Things You'll Need
- Soft dog treats, cut very small
- Dog show lead
- Grooming table or its substitute
- Four cans of tomato paste
- 2 chairs (optional)
- 2 bowls (optional)
Instructions
Socialization
Vaccinate the puppy, ensuring that it is safe to take into public.
Take the puppy to safe, pet-friendly locations, such as pet superstores or local parks, where it can meet a variety of people.
Encourage people to feed your puppy a treat that you provide. Allow a variety of people to do so, especially those with whom the puppy has little contact at home. According to the Amherst Small Animal Hospital, "people in uniforms, babies, toddlers, the elderly, the physically challenged are just a few examples that might lead to fear and anxiety, unless there is sufficient early exposure."
Expose the puppy to items such as bicycles, golf carts, motorized and manual wheel chairs, canes, walkers and strollers, any of which might be encountered at a dog show.
Enroll the puppy in a puppy kindergarten class. Doing so will ensure that it is able to associate with a variety of dogs that may be of dissimilar types and sizes.
Stacking: How to Strike a Pose
Teach the puppy to stand with all four legs placed squarely underneath its body. Begin by placing the puppy on your knees, front feet on one knee and back feet on the other. Because this surface is not entirely stable, the puppy will find its own center of balance and will stand more squarely than it might on a flat surface.
Reward the puppy with a food treat each time it stands quietly in place.
Refine the stance. Give the puppy treats only if it meets other or additional criteria, such as having the tail poised in position over its back or having its ears raised and pointed forward.
Accustom the dog to having all of its body handled when in the stacked position. The dog should learn to remain steady while having its lips raised or having its legs repositioned, while someone runs a hand down its back or when its tail and rear are being handled. Male dogs should become accustomed to having their testicles checked, as judges must be certain that two testes exist.
Transfer the behavior. Place the dog on the floor or on the grooming table and ask for the same kind of stance, using the same process as described above. The puppy can be stacked with its feet on four tomato paste cans to aid in learning a solid and calm stance.
Moving as a Team: Learning to Gait
Teach the puppy to refrain from pulling against the show lead. This step may require you to adjust your walking speed to the favored walking speed of the puppy. The puppy should always be on the left side of, and slightly ahead of, the handler.
Train the puppy to gait with its head up while moving in a straight line. While many methods of training this process exist, it can be aided by putting two chairs facing each other at opposite sides of a room, placing a bowl of treats on each of them and showing the puppy where the treats are "hiding." The puppy will gait between the two chairs with its head up and ears and tail in an alert position.
Enroll in a handling class to refine the behavior for both handler and dog. This process involves learning different gaiting patterns and exposing the puppy to different dogs and judges that is best done in a more formal setting.
Enter the puppy in a match. Matches are smaller than most formal dog shows and will give you an idea of the puppy's skills and comfort level.