Show Presentation - Page 1

Hi Everyone.............

can you offer me your advice................

With regards to showing german shepherds at the highest level............

What do you guys do to get them ready..............

For example......bathing, brushing, making the coats shine etc etc.........PURELY what you actually do to make them look good in the ring "visually".........

Please mail me as much info as possible...........

THANKYOU

Depends on what venue you are showing in and the type of coat your dog has. Example: One of my dogs I would not bathe before shows because he would get a bit fluffy looking versus my young male who  I bathe day of show at a grooming shop that allows you to rent space to bathe and blow out the coat day of the show then use show sheen combed over his topline to lay it down smoother. He does not have as much undercoat yet so this helps him look his best. I use no dyes, color inhancing shampoos, thinning shears, or other things that I consider cheats personally. At home my dogs received daily brushing with a slicker to keep dead hairs out then gone over with boar bristle soft brush to keep a shine and gloss on them. This makes it easy to have them in display condition at any time. I keep nails groomed once a week as well. At past NASS show I did not see much grooming going on. At the recent seiger in Dallas I saw people breaking out tables, blowers, and the works behind the hotel in the back parking lots. I first learned show grooming in the 80's for AKC kennel that had bichons, giant schnauzers, Bouvies, gsds and it is much different and a greater amount of "polishing" of the dogs and more about whatever can be used to Beautify them for the ring than a natural but fresh and clean shown dog.

If you are showing in SV rings, ring training and proper handling and double handling is critical, more important than grooming IMO.

As for grooming, I bathe my dog a few days before the show, trim the nails.  Then the day of the show I do a light spray either just water, waterless shampoo, or mink oil and then brush with a rake, fluff with a pin brush.  I make sure the eyes have no boogies and the ears and nose are clean and clear.  That's really about it.

For regular coat maintenance all I do is give a few pumps of salmon oil on one of their meals once a day.  This keeps their skin from getting dry and keeps the coat strong and shiny.  Other than this, I don't really bother.  A good diet overall is the most important thing for proper skin and coat health, you shouldn't need to specifically treat the coat for it to look nice.

I agree.  I try to keep my Axel's nails trimmed and brush him regularly as a part of our normal grooming routine and I bike him to keep them in condition.  I'll wash him a couple of days before we leave for NASS but he'll still be in a crate in the back of the SUV for 600+ miles after that so I'm not sure how much even that matters.  I use no "product" to enhance color or shine or anything like that...his coat and pigment are what they are.

Your dog need only be clean, brushed and hopefully have at least some ring training.  Of course, it's nice to win but the focus of showing should be less about that than getting an opinion of your dogs' relative strengths and weaknesses from a knowledgeable and (hopefully) impartial third party.

Hi Guys,

A MASSIVE THANKYOU TO YOU ALL..............I WILL TAKE ON BOARD WHAT YOU HAVE SAID.

MANY THANKS
Jay

I am with Keith, regular grooming, good diet,regular exercise, on the bike if old enough and ring training.

Yes it's good if you gain a place but it is more about the critique for me.

The first thing I do is make certain the dog is ring trained to the max and in good condition. This starts many weeks before the show.

In my case, conditioning is done on a bike. I have had some that loved swimming and this is good also. A dog that lets down in the ring or is not properly trained is not going to place well. I don't feed exclusively a raw diet, but I do add raw. Haven't found anything better for the coat.

Before the dog goes in the ring, I wet down and blow the coat dry. At my first SV style show, I pulled out the dryer and started looking for a plug in. My handler explained that it wasn't necessary to go to all that with the German dogs, just brush out. I went ahead and did my AKC thing and the first 3 shows were VP!, VP1 and VP2. A couple of these were large classes, so I guess it didn't hurt.

Rik