I've been wanting to get into conformation for a while, and I made a post a few months ago about an opportunity I had to get an already established champion dalmatian. To update you all on that, I did end up getting her! She's been with me for nearly three months now, and it has been such an incredible experience. I love her so much, and our trust and communication keeps getting better and better.

We visited her breeder last week, who gave me some pointers on handling dalmatians in the ring. There is a show in about three weeks that I'm aiming to be our first one. My dog might be a champion, but I have no experience at all, so it is an ambitious goal. And she hasn't been in the ring since April, so she needs a refresher as well. I'm trying to go to as many drop-in conformation classes as possible leading up to it, and yesterday was our first one! It was a different experience being the one in the ring as opposed to spectating, and it made me realize many questions that I wouldn't have even thought to ask before.

• When you are in line waiting for the exam, is there certain etiquette I should be aware of? Does your dog need to be attentive the whole time?
• I wasn't sure what to do with the lead during the exam. I felt like I was juggling bait, stacking her, the lead, showing her bite, all at once.
• When your dog is being examined, do you ever speak with the judge? Do they ever speak to you?
• Where do people carry their bait?
• Does the show lead need to be high up by their ears the whole time? What about when you are waiting in line to be examined?
• Oh my gosh, I felt so awkward running around the ring to show her gait. The instructor told me I was trying too hard, that I need to relax and take longer strides. How do I make this feel less awkward? Also, what do I do with my hands, specifically the one not holding the lead?
• When we are trotting, I feel like I didn't have much control over our path and we drifted to the right a bit. How do I control our direction better?
• How do you know if you are over-adjusting your dog when setting them in a stack?
• What paths might the judge have you take? The instructor had us do down-and-back, diagonal, and around the ring. Are there any others?
• If you mess up at all, how do you handle that situation?

I'm sure I will have many more questions after my next class. I would love to hear more general advice for the little things that might not seem obvious to newbies. I feel like there are lots of little things and bits of etiquette that I don't even know I don't know. I feel like my dog did great during practice, and all the little "mistakes" she made were handler errors or me not communicating what I wanted properly. I appreciate her patience with me lol.