How to Get Involved in Dog Shows?

L

lumiere

New member
Hello! Not a question about breeding but I feel like this sub may be able to help me anyway. If it is not allowed delete it.

I want to eventually show and breed dogs. I found a breed I absolutely fell in love with called the Finnish Lapphund. This isn't a very popular breed. I didn't know this breed existed until I started looking through the AKC (should mention I am from America) registered breeds.

I want to get more involved with this breed and meet people who work with Finnish Lapphunds, but I haven't found anything nearby specifically about this breed.

It's okay if I can't get involved with this specific breed yet, but I would still love to get involved in dog shows. I want to find a community to keep up with different shows and news. There isn't a good "AKC" or even "Dog Show" subreddit. I was wondering if anybody had any ideas on how to get into and be apart of this community?

On a somewhat side note, I also posted a pole. Should dogs compete in dog shows before being bred? I would love to know your opinion. If you're interested in that you can go here.

Thank you!

Edit: I am going to look into a different breed. It will be very difficult to find a mentor close to me, so I may consider a similar breed that is more popular. I may still stick with the Finnish Lapphund but we shall see.
 
@preciousleslee Would it be rude to ask them to mentor me even if I can't get the puppy until years from now?

I am currently in college and an apartment. I want to devote time to breeding and showing once I have a house and a steady job.
 
@lumiere Absolutely they wouldn’t mind. Not all breeders are as open to mentorship, which is fine, because you don’t want to learn from people with shitty attitudes like that anyway. You want to learn from someone who actually gives a shit about newbies entering the breed.

I also have a rarer breed. Got a dog from one breeder as a pet. Good breeder, not my type of person in general because she’s incredibly social and I am not, but undoubtedly a good ethical breeder. Good dog too. Through that dog I met another breeder who I 110% clicked with. She’s basically an older version of myself, we absolutely get along perfectly. Spent the next 6 years mentoring with that second breeder I met, and managing to keep good relations with my first breeder too because she knew it wasn’t at all personal and she was retiring anyway.

In those 6 years before I had a dog from her, my mentor made it a point to have not just her be my sole teacher - but other breeders too. Not only did I attend whelpings and see puppies at super young ages before anyone else, but we’d also arrange days where other breeders would be present. On those days I’d do puppy evaluations or stud comparisons (once I knew enough to actually have opinions on stuff), and then my mentor and the other breeders would rip me a new one over my critiques and test my knowledge of the standard and the functionality of the dogs and the ethics of breeding. I went with my mentor for first puppy vet visits, OFA evaluations, c sections, AI appointments, etc. Not all the time, because obviously that’s too much time commitment for a normal person, but it was consistent and spread out over many years. This stuff, and still showing my other dog, gave me more than enough opportunity to become recognizable in the breed community.

I basically was her favourite puppy person despite the fact I had never taken a puppy from her. I was allowed to groom and handle her dogs at shows. I even was allowed to ‘steal’ any puppies she kept for days at a time to “socialize” in order to tame my puppy fever. I spent six years playing at being a breeder without any of the scary commitment stuff.

When I finally was ready for a puppy, I told my mentor, who cried at the news, because man was it a long time coming. I was immediately top of her waiting list, had pick of the litter (even though she herself wanted to keep the puppy I took), and more or less got to ask for whatever I wanted in the breeding contract. Even today she’s still a huge part of my life, I text her at least once a week if not more to talk about dogs and shows and what’s going on. She’s the first person I tell when my dogs do well at shows, and still the first one I call when one of my dogs so much as sneezes as I start to panic.

TLDR: A truly good breeder, one who’s actually worth your time, will be delighted to help you
 
@preciousleslee That sounds like such a great experience. A great way to really be apart of the community. I do have a question though. The breeder I found is about 14 hours away from me, so even if I wanted to I couldn't be as involved as you. As far as I can tell (I'll keep looking) there aren't any breeders/showers in my area of my chosen breed. I can message the breeder and ask for online advice but in person stuff may be harder. If I can't find somebody in my area would it be smart to find a mentor of a similar breed? Of course it wouldn't teach me how to critique my breed but it could teach me how to show and challenges involving breeding. Is this a good idea?
 
@lumiere Lots of great advice already, but I'll add my 2 cents as someone JUST getting into breeding.

I started in sports with my pair of rescued mutts. My trainer has become my breeder and breeding mentor and I'll be bringing home my first breeding female dog in January. In the last year though, I've started handling her youngest pup and doing handling classes with her under a Westminster judge and professional handler (100% suggest if you can find someone). Through that, I've gone to conformation shows and met people, built contact lists, got my name out there. I'm doing GSD's so the competition is pretty high, but I've already managed a Best in Breed with the pup at only 8 months at the time in just 2 shows, so clearly the lessons have paid off (and she's a beautiful dog).

Even if your breeder is far away (14 hours is nuts, I'm only 14 minutes away from mine!), make a point to go to local and maybe slightly less local conformation shows. There may be other breeders there (check the schedule ahead of time, it should normally tell you), but better yet, you'll be able to start learning the points system (I'm still figuring that out), how things run, what patterns you'll need to learn, and you'll build contacts too. Check out the breed club and reach out to people. Contact other local reputable breeders in your area (even of other breeds) and go to their whelpings, ask them questions, watch their puppy tests, etc.

The dog world is almost completely built on who you know, so getting to know people is the place to start.

As for your poll, it depends. I would generally say yes, but that's for dogs who are bred for conformation. Other dogs like working line GSD's and other working breeds don't need to show, but should be health tested and proven in the tasks that they are being bred for (if it's a protection dog, the parents should both be highly titled in protection work or working with police or military for example). There are also some special cases too, where well known, good breeders can get away with breeding their dog solely on temperament and lineage rather than being proven in the show ring, but this is almost impossible for a novice breeder to accomplish (dogs also need to be health tested, but that's a given for a good breeder). My puppy's mother is the daughter of a Campos GSD and a Sonoma GSD (as an aside, start researching lineages and genetics!). She was bred to Timberline's Dust Bowl Dance twice now, based on temperament, some videos of her movement, and her lineage. She has never been in a show ring because she was born just before my breeder had a bad accident which made her unable to show her. Her daughter is the puppy that I've been showing and won the BiB with at 8 months against a champion. So, breeding withing having a proven dog can happen, but only in very specific circumstances with the right dogs.
 
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