I wondered how often people practise with their dogs for the ring?

Never, in my case. I just kind of assume they'll co-operate and eventually they do.

Never, he seems to know what to do (sometimes) I did when I first started showing, but he just gets on and does it now, though didn't want to trot round the ring at Richmond (sun was out ) prefrs the shade

When I'm showing I have my dogs in weekly handling classes taught by judges. It's a great place to socialize with dog people, meet professional handlers, learn technique, and most importantly prepare your dogs for any and all eventualities in the ring. It would be unheard of here (I'm talking about the big shows I attend in Canada) to place a dog in a show ring that hasn't been taught to stack properly, isn't used to judges running their hands over them, etc. Plus it prepares both dog and owner to deal with the sneaky things unprofessional handlers will do such as run their dogs up on yours in the ring, or stack their dogs in front of yours blocking the judge's view of your animal, ... I had to learn all this the hard way but I did learn

Never, as well, and it shows.
But maybe we should cause our, or Pyry's, ring behaviour is horrible as far as I think.
Or more like... I don't know what I'm doing and Pyry just does what he feels like. So it's more like a chaos.

We're on a brake from shows at the moment and maybe he just calms down for a bit till the end of the year.

I'm thinking I should do a bit more. Its not really fair to keep turning up to the odd show and expect Daisy to be good at it without any input from me and she's in PGB soon so she'll have to be a bit better behaved

By saying I don't practice, I didn't mean to imply that I don't train! My dogs are taught to accept anyone going over them, to have their teeth looked at and to trot to heel as part of their preparation for everyday life. And they go lure coursing to meet their friends and have fun (same as me) and they learn how to behave with other dogs because they live with other dogs. As for unscrupulous handlers using naughty tricks, I deal with them myself; I don't expect my dog to have to put up with that kind of nastiness any more than I will. They seldom try it on with me twice.

Yeah, sure Pyry is used to be handled as well but I ment more like the behaviour.
Like NOT jumping around when we're going the ring and trying to snap me when getting bored running the ring or triangle or line.
So in our case it's more like being impatient than not knowing how to behave.

Pyry thinks it's all done after the first shared ring and really doesn't have patient for the rest of the show.

I always like to a bit of prectice with a pup before it's first show, just so it knows what I want it to do.Nothing worse than seeing a beweildered little pup being dragged round the ring by it's owner. I usually take a pup along with us to a couple of shows before it makes it's debut, when the ring is empty I take it in and have a try in there, get a few people to go over it and look at it's teeth, so when it's day comes it's happy and confident knowing what's expected of it. Usually if I do this I find I don't have to do much else with them, as once they know what they seem quite happy to oblige.

I know some young dogs when going through the "teenage" years will prance and dance in the ring but it's just a case of waiting for them to grow up and settle down. I'd rather see tham like this than miserable, cos they do eventually settle down, but they may never get to like the ring and cheer up.

Pam

Speaking of puppies in the ring , the sweetest thing I saw was , some years ago when I visited the American Specialty , were some very well known ( and very good , imo ) breeders showing /introducing some rather young pups to the ring ( just over 4 mths I think ) - in a special class they had at this show .They brought with them some huge stuffed toys in the ring in order to animate them to walk/trott around to get them and , in the end , one puppy being carried trough th pups ring by them - all of them have long become champions and some are super successful . I thought , this was a very sweet way to get them into the ring for the first time , clearly no training had happened up to this point , barely any leash training and alll was done very gently/friendly/fun .

Sid wrote:

yay!!! Go sid!!
Must say my Mama Bear instincts kicked in yesterday. Took the wee ones to "the ice cream shop" (MacDonalds, I'm afraid, but there is a McCafe with hot chocolate and a good indoor play ground - essential in wet weather with 2 bored under 4's). There was about 20 7-8 year olds running crazy so I was guarding Sarah who was trying to go up a toddler slide the wrong way. Anyway this smart alex young upstart comes up to ME!!! and says "She can't do that" and I growled "she can do whatever she likes when she's with me". Well this wee miss turned on her heel and stomped off and Paul nearly fell off his stool laughing. Well, it was a good deal better than my usual smart wit and sparkling repartee (learnt in Leith pubs) of "fugaffyarednosedbathtard"
Anyway, re practise i am running around the farm with the dogs trying to encourage sp,e spirit and joie de vivre to carry us into the next show ring (NZ Nationals: Thurs 2 shows, then Saturday and Sunday)....

I'm useless at practicing before a show. We used to go to local ring craft but it closed some time ago now and it always seems so unrealistic practicing on our own in the garden. (I think a lot of ring-crafts are under threat now as people are finding it harder and harder to give the time to run them.)

I manage to do more on movement as I practice running with her pretty often but standing still is a disaster - I've lost so many placings due to random fidgetting, you'd think I'd learn.

Maybe we should try to introduce some deerhound ringcraft skills at some of the shows - a few tips each time from those better at it than me would be much appreciated!!

One thing we have found helpful is to get some-one ( in Pam's case, of course that is me.... ) to take a video of yourself in the ring. You wil be amazed at the things you do that you don't think you do, and some of the things you don't do that you think you do, if you see what I mean.......

Dave

I think I would give up showing if I saw myself in the ring. On a serious note I think it is a good idea.

You are right Dave. It helped me a lot watching myself, particularly when it came to stacking.