My dog enjoys showing and to me he seems quite spritely when I take him in the ring. A top shower/breeder of my breed told me that my dog is too used to me and is not showing well. She said I am the problem and being too close in a relationship with my dog means he is bored with me and loses his spark in the ring. A friend took him in the ring and I have to admit my dog got excited and showed much better. This shower says I have ruined my dog by being too close to him ( he is also my beloved companion ), she said I have to have a pet or a show dog I cant have both!!.  She says that I should have little to do with him outside the ring and only choose occasional times to give him affection. If that is the case than I will stop showing, I would never cut the bond between me and my dog for the sake of a few rosettes. Possibly she was correct in a way as all her dogs are exhuberant in the ring and full of beans to be with her.  I was a little taken aback by her comments , am I being too sensitive??  What else should I do to perk doggy up for the ring??

Thanks very much. xxx

All of mine are well and truly attached to me, but that makes them sparkle even more!

Sorry but I don't think much of this advice.
I have the opposite problem that my dog is very lively in the ring and doesn't listen to me. Yet if someone else takes him in then he really concentrates. Yes I have created this problem somewhat myself as I have spoilt him and not been firm enough. But I have good people giving me advice and it is slowly paying off.
I don't know what breed you have but in mine classes are on the large side. Now I don't get a bored dog myself, but do have friends whose dogs are great outside the ring but do get a little bored waiting in line to be gone over.
What I personally think you need to do is go back to basics and make it fun for your dog again.
I don't know how much you show but if your showing every week. Maybe cut back to a couple of shows a month for now and get the dog going for you again. So many times you hear that dogs go better for someone else. Your own dog does take the attitude oh it's you again. Someone knew can be someone exciting.
It's like with mine. I adore them and they adore me. When my friends come round they don't want to know me but if I leave the room. They sit at that door waiting for me to come back.
Don't be disheartened just try to incorporate some fun into it. Take a little toy in the ring. Do a bit of obedience while you are waiting for your turn.

And I work on getting a stong bond between myself and dog! I must be training wrong!

I have always worked with having stong bonds with those dogs I show regulary to the fact they show better for me then anyone else with the bond strong enough for people outside the ring to see it!

I think you should carry on showing and have you pet aswell! :D

pet or show dog, is the person you where talking to not got both, mine do breed agility flyball obedience and they are loved to bits they are my pets and my dogs that work when i need them to.
many people told me that i would not be able to do breed, agility obedeince with the same dog, and i do he loves them all, but i have to admit in the breed ring he got bored very quick so i used to get my daughter to take the little horror in and he worked so well for her, plus he was more on his toes as he did not know where his mam was,
i want a close bond with my dogs, my friend got a puppy from the same litter as i got a pup she got a bitch i got a dog and the bitch is so headstrong no bonding with her at all, yet the dog that i have is so bonded with me she wants to know how i did it, and to tell you the truth i do not know. your dog maybe bored also its way of telling you i don't like this kind of showing, he may be bored with the same bait you use in the ring also ask her if her dogs are kenneld, i used to work in a big gsd kennels and the dogs used to go ballistic when we went to take them out the reason we where not with them 24 hours a day like some dogs that are in a home, if you think your dog is bored try a different hobby, the dog i have at home became bored of the ring and now he does agility,flyball and obedience and loves it all

carol

OMG what is the point in having dogs if you haven't got a bond with them.  I love showing my girls, and they love showing back in fact will push in when I am trying to train one of them.  After all they are my companions first then show dogs, because we all still take the best dog home with us.  Perhaps you are a bit anxious in the ring and your dog is picking up on it.  Just try to relax and when you are at training go over the top with your enjoyment, hopefully the dog will then get more excited. Oh please don't listen to someone who tells you not to bond with your dog.

Thanks for your replies.  this breeder said her dogs no longer come in  the home and are outside away from the family. My dogs are my family so the thought of chucking him outside and only speaking to him when it suits me is not going to happen, ever!!  I do alternate his bait and try different things, he also takes his squeaky froggy with him which he adores. I have to agree that maybe it is a case of " its you again" syndrome.  Our Rottweilers barely lift their heads up when we get home from work, but if anyone comes round they go crazy and flatten them on the floor whining and wagging bums!! We show about once a month and this other show woman takes hers to everything, she would go to the opening of an envelope.  Have to say she was quite rude to me and quite frankly came across as " do you know who I am and I have won at champ shows" attitude.  I just want a fun hobby, thats all.

P.S He is a pug.

