I have an almost 2½ year old male. When he was a puppy he had a couple of scares in the showring with male judges, basically they were a bit rough in handling him and he got a big fright. This all happened before he was 9 months old. We then had a real battle to get him to stand for ANY judge, male or female. He got better with females but it took a number of weeks for him to get better with males. Since then he can be very unpredictable, in that one minute he will stand and behave superbly and the next he panics and won't stand for the judge at all. I would say it happens more with males than it does females and it happens particularly if the judge is faffy, spends a long time going over his head, kneels down or talks to him in a high pitched softly softly voice.

Prior to his first bad experience I had no problems whatsoever either at ringcraft or his first couple of shows. To get him over his experience I basically would stack him and speak sternly but not harshly to him, saying "stand and stay". I have found that if I try to speak in a high pitched voice to reassure him it makes him worse. Possibly he's thinking I'm worried ?

I know that if I am nervous it will travel down the lead so I do my best to act confident. What I am wondering is will he ever get over this or do I just accept the problem ? As he continues to mature will he develop more confidence ? Should I try to avoid male judges or not ? I give him a few drops of rescue remedy and I think this does help. What makes me so nervous when in the ring is I never know if he's going to stand or not - it really is a lottery every time :-(

Would really appreciate any advice :-)

Edited to say : Sorry post is long but trying to give plenty of info. Recently we had a male judge who started to walk toward him to go over him and my dog felt as if he was going to back off so the judge walked right past him and ran his hand over his back. This instantly seemed to relax my dog and he stood perfectly when the judge came back to his head ??!!?

You could be taking about my Cava he's just 2 past and he got a fright with a man at Crufts when he was 11 months. We were on the Discover Dogs stand for Beardies and Cava was having a cuddle with a woman when a man came up from behind grabbed him and said Hello son in a very loud voice, that combined with the train journey was just too much and he is very wary of people mainly men but some women. He is fine with people he knew before that.

I can't tell you how often I wish I'd never gone as up until then I had the friendliet most outgoing dog in the world, too friendly almost. I have never entered him under a man in showing but he has been under men at obedience shows and was not too bad. At the moment I am trying the homeopathic remedy lycopodium which is for fear of men plus some others for his fear of engines and vehicle doors slamming. He is improving but I don't know if he will ever be the dog he should have been.

I know exactly how soul destroying it is to se them so scared:-(

Anne

claire remember all that time back it was this i posted to you about, ---i had a bitch that entered the ring and did really well-then out of the blue freaked, after that it was hit and miss if shed show, like you i tried all sorts, they didnt really seem to make a difference, i could take her in and shed show her socks off-or turn into a back flip trying to get away from the judge, in the end i decided to take her out of the ring, a hard thing to decide as she had been a top puppy bitch, and was best of breed at crufts,---the way i see this is, it was in her to be freaked, im not blaming any judge or person for it, i find it genetic, her dam i found out could be the same, and her sister was found to be worse. -therefore there was not a thing i could do about it, i dont get nervous in the ring so i at no time thought it was coming down from me.-i think you have to be fair to the dog-and the judges, if he really doesnt like it then hes probably best kept out the ring, -and seeing it from the judges side, its not nice for them either, its a no win if a dogs freaking, as a lot of the time theyre going to get blamed, if the dogs sound then he should cope with the normal every day goings on of the show world, im sorry but part of a good show dog is temperament, which allows them to cope with it, its hard to face, and i do feel for you, but neither of you can be enjoying yourselves. :( i hope im wrong and theres a way around it, and id be the first to admit it, !!! but i think id be giving him a break,

Thank you both for your replies :-)

Dizzy - I hear what you are saying. However, you have seen his sire and he doesn't behave like this, neither does his litter brother who has 2 RCC's, JW, RBIS and numberous high placings. His litter sister didn't behave like this when she was being shown. And now he has 2 sisters from a repeat mating in the ring who don't behave like this.

We chose him because having narrowed it down to 2 pups he was the most confident one. And like I have said we had no problems until the first rough judge. I *know* this judge was rough because not only did he grab my dogs testicles :-( I've got it on video tape and can see what is happening.

So if I thought it was hereditary then I could see how taking him out of the ring would be the right thing to do, however I really don't think it is hereditary and therefore would like to try and work him through it.

One thing I forgot to mention was, even the times where he appears to be unhappy with the judge going over him, once I start to move him, his head and tail are up and he shows & moves really well. So it's not like he hates being in the ring, he's happy and alert before and after being seen by the judge it's only on occassions that he won't stand still for usually male judges.

P.S. I have read that between the ages of 6 - 12months is the second fear imprint period and as he had 2 bad experiences in the ring between 6 - 9 months I wondered if this would not help matters ?

if your fairly sure its only because of a judge--then get him under as many at ringcraft as you can, -but i have to tell you--the brother to my bitch was ok-his sire was ok, it was only the dam ,
good luck claire, i really hope he gets over it for you, -have you tried sending him in with someone else ?