly much higher number of young exhibitors than we do in the UK (well in the breeds I have anyway).  And my friends I have made over the years from showing dog have not been friends just for the shows but also become dear friends away from the ring, and have been of great support such as in the past year when I have been ill and took care of my own dogs for me during a spell in hospital.

We decided to get a dog when we got married, I bought a couple of books on the breeds we fancied and they had a chapter on showing and I thought it looked like fun. I asked the breeder to help me pick a puppy that wouldn't be out of place at the odd open show. At his first show we got 3rd of 5 beating the bitch puppy the breeder had kept, and I was hooked from then on! He won a CC and BOB at 14 months in a breed with 240 dogs being shown that day, two Firsts at Crufts, a ShCM, he was just short of his JW as I hadn't heard of it and didn't show him much for the first 6 months, and he also got his Gold Good Citizen test. I lost him over 2 years ago at only 8 years ago and I still miss him like mad, he broke my heart. I have 3 more Cavaliers now (and my American cocker) who are all special and successful in their own way, but there'll never be another Henry. :-)

Parents had GSDs but they were guard dogs, lovely dogs but too much for me.
Then we moved next to dog mad neighbour who had Airedale Terriers and I used to help (was about 7) I'm sure I must have been the most annoying kid ever so I think go check on the dogs or do this was a way of getting a bit of peace lol.  Ended up going to shows and doing a couple of bits of handling, spent time helping out and watching mainly.  Then begged for my own dog and a crazy border terrier cross was brought, not exactly ideal for showing lol but he did get some fun outings.  During this time I helped out at local dog training clubs (was 13 by now) and general wanted to be involved but didn't have a dog to do it with.  Lots of great people I met there, including some older ladies not so good on the legs with bigger breeds (Irish wolfhounds and afghans) so I ended up training and handling other people's dogs for them, did a good amount of winning, placed at group champ level, won CCs but not so great it not being your own dog.  So mum by this time was bored of driving me about just to wait for me, she got into mini smooth dachshunds did the buying, breeding, entering, I just did the actual showing, lot of knee time with such a small breed.  But this breed wasn't my choice.

So a few crufts ago I went on all the days and watch as much as I could fit in and talked to loads of people in different breeds that took my fancy, the breed I settled on (Lancashire Heelers) didn't even get on the radar until on one of the days there I was walking through a hall as it was time for home and the next minute I was on the floor with a women apologising like crazy.  I had been mobbed lol, she was loaded up with stuff and her gang of dogs pulled out of her hand and had made a bee line for me for no reason at all and the tangle of leads had tripped me up. They were lovely dogs and the poor women felt so bad she chatted to me until I was went to the shuttle bus.  So I researched, the breed really did fit me well and were free stacked so no more kneeling yay.
So this year after much searching and waiting I got my first lad, shortly followed by a second fella (I prefer showing and stewarding than breeding personally) so at just gone 30 I finally have my breed, took a while but was great fun along the way. My only regret is by the time I started to show the lady who I met on that day had passed away, I wish I could have thanked her for that tiny insight on the way to bus.

And to echo others, ring craft is great fun but there are good and bad ones so go to a few then see which you like.

Thank you everyone :) It's lovely hearing how everyone got involved.

I don't actually have a dog yet, when the time does come though, it's really important to me to give any future dog a stimulating life. Assuming the dog enjoyed it, showing seems like it would be a fun/interesting day out for everyone involved.

when i think of the money i spent over the years, i feel embarrased.

Why? Lots of people spend money on other hobbies, and you don't expect to MAKE money from a hobby. Others spend money on drink, cigarettes, designer clothes, holidays etc -we just chose to spend it on shows instead. Each to their own. I'd feel so wrong to spend money on shoes (spend perhaps £20 every 3 years or so), yet lots of people spend hundreds every year. Why should anyone feel embarrassed to spend their own money on what they chose, when it isn't anything illegal or harmful?

@ Goldmali, Since stopping showing I have bought a house. renewed my car every two years and got so much more for my money, yet i still enjoy what i do with my dogs. also i only have to walk from house a few hundred yards to have someone tell me what gorgous dogs i have. i didnt have to pay for the opoinion. when i got out showing was becoming political, the fun was going out of it, scratch my back ect. no fun in that. now i sit in my comfortable house or drive my lovely car and still enjoy doing things with my dogs, i just dont pay a stranger for their opinion. but it is as i said addictive, only once away from it do you see it with a clear eye.

> i only have to walk from house a few hundred yards to have someone tell me what gorgous dogs i have. i didnt have to pay for the opoinion.

This reminds me of a day I walked a sweet but pretty ugly, rescue boxer I was fostering along the seafront. I was stopped a by a pompous man who informed me that he was a 'Crufts Judge' ( Ive met a few !) and how absoloutely wonderful my dog was.. and he should know :-) he said.

*like* :-D

I started attending companion (exemption at the time) shows with the family dog (a crossbreed) when I was around 12 years old. These got me hooked! I wanted to be able to take part in the pedigree classes.
At the age of 15 I became interested in a particular breed and started visiting champ shows so I could meet the breed and find individual dogs I liked. My parents agreed I could get a dog of my own once I was 18 and if I bought it myself.
I did just that :) I started showing my boy when he was 6 months old and I have shown him lightly ever since. He now 6 years old and recently gained his ShCM and won his first Best of Breed at a champ show :)