# Fess up to your most embarassing moment in the ring



## cbrand (Aug 9, 2009)

I actually had a judge in Laramie say to me in the ring: "When you show your bitch like crap I can't evaluate her." After that I stuck to Obedience and pretty much let Laurel do the conformation handling for me.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

I remember when I was around 11 in Junior Showmanship. the judge asked me to gait my dog down and back and my toe caught the mat and I went flying, sprawled all over the place. I got up and was ready to bolt from the ring, and my Mom caught my eye, shook her head and told me to keep going. I brushed myself off and won, the judge saying it was BECAUSE I kept going.

You spoke about underwear in another thread and that actually did happen to my Mom. She was showing a big black male for a friend of hers, who at the time was the employer of Gisele Bursee at Highprofile Poodles. Merlin was a huge boy and it took everything Mom had in her to control him. She stopped after her down and back, and could feel the elastic in her underwear let go. When she got to her position along the edge of the ring, she could feel them slipping down. She quietly stepped out of them, put them in her pocket and kept on going and it was a banner day for Merlin and he took Winners Dog and BOB.


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## 4theLOVEofPOODLES (May 13, 2010)

I was pregnant and had terrible morning sickness...couldn't keep anything down the day of the show (probably due to the feeling of nervousness). Just before entering the ring I started feeling light headed but it was our turn in less than 60 sec. I was showing AOH and I don't remember exactly what happened but I tripped really bad but didn't comletely fall! I think I had temporarily started to black out! The judge was a very nice woman and completely understood when I told her I was pregnant. Horribly embarrasing though but I had to laugh afterwards. We still took Winners Bitch for a point but funny thing is....a friend of mine while prepping before the ring was saying that someone had fallen bad at a recent show and the judge had given them a point. She was joking about purposely falling in the ring next time to get a point for sympathy from the judge...and *I FELL*! LOLOLOL!!! Oh man good times!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I've not shown dogs (yet), but did once show a half-siamese kitten when I was about 13 - the offspring of my siamese. It was a local show, and we got a Highly Commended, and a rather strange sideways look and grin from the judge. I only realised why some months later when the friends who had adopted "him" phoned up to say "he" had just had kittens. I'd sexed a litter of females as a litter of males ... And yes, both cats got spayed soon after!


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

cbrand said:


> After that I stuck to Obedience and pretty much let Laurel do the conformation handling for me.


Hmmm...I'm not so sure that the Obedience ring is that much safer from the possibility of public humiliation. Especially given a poodle's tendency to suddenly get in touch with his Inner Circus Dog the moment you step into the ring... Given my dear goofball who is very much in touch with his ICD, I am sure it is just a matter of time. And I'm not even counting zoomies.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Feralpudel said:


> Especially given a poodle's tendency to suddenly get in touch with his Inner Circus Dog the moment you step into the ring...


The best Crufts Obedience Final I ever saw was the year a black toy poodle made it through to the last few. In he pranced, in his beautiful full Lion clip, and saw tier upon tier of faces smiling down at him ... and that was it! Talk about playing to the gallery. And then, just to complete it, the retrieval object was a mop head! Off went the poodle after the big shaggy white thing nearly the same size as he was, grabbed it, shot off around the ring, and then entered into the most joyous game of keep away I have ever seen. His owner (as I recall a very tall, very thin chap) ended up in fits of laughter, and I think the whole audience felt they both deserved a prize for sheer entertainment value!


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## WonderPup (Oct 26, 2008)

I was showing two tibbies at the same time as a Junior, neither were my Juniors dog (he was really obvious lol). Anyway they were brother and sister and looked very very similar. Only Ike was already a finished champion and Inch was just starting out. My mom was talking to me, in the way she does a lot of the time, getting all stressed out over who knows what now. She never showed the dogs, just stood ringside and made a big deal about everything. Anyway they called the tibs in, there were no class dogs, so bitches in first thing and I was busy making sure tails were brushed out and had these two dogs in hand and mom griping and the steward calling the ring and I just grabbed a dog and ran in for open bitch. Whew, I made it! Only problem was I made it in with IKE instead of Inch  I kneeled down to set the stack while the judge was getting ready and the other exhibitors were settling into their stacks and felt boy parts !!! OH ****! I snatched him up and ran out of the ring, grabbed inch and ran back in.... The judge meanwhile doubled over laughing and god help me was also the juniors judge that day  Nice... Oh well I won the points and breed and juniors so all's well that ends well I suppose.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

lol Wonder, while stewarding in a breed show just this year, I had an exhibitor I know come over to me, a couple of breeds before the lhasas were due in, she was beat-red and told me to scratch her lhasa... she'd bought the entirely wrong dog along that day! She had entered one dog, and prepped and bought along a different one (from over an hour away and a coated breed like a lhasa, there was no way she could have got him back in time!) hahaha. I've never let her live it down yet either, she generally comes by in the morning when I'm stewarding to tell me she's bought the right dog along today. LOL!

And yes, obedience isn't free of embarrassment. Nor is agility! This was an amusing weekend with a parading poodle in agility:





and the number of times in obedience when we pass within 12 feet of the steward or judge, Paris has to 'go say hi!' before continuing her heeling... Oh, and once on a recall, she got distracted *moments* before I called her to come, which threw her off so she ran half-sideways, zoomied around me twice, and bounced into heel (instead of a 'front/present' position). All to the laughter of the crowd watching. And, pouncing onto the dumbell is GREAT fun to make people giggle, and once people laugh, Paris turns into a total ham and is a force to be reckoned with to bring her back down again... as you can see on the agility video!!! *sigh*


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

OMG FD!!! That video is the BEST!!!! What a character your girl is. She has so much zest for life!