Well done danny, the dogs are far more important to you than hers are to her!!

Hi Danny,  I have pugs too, and thoroughly enjoy showing them, however, if I was ever given the option of showing or just loving them, showing would go!  My pugs are my pets, live in the house, sleep on my bed, friends and companions.  And I have no compalint about how they show!  OK, sometimes concentrations will flag a little while freestanding, but treats or a toy usually fixes this.  Jsut enjoy your pugs, some folk get wierd ideas, and winning becomes alsmost a life or death situation - it is a quesiton of priorities, I think, and you seem to have yours in the right place!
bye
Gwen

danny can i just say, you will what a lot of people call pot hunters  you will come across them, they are people who just have dogs so they can win everything and anything,we have some of these at the club we go to, one lady knows everything about every breed that walks in through the door and woe betide you if you do not take her advice and do as she says, she is starting to alienate herself at club and at shows, she critises everything and every one including judges, in a very loud voice, you will hear her saying things like do you know who this dog is ? in a very loud voice,
if you don't like the club is there not another one you could go to, you sound like a normal person who adores there dog what is wrong with that nothing in my opinion.
carol

This was all said to me at a show on Sunday after judging had finished and I got a third in the class. This woman is very well known and successful in pugs, but it just turned my stomach to think that some dogs only get any affection from their owners on brief occasions. I guess her dogs are not pets at all and solely kept for showing. Success is at a cost to some poor dogs I guess.  I am going to carry on loving my dog, if I dont get a chuffing CC than so be it!!!

Well said Danny, my dogs are much loved pets as well as show dogs. I do let other people handle my boy sometimes as he does like a change of handler, and I like to watch him in the ring, but I don't think me loving him makes him less sparkly, it's more how many shows we've been to lately!! He does of course spend less time sitting on my lap on the day of a show, so might be pleased to be out and running about once we get in the ring, but I would certainly never sacrifice the time I spend with them on the sofa at home just for the sake of a red rosette! :-)

Sometimes when I take both Idõ and Kayla to a show I have to have someone hold one while I go in the ring with the other. Kayla doesn't really mind either way but Idõ is very attached to me and has a good whinge to himself while I'm in the ring with Kayla, then when I swap dogs to take him in the ring he is so happy that it might possibly make a difference to his 'sparkle' in the ring. Saying that, he is silly anyway and loves being in the ring :D
On the other hand I know some dogs that will go the other way if seperated, and once handed back and taken in the ring they appear to be confused about the absense of their handler and don't show well at all.
I show because I love to take my dog in the ring, we have a great bond, he's probably overbonded to me but IMO thats a good thing for showing. :)

Hi Danny!
The better your dog is, the more threat you are to the people like the lady you met,and the more comments like this you risk getting :-D
Try taking this sort of talk like a compliment. If your dog wasn't good enough to be a threat to theirs, they wouldn't bother ;-)
Keep on loving your dog, in the end of the day, rosettes and paper cards are rather boring to cuddle :-p
Good luck in, and out of, the rings!
Karen

Danny my lot are dead spoilt, allowed to get away with a bit too much for some peoples taste when we ahve visitors :D (since kids are no longer small I haven't been as strict on jumping up for example).

All 3 are CC or RCC winners.  Yes there are times when they would have shown better if they ahdn't got me on the end of the lead, adn yess someone new is always more interesting.

The advice you were given was the lazy way of getting a dogs attention, called deprivation.  On the other hand maybe ignoring the dog a bit until you get in the ring can have a positive effect, rather than sitting petting them right before they go in, or let them become bored from walking around the show before going in.  I usually find ahlf an hour resting on their bench or crate before goingin the ring (after being groomed) has them eager to get up and do.

where was this show on sunday? the pug dog club show was on last sunday,were you there?

I had a bitch that could be moody and decide not to show - just before I went in I got someone else to hold her and within her sight practised with another bitch of mine, standing, koving and lots of praise. I then swapped bitches, withpout saying anything to the one I was about to show and walked into the ring with her - she showed like a dream - and won 10 CCs. You need to get into their heads, in your case may be worth letting someone else hold yr dog, you disappear then return just before you go in.
I hope this was the sort of thing the breeder suggested - there needs to be that bond at home - why else would you want to own dogs

The show was at Newark, Notts.  The more I think about what she said the more I dont want to be like her. Yes she is well known in pugs, but her attitude was very blunt and quite patronising.  I am still going to go and enjoy myself.

I love my puggy and my puggy loves me, thats all that matters!!!