These three types of Shows usually require you to enter your dog between five to eight weeks before the date of the show. This is the ‘Closing Date’ and will be clearly stated on the front of the schedule. Don’t wait for the last minute to enter, do it as soon as you can. You will find a form in the middle of the schedule for you to fill in. Put your dog’s registered name and number and all the other details that you know. Don’t forget to put ‘D’ for dog or ‘B’ for bitch down. If your dog is registered on the Working Trials and Obedience register you can put FDU (Further Details Unknown) on the form after your dog’s name, breed and sex.

You cannot take an unregistered dog to a Limit, Open or Championship Show even if you don't intend to work it. You will have to register it with the Kennel Club first. Then you add this dogs name to the entry form and write NFC (Not For Competition). Even if you have an old dog that you intend to take with you, but never enter to work, you must register the dog with the Kennel Club to obtain a registered name and Kennel Club number.

Enter the number of the classes in the box provided, or the name of the classes, if there is no number. You can enter two classes, but you must enter the lowest class in the schedule for which you are eligible ... and one other. It is a good idea to order a catalogue for the show at this time if you are new to the sport. You will be able to collect this at the Secretary’s Tent on the morning of the show. Entries vary from about £2 to £3.50 per class. NFC (Not For Competition) dogs may be free or anything up to £1.00 per dog at larger shows. The catalogue will cost you an extra £1 or £2. Costs are clearly marked on the schedule, but watch for a special price for Club Members. This will not affect you unless you are a member of the society that is holding the show.

Don’t forget to put your name and address on the form, then sign and date it. Enclose your cheque and send it off to the Show Secretary well before the closing date. (You must allow for postal delays). Your entry will not be accepted if it arrives after the closing date, and will be returned to you. You can send a self-addressed post card with a stamp on for the secretary to sign and return to you to acknowledge receipt of your entry. This way you know that your entries were received. Entries do occasionally get lost; it has happened to most people at one time or another. There is nothing worse than getting up at the crack of dawn, driving a hundred miles, only to find when you get to the show, that your entries had not been received. You should explain the situation to the Show Secretary who will allow you to work but the Kennel Club will ask you to provide proof of posting if you win a prize.

It all depends where the show is held (inside or out), how much room there is and how much help the organisers expect to have on the day of the show, as to which classes, and how many, are held.

The three lowest classes, which concern us here, are ‘Pre-Beginners’, ‘Beginners’ and ‘Novice’. (I will explain these in more detail shortly). You will generally find that Pre-Beginners is the lowest class, in which case Beginners will be the next highest. If your dog will ‘Retrieve a Dumbbell’ (or any object or toy), enter these two classes if you want to. If Beginners is the lowest, you can enter this and the Novice Class. There is not a lot of difference between these two classes, except that in Novice you have to use a dumbbell for the retrieve, not a toy. Novice is the lowest class that experienced handlers, who have won out of Pre-Beginners and Beginners, can enter their new young dogs in. So you are up against stiffer competition.

Your training club will help you teach your dog to ‘Retrieve a Dumbbell’. Most handlers use these from the start of competition work nowadays, though the rules state that in Beginners you can use anything that is not injurious to the dog.

This class can only be held at Limit and Open Shows. The Kennel Club does not allow Championship Shows to include this class in their schedule. The basic format of this and the following classes is the same for whatever type of show at which they are staged.

You can give as much encouragement as you like in this class

At Limit Shows, stays are sometimes held in the same ring as the ring work. At Open and Championship shows you will have a separate ring purely for the stay exercises. Very often there will be two rings beside each other. One for the dog classes and one for the bitch classes. The sit and the down stay will be off the lead, and ‘Last Command’ means last command. The stays are timed and it is seldom for them to start late. So if your stays are down for 10.25am, that will be the time the Chief Stay Steward calls ‘last command’. So always get over to the stay ring well on time. Go into the ring when you are asked to, and find a spot somewhere around the edge. The lower classes can be quite large and the ring may be quite small, so do your best not to crowd the dog next to you. Don’t over excite your dog in the stay ring while you are waiting for them to start, this can upset the other dogs and handlers.

When everyone has found a place, a Stay Steward will ask you for your number and what breed of dog yours is. If you work a crossbreed, just say ‘Cross’. You don’t have to go into a lengthy history of what the sire or the dam was! This is purely for the Steward to identify your dog if there is a query later. But this need not concern us here. You can see now why you should get over to the stay ring in plenty of time. It can take up to five minutes to get all the dogs sorted out and the numbers down, especially if there are 50 or 60 dogs.

You can continue entering Pre-Beginners until you get a win in the class. But a first, second or third in a Beginner Class takes you out of Pre-Beginners too.

Limit Shows are sometimes limited to only one breed. If you work a German Shepherd Dog, and the show is limited to GSD’s, then you are in luck, you can enter. More commonly, Obedience Limit Shows are for any breed of dog, including crossbreeds (registered with the KC), but limited to the first 30 or 50 entries received in a class. Space and time is often at a premium for these small shows. Another good reason to get your entries in early.

You may come across an Open Show that is for only one breed of dog. (e.g. German Shepherd Dogs). In the technical sense, this means they are limited to one breed. They can be termed ‘open’, but they are not. Should you own the breed of dog that one of these shows is held for, you are free to enter. You enter, as always, the lowest class for which you are eligible and one other. You could skip a class, but I wouldn’t advise it while you are still new to the sport. If you are lucky enough to win a class, it doesn’t count at normal Open and Championship Shows that are open to all breeds. A small point that you may come up against, and worth remembering... Limit wins and places will count towards your eligibility for entry in some classes at Exemption Shows. All the more reason to keep a record.