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

That dog is having so much fun, it's gorgeous to watch! Forget placing, it looks like a good time was had by all.


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## HOTW (Aug 31, 2010)

MUST NOT WATCH POODLE CRAZIES VIDEOS AT WORK!!.. custoemr just gave me th efunniest look heard me laughing outside the shop!!! That was WAY too funny!!!


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## 4theLOVEofPOODLES (May 13, 2010)

That was the BEST video EVER! Oh I laughed forever! She is so funny and so high spirited...that's so cute she went looking for you! Ha ha thanks for sharing!


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

I freaking love seeing them do that deer hop! It's the cutest thing EVER!


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## Chagall's mom (Jan 9, 2010)

*FD:* That was hilarious!!! I love how Paris loves life and how you love one another!! I laughed so hard watching it, it was much better than if she'd done perfectly. She's a character like no other.


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## Salukie (Dec 18, 2009)

Mouaahahaha! This thread is a hoot! :laugh: :lol: :rofl:


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## spoospirit (Mar 10, 2009)

_I just soooo love that video. Makes my heart to sing to see such a free spirit. I know, I know....doesn't do you much good in the ring! 

I haven't showed enough to have an embarrassing moment but I am sure my day(s) will come!! Maybe at Alfie's next show. I start handling classes with him next Sunday to get ready.
_


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## flufflvr (Mar 20, 2010)

OH geez FD, My eyes are watering I was laughing so hard. What a happy, happy girl! And I love the written commentary! She would seriously win the Funniest Home Videos contest. What a character!


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## Ixion (Jun 23, 2010)

LOL I love these! And the video OMG I can so see Ella doing something like that LOL!! I've only taken my afghans in the ring and for the most part it's been pretty low key other then showing a very stubborn brindle bitch who as a young dog decided showing wasn't her thing (and somehow she finished and has has a speciality major ). She was good at embarrassing me, in fact, I pulled her from the ring at 18 months old for over a year after doing the gagging, my life is over routine. Now I have witnessed some funny things tho, one of my favorites was me and a friend drove from AZ up to Denver for a specialty and we both had bitches in the open class. My bitch was having a blast jumping mud puddles (somehow we still got 2nd out of a huge open class, LOL) and when my friend went around the ring, her lead broke, but the bitch didn't care she went right along with her owner around the ring and stopped in front of the judge. It was the funniest thing to watch! I've also watched skirt mishaps......probably the main reason I rarely wear skirts to shows.....especially after going to one show about 45 min from me (no wind at home) to being close to a Marilyn Monroe scene as soon as I got out of my car....people were laughing at me as I walked to the building with a folded crate in one hand, tote bag over the shoulder with grooming stuff and an afghan......and somehow still holding my skirt, LOL!


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## WonderPup (Oct 26, 2008)

LoL, FD that was GREAT. I'm speechless. 

Sort of reminds me of the time some "wonderful" people parked their butts ring side of the obedience ring (at the nationals no less) with bitches in season IN THEIR LAPS!! What idiots.... well that's putting it nicely actually, they knew full well what they were doing and that EVERY dog competing in the novice class, which that year was the only class haha (hey tibbies aren't known for being super obedience competitors K  That what we got Saleen for ) was an intact male. They weren't having nearly as much fun as Paris but it would be going well for a minute and then you would see them turn their head and their little noses would start going and randomly a dog would just wander off mid heeling pattern or totally blank out ont he recall and just sit there tounge out day dreaming about welll... nevermind what haha. Nobody qualified. It was almost funny... almost. When we got to the long sits and downs the almost dog fight was decidedly NOT amusing at all. To this day I cannot understand WHY these people did what they did or WHY they weren't made to move. I don't mind training for distractions and proofing behaviors and such but a bitch in heat... come on... Even for the most well trained stud dog that is a bit much. Actually it was the very last time I showed in Novice obedience. I remember coming out of the ring so stressed out I cried, I think I was 17 at the time?? I had worked so hard and it was such a disaster. Not Howie or my fault, but still. It was super stressful and mortifying too to have him do so poorly at a trial when he had been doing well. I did on lead pre-novice for practice but the almost fight scared me so much that I have refused to take Howie or any other small breed dog back into the real obedience ring. What if that had been a multi breed ring like at an all breed show and the almost fight became a real fight tibbie VS a larger breed like a GSD or golden or something. That thought just scares me. The damage could be done by the time you could cross the ring and try and intervene. 
 We'll stick with Rally and maybe Agility in the future perhaps haha. I would rather have a run like with Paris than a scare


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

WonderPup said:


> LoL, FD that was GREAT. I'm speechless.
> 
> Sort of reminds me of the time some "wonderful" people parked their butts ring side of the obedience ring (at the nationals no less) with bitches in season IN THEIR LAPS!!
> 
> I did on lead pre-novice for practice but the almost fight scared me so much that I have refused to take Howie or any other small breed dog back into the real obedience ring.


Wonderpup, one approach is to only enter obedience trials held by obedience clubs. Some all breed shows also have Obedience in separate building. 

Stays are an ongoing topic of conversation/worry, especially for folks with small breeds. But I don't think that is just an issue of intact boys spoiling for a fight. I was at a trial where the scary dog in the lineup was a bitch.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

Yup, in-season girls aren't allowed at obedience trials here (breed shows, sure, but not obedience/rally/agility trials!) and IMO agility has more hyped up off lead dogs than obedience!!! hahaha


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