Has anyone here trained their dog to stack/trot alongside them etc etc at home? Or even got to a couple of ringcraft lessons and then did the work themselves at home? Or has anyone actually entered a show without any prior ringcraft experience?

I don't currently drive and my OH has no interest in showing so the best I'll manage is a couple of lifts to a ringcraft class...won't be a weekly affair!

I've been working with the dogs at home and am clicker training them to stand etc but we don't live near any friends/family so I have no to go 'over' the dogs and my girl is quite flighty and i'm concerned that she really needs to get used to that...

It would be totally unreasonable to expect a dog to accept this if no prior training had been done, and in fact unreasonable to the judge.

You know that saying?

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

So, can you stand outside your local shop or where you walk your dog and ask other dog owners to help?

I agree. Both dogs are doing really well with their stack and waiting patiently etc. One dog is impeccable at trotting along and the other has just turned 2 and is a greyhound lol so does think when we move off that we should GALLOP!!!!!!

I live in a pretty rural area so rarely meet anyone on my walks and having my other half go over them doesn't really help that much because obviously they love him.

Unfortunately the only ringcraft class is on the only evening my OH works evenings so it'll be January before we can get to that once or twice!

It is possible to practise at home up to a certain extent.

For example, you can practise stacking your dog - if you have a full ength mirror, stack your dog in front of the mirror and then you can see what is happening on the side opposite to you - ie if you have the legs straight etc.

You can also practise running in a circle, and up and down, and a triangle - those are the usual movements a judge asks for, although I should check with someone like Freyja who owns and shows the breed to make sure greyhounds judges don't want something else. I would also do this when your OH can watch, so that you have help in judging the correct speed.

But what you can't practice, as you have already sussed, is your dog's reaction to being gone over by the judge, and also your dog's reaction to running around a ring with a lot of other "unknown" dogs.

Getting your dog used to being handled by a judge can be addressed by asking strangers to co over your dog whenever you meet them - be it on walks or when you go shoopping - but remember to make your dog stand in his show stance when you do so.

Getting your dog used to being with other dogs in a show ring cannot really be addressed except at ringcraft classes. Leon, my niece's puppy, was an absolute model of good behaviour when he was out for a walk - but when he started ringcraft clases he wanted to play with every dog there and would not concentrate on what he was supposed to be doing until the training began to kick in

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I do my stacking in the garden, but cant really do the running coz the garden is too small, lol! So I go out onto the path and run them up and down there - get some looks sometimes, but I dont care, lol! And if I am in a field, I will keep the lead on for a bit and run them there in circles and triangles - Rotties are not the best at cornering, lol lol!!

When training a youngster, I spend 5-10 mins a day with the stacking, no more than 10 mins in one go or I find they get bored and lose interest, which is the last thing you want to happen.

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O.K. I know I'm thick, and given all the years of training Gun Dogs I've put in perhaps I should know... But will someone please tell me what 'Stacking is??? And for what purpose it is used.???

I am no expert but I believe that "stacking" is the term used among showing folk for the show stance used in the show ring.

It depends on the breed - not all breeds are stacked - some are free standing - it's one concern about some ringcraft classes that they don't know which breeds are stacked and which are free standing

You can (and indeed should) train at home - however, your dog needs to be confident with judges going over them, capable of doing what they are asked irrespective of the potentially hundreds of other dogs around them and often in close proximity in a small ring - some dogs change completely when they walk in through the door of a show thinking all their christmas's have come at once

Labs often tend to be like that however well trained and socialised they are

For dogs, they may (rightly or wrongly) get the waft of girlies in season - so yes - training at home is important, but so is training outside.

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So could you explain what stacking is? How does it differ from free standing?

oh blimey - I have a free standing breed - but even within the free standers there may be different positioning - I was watching the staffies at a show last weekend and was interested to note they stand head on to the judge as opposed to sideways like most other breeds (stacked or otherwise)

I always tell one of my Labs she should have been a GSD the way she stands

Hopefully some of those with stacking breeds can elaborate - you know what is right when you are looking at it - but I've never shown a stacked breed so would be wrong of me to comment

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What you need to know before buying a Labrador puppy