A Beginner’s Experience in Dog Showing
As the legendary and respected handler and instructor George Alston told our class, "Conformation is the only sport in the world where you can compete with world-class professionals, even when you have no talent, no experience, and lousy equipment." And...of course, he is right. Dog showing is a wierd and wonderful world. Some of we amateurs enjoy the competition, some enjoy the craziness, some enjoy the shopping, and some (like me) just enjoy having an excuse to spend the day with their dog and leave "the real world" behind for a day.
I'd also strongly suggest you purchase the following books and read them cover to cover....several times:
-The Winning Edge, by George Alston
-The Dual Ring Dog by Jacqueline Frazer and Amy Ammen
(out of print but generally available on Amazon or Ebay)
-The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Showing Your Dog by Cheryl S. Smith (available on Amazon)
In addition, Shadow-Wood Samoyeds has a great webpage that could be a great help to you.
What follows below is a chronology of my show ring experiences. And if you are considering showing your Samoyed, you might see the kind of things that may lay ahead for you!
Lisl's Story- Proof that anyone can do this!
Sarah's first owner Marge, required that we show and "finish" Sarah as a condition of owning her. Yipes! Through a leap of faith (on both of our parts) and a commitment to give my best to the unknown, I promised Marge that I would attempt the show ring experience. She promised to help coach me. And off we went into the world of dog showing...
I had been passionate about, Samoyeds for almost 40 years. But until that day, I had never even thought of venturing into the dog show ring. Instinctively I knew that anything that looked that simple had to be complex. And I was sure it took skills and character traits that weren't among the (short) list of mine. But some situations call for extraordinary faith, and this was one. Plus...I had ignorance on my side :)
I was overwhelmed by the whole things, but I saw camaraderie, respect, sportsmanship, and a willingness to haul lots of heavy, fingernail-breaking stuff! But man, there were a lot of really beautiful Sammies! I guess they thought it was worth all the schelpping. It was clear that, while there were some admittedly “white-fur-win-obsessed” folks, even the ones "on the edge" loved their dogs. Flurry's first show was the benched show in Harrisburg, PA. It was so big, so noisy and so crowded, that it freaked out both of us from the time we pulled into the parking lot. If knew then what I know now, I would have called the experience a disaster, except that day I learned things that would improve the showing experience for me and the SnowAngels from a stressful one, to a more enjoyable, and winning one. I learned to ask lots of questions, and be open to the responses. By the second day, thanks to wonderful advice from Carol Montgomery and Marge Goodenough, Flurry was calming down. It was because of Flurry's uneasiness that Carol introduced me to flower essences. If you don’t know about them, click here...you owe it to yourself and your dog, to learn about them. Despite expert handling from two top professionals, Flurry never really grew to like showing. She approached it like some people go to get their teeth cleaned. But the judges really liked Flurry, and she always pulled herself together when it was time to "work" in the ring. So we kept showing Flurry AND Sarah throughout 2007. What had started out as a goal to show just Sarah resulted, in less than one year, in two champion girls! Needless to say, I was in a constant state of wonderful amazement. 
Anyone who knew me well must have thought that, at age 46, I’d lost the last of the brain cells I had possessed at age 45. 
After all, to be a successful competitor you have to good at advance planning, time management, priority and goal setting, research, logistics, organization, and possess an ability to focus on winning. Honestly.....NONE of those skills were ones I possessed. Not one!
I had no idea how to groom a Sammy for the show ring. I didn’t own a single piece of the "essential" dog show equipment (I didn't know what that was). I 
didn’t know how to enter a show. I didn’t have a truck or SUV. I didn’t even own a pair of "sensible" rubber-soled shoes. I had taken only a handful of handling classes. And well....I didn't have a very competitive nature...at all....
What I did have, however, was a love and faith in my dogs, a stubborn commitment to having fun, a thick skin, a great desire to learn, a stubborn commitment to achieving the goals that I had set for myself, and a willingness to be the novice among a group of professionals.
I volunteered as a “helper” at my first show. That was probably the smartest thing I could have done. I watched as people arrived a day early to the Timonium (Maryland) Fairgrounds "Cow Palace" with crates, carts, chairs, boxes, blankets, tables, dryers, power tools, and construction cones, coolers, and all kinds of other things I didn't recognize. I offered to help folks and I worked up the courage to ask one of them, “Where are your dogs?” “Ah!,” he replied “they are resting in the motor coach.” They? In a motor coach? They had driven from Ohio!
From the time I entered my first show, Sarah made it so easy. She loved grooming, she behaved perfectly in the show environment.....she made it seem like a piece of cake. But a few months after our first show, Sarah blew her coat. To my horror, as I groomed her, I kept watching her beautiful coat fly away only to be swooped up by the birds. She looked like a little, hungry, arctic fox. The picture below is Sarah - without fur, and with fur....fur is preferred :) So…I decided to let Sarah focus on allowing her fur to grow, and I did what any amateur would do.....I entered Flurry...right away! 
The other invaluable suggestion was one made to me by Heather Shannon. As Flurry and stumbled out of the ring, I asked her for advice. She graciously, carefully asked me if I had ever considered hiring a professional handler and offered to introduce me to a professional who may be able to help me. Heather's offer to help me ultimately led me to professional handlers, Barbara Waldkirch, and Cathy Schott, who both graciously handled Sarah and Flurry at the bigger competitions, and ultimately to earn both of their champion titles.
Well if you've read Halo's page, you know that he is our first show boy. What a different experience a boy is! Some days, Halo is a dreamboat, and other days he is a raging hormonal teenage boy. That said, Halo earned his title quickly and easily. He was such a good companion and (when there were no girls in season around) made showing so much fun, that I decided to "special" him. That meant that I would show him in the Best of Breed category, which also meant that I would certainly competing with professional handlers and breeders who had a whole lot more knowledge and experience in the show ring than I had. But my goal was to show him myself...and do it well....someday.
Halo and I won Best of Breed and Best of Opposite Sex several times. 
But I also knew enough to know that my lack of handling skills was keeping us from winning more often. After some research and talking to friends, I decided that what I needed was George Alston's handling class. I had heard that he was tough, they were tough to find, and they filled up as quickly as they were announced. I was told to go into it with a thick skin and a good night's sleep. In December, 2008, I got a spot in his 2-day Advanced class! It was THE BEST decision I could have made and I would recommend it to anyone. I only wish I had taken it sooner. I improved so much over the two days that I actually won the handling competition that George holds at the end of his classes. It was the single largest confidence boost of my life. And I'll be back to him for more instruction!
So, in 2009, in addition to specialing Halo, next, I'm going to take on what may very well be my largest challenge yet.....EASTER! I probably need my head examined, but I'm going to try to start showing Easter in January. We'll see how that goes :) Stay tuned!
