Training Your Dog For The Show Ring
Whether your dog is the most perfect specimen of his breed or not, training him for the show ring can be a challenging task.
If you've decided to enter your dog in dog shows you need to have more than a pet that conforms to breed standards. You'll also need to learn how to groom and show your dog so that he looks his best for the judges.
A show dog must not only obey the commands of stay, sit and he'll but he has the added responsibility of walking and precision with his hand where in stopping in a certain spot and displaying a certain pose.
The earlier you can begin training your dog the better off you'll be. First off, you should teach your dog to remain calm when he Is being touched by judges as they will want to inspect his teeth denies as well as other body parts your dog may not want people touching. Obviously if you dog gets agitated and snaps at the judges, he will not be a good candidate for this show ring.
You'll want to practice this touching with your dog when you are bathing him and at other times during the day. Getting used to it. Have your friends galore and touch them just like a judge would so be used to strangers handling him. Needless to say the dog bit as well obedience trained and has a calm temperament is best for this sort of job.
you'll also want to pose (or stack) the dog as he will be in the ring. Practice this often and be sure he can hold the pose of a judge can get a good look.
Leash training your dog to walk with you is important and you want to make sure your dog will follow you no matter what direction you turn it. You want to start by training them to walk, or heel, beside you at a normal pace. Don't let him pull you, and don't let them run off in every direction possible. once he has the steno science, you want to practice sharp direction changes can be sure that he stays with you.
Some trainers use a clicker that they click when executing a direction change or you could tag and release the leash to let the dog know that you are changing. Practice Is making sure the dog stays right by your side and does not run ahead or lag behind.
Start off slowly and increase gradually over time until you are walking at a trot just like you would In the show ring.
You also want to make sure the dog stops when you do otherwise would be jerked back on the leash. You can use clicker training for this or use a gentle time on the leash. It doesn't hurt to give you got plenty of praise and a few treats him in there too!
Training your dog for the show ring is a great excuse to spend a lot of time bonding with your dog. Just remember practice makes perfect and you must have patience and always treat your dog with kindness. yelling at your dog when he does not do what you want will do nothing to increase his training, but positive reinforcement will work wonders.