Check the time that judging starts. Leave home early to allow for getting lost!

Make sure you get to the show early so that you have time to exercise your dog and find the loos and your ring. Remember to always have a plastic bag in your pocket so that you can clean up after your dog. This is very important. Kennel Club regulations require that you clean up after your dog where ever he ‘goes’, and on or around a show ground is doubly important. Many show venues are lost through inconsiderate people leaving their dogs’ mess behind. If you stay late at a show, you will notice ‘helpers’ walking around the whole ground, checking and clearing any ‘pooh’ left. It’s one thing clearing up after your own dog ... it’s quite another matter, having to clear other peoples dog mess.

You have to ‘Book In’, as it is called. If you don’t have a running order, you have up to one hour from the start of judging. So if judging starts at 9.00am, you have until 10.00am to book in. I would never leave it that late, in case your watch was slow. You won’t be able to argue with the judge… no one will back you up. If the Judge and the Show Manager say you were too late, then you were too late. That’s that! I hate to mention some of the less pleasant sides to the sport, but it is as well to know these small things early on. Should you have broken down on your way to the show, had a flat tyre, or some unmanageable UFO land on the bonnet of your car, you may get away with the excuse, but don’t bank on it!

If you have arrived early enough… find the loos… have a coffee… talk to someone. You can buy a catalogue if you didn’t order one with your entries, but they may not have a spare one. Assuming that you have ordered one, find your name and number in the alphabetical listing, then look under the classes. Often there is more than one part of the same class, and the classes may also be split into ‘Dog Classes’ and ‘Bitch Classes’. If this is the case, generally you will find that the dog rings are on one side and the bitch rings on the other, with a wide walkway between.

Find your number and your dogs’ name in the catalogue, then check your classes entered and find your rings. There may be what is termed a ‘Ring Plan’ somewhere near the Secretary’s Tent. Look at it to find where your rings are situated on the show ground.

It can be a little confusing. You have to work out where you are in relation to the plan. That’s not easy sometimes. The other alternative is just wander about from ring to ring to find where your are. If 60 or more dogs are entered in any one class, the class is split evenly between judges. Each ring should be marked. The name of the judge may be on the sign too. It will be on the large score sheet placed on the table.

The first time you arrive at a large show, it will look as if you have to negotiate a maze. In fact, it’s rather like that at every show. Finding you rings never gets any easier; they are always the far end of the show ground to where you are standing! One tip here… you can eliminate stopping at any rings that might have some coloured markers in a corner. These are called Sendaway boxes. You won’t come across these in the classes you work for quite a while yet.

Each ring has an entrance. Try not to mistake this for a walkway. It’s just not done to take a short cut through a ring, even the one you may be entered in. When you come to work your dog, always go in and out through the entrance.

You should find your ring number on the table of the lowest class that you entered. A few shows require you to join a queue at a tent or in a hall to get your ring number. Don’t forget to tick your number off on the list at your ringside. The Score Steward will do this for you if he is at the table.

Now pin your number to your top garment. Kennel Club regulations require you to wear it when you are competing and you don’t want to lose it. If, by a bit of bad luck, you can’t find your number and it isn’t at your other ring either, find a bit of card or paper and write your number on it. There is no need to bother a Show Secretary about your problem at this time of day. He or she will have far more worrying troubles to contend with. There will be judges to welcome and sorting out muddled entry forms where dogs may have been put into bitch classes and bitches into dog classes. It happens at every show!

On your ringside table there is another sheet of paper often placed beside the list of dogs in the class. This sheet is numbered 10 to anything up to 60. This is so handlers can place the number of their dog down to give the judge an indication of where they would like to work. You can roughly estimate that the judge will get through 10 to 12 dogs each hour. The reason it might start at ten is because the first ten dogs will have a pre-determined running order.

At Open and Championship Shows, running orders are sent to ten handlers through the post, so that the judge has some dogs with which to start the days’ judging. (Limit shows sometimes only place six dogs in the running order, if the class is limited to only 25 or 30 dogs). This has come about as people never seem to want to rush into the ring, and a judge can stand around twiddling his pencil while handlers stand around chatting or drinking coffee, or generally trying to motivate themselves after what has often been an early start from home. If the judge has 50 or 60 dogs to get through, he wants to get home before darkness sets in, as do most of the handlers.

If you have a running order, be ready to work when you are required. Be prepared for absentees. Your running order may be number 8 in the ring. But numbers 1, 2, 5 and 7 may not arrive, so you will be fourth in the ring. You may have expected to work about three-quarters of an hour after judging started… instead you find you are needed within a quarter of an hour!

This seems like a good time to mention that you must never take a bitch on heat to an Obedience show. You can’t ask for your money back either. It’s just the luck of the draw. As you get to know your bitches’ cycle, you can avoid entering her during the three weeks that you expect her to be on heat.

If you don’t have a running order, you should always double check, as often the post gets lost. (This won’t be an acceptable excuse if you miss your turn). When you put your number down at the ring to work sometime later in the day, say fifteenth. Generally you will not be held to it, but the attitude to this varies around the country and with some judges. Check with your Score Steward, he will tell you if your judge expects you to work fifteenth, if that is where you put your number down.

Never write on the main score sheet unless you are asked to. Leave that to the Score Steward. Write down where you want to work on the separate sheet placed beside the list of dogs entered in the class if there is one. Anyone else who is at the table booking in will be happy to show you what to do. Just ask.

Your next concern must be the time of your stays. At Open and Championship Shows these will always be in a separate ring set aside for all the stays to be held in strict order. Small Limit shows may hold them in the same ring you worked in. The first set of stays start one hour after the start of judging, but these may not be yours. If they are yours and you are late, you have no chance of doing them later.

Written on the top of the score sheet at your ring will be your stay times ... and the time that your judge goes to lunch. Don’t muddle them up! There is many a stay missed by writing down the wrong time! There may be a list of stay times somewhere near the Secretary’s tent, and often, by the stay rings. Note that frequently there are two stay rings next to each other. One ring is for dogs and the other is for bitches. You should be able to find the stay times in the catalogue, if you have one and on the ringside score sheet. Write the stay time on your ring number.

Pre-Beginner and Beginner stays are often held early. Check the times of both your stays if you have entered two classes. Stays take priority over the ring work, so if you have a 10 o’clock stay with one class and are due into your other ring to work at the same time, tell this judge; he will let you work later.