# Luna's First UKC Conformation Show



## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Here are videos of us in the ring. There are a lot so no need to watch them all unless you are really interested in seeing everything that went on. The judge examinations happen in the puppy bitch class videos so those ones are generally a little longer.

Day 1
Puppy Bitches Class (The only video I have from day one unfortunately.)
https://youtu.be/ByAKlFROwSQ

Day 2 Show 1
Bitch puppy: 



Winners Bitch:




Best of winners/best of breed:




Gundog Group:




Best In Show:





Day 2 Show 2
Bitch Puppy:




Winners Bitch:




Best of winners/best of breed:




Gundog group (got cut short):


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

A few pictures of our show experience.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

OMG! I AM SOOOO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!! What a fabulous thing to happen with your first steps into showing!!! I really am just tickled pink for you!!!! Luna looks beautiful and you look like a teenager! LOL! So YOUNG!!!! Just adorable!


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## scooterscout99 (Dec 3, 2015)

Congratulations!


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## Vita (Sep 23, 2017)

This is an exemplary thread on the inside view on showing, and my first in reading about a UKC dog show and being able to see them. My previous impression from what I've read elsewhere was the UKC was inferior to AKC. Casual seems like a better word, and they sure do look like fun. I watched read you post thoroughly and watched each of the videos. 

I noticed learned two things about the way you handled Luna in the ring. For starters, you were graceful the way you ran; I think it's something about how one of your arms moved in a natural way while your other hand held the leash. 

In the _Luna UKC best in show ring 6/23/18_ video, you did what none of the others did as you awaited the judge's decision. You stood up while 3 of the 4 entrants crouched down to keep their dogs still; the 4th lady stood but didn't have 100% of her dog to pose. What you did was hold out your right arm and hand in front of Luna which she focused on. This looks like you trained her to do this, and if so, what is the word command you used for it?

​
A little earlier in that video, Luna got distracted when the judge went to touch her; she was so cute wagging her tail but oh you must have been a little panicky inside. You handled it so well despite the Luna wanted to get social with the judge. It looked like you took out a tiny treat in your pocket to get her back on track, which makes me wonder if you kept her a little hungry when the show started. 

You and Luna did so well and both of you looked beautiful. Thank you for sharing and congratulations.


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Mollymuima lol! Your post really made me laugh, especially when you were nice enough to say that I looked like a teenager hahaha. I am quickly approaching my 30th birthday so that is a really sweet complement. Thank you for the congratulations! Your support means a lot!

Scooterscout, thank you!!!

Vita, I appreciate your insight. Yes, casual is a great word to describe UKC shows. Now I would still recommend that unless the club is doing a themed show and encouraging participation that you dress nicely for UKC. Some people show in jeans, and that is fine in UKC, but I feel that it shows a little more respect for the judge and your dog if you dress up a bit. If I had not been wearing hawaiian garb, I probably would have dressed in the same suits that I wear for AKC shows. Or at least Sunday best attire.

It is also very sweet of you to say that I was graceful when I ran because that is one huge thing that I need to work on. I need to lengthen my stride and make it more even and less bouncy. Since I hadn't been practicing that myself for awhile, I felt very self conscious about it at the show. Ideally the handler will just float along, unnoticed, next to the dog. I have had two ankle surgeries on one side and I just have a really hard time running very well ever since then.

About the standing to stack Luna, you are right - this does take training! It also has to do with the size of the dog. Notice that the handlers who were leaning over or crouched down were with smaller dogs mainly. It is easier to hand stack a smaller dog from a lower position. It is also easier to keep control of the dog. Now as you can see, I still don't have 100% control over Luna. However, I was hoping to use this show as "practice" so that I can start standing for stacking in AKC shows. It looks so much better (to me anyways) when the handler is standing, and especially if they can stand slightly back away from the dog and the dog can just present itself beautifully. Plus I had a dress on, so no way was I going to crouch down lol!

You are also correct that I trained Luna to stack and focus on my finger out in front. I did not actually train this to a verbal command, rather just the visual of my finger out in front. She knows to focus on my finger when I put it out like that. The dress that I was wearing had no pockets, so for 90% of the times that we went in the ring I used no bait. I did use some bait in the best in show ring, and a few times with the 3rd judge since I wanted her head to be held higher. I just held it in my hand and left her bit off a small bit each time I treated her. (and yes, I do keep her a little hungry so that she is interested in the bait!) 

To train her to focus on my finger in the ring, I followed the Puppy Culture showing videos. I love her training methods. PM me if you want some more info about the show bundle that I bought. We are actually still working on it, and still have a ways to go, as you can see. Luna is funny in the ring, and she is still a puppy so she gets distracted easily. She also loves all of the judges. Which is overall a good thing. Much better than a dog who is scared of the judges. But we still need to work quite a bit on focus. We have a local AKC club and before our first AKC show, for about a month, many of us would get together at a park and have our own little "practice" sessions. We would each take turns being the judge so the dogs could get used to being gone over by many people. We practiced 2-3 times a week and all of the dogs made huge improvements. I hope to start practicing again in a group when the weather cools down a little.


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## Vita (Sep 23, 2017)

This was very interesting. The link to Puppy Culture wouldn't open, maybe b/c you were signed into your account is my guess, but I googled and here's the page for the videos. 

These are paid videos, but when I clicked on one to see a synopsis like this one, Killer Free Stacks, *it had short free videos*. They do indeed look very instructive, thanks!

https://shoppuppyculture.com/pages/my-video-library


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I am so glad you had such a grand time at UKC. It looks like it will be a great way to keep ring savvy for when (or maybe if) you have AKC shows nearby.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Wow, you and Luna had an amazing and successful competition. Congratulations.

I think you were so wise to compete - what a great way to build your confidence and experience in a showing Luna.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Thank you so much for posting Luna's UKC activity, and mucho congratulations to you both for your wins!


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

Great work, both of you! I’m sure Luna enjoyed the shorter prep time too [emoji4]


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## spindledreams (Aug 7, 2012)

Our show is large enough that we have at least 2 rings going at a time. We normally hire 3 or 4 judges for the weekend as that allows an owner to meet the 3 judge requirement to earn a championship title. From the UKC show rules


> Championship points are awarded in accordance
> with the Point Schedule found elsewhere
> in this rulebook. To earn a UKC Champion title, a
> dog must
> ...


Unlike the common misconception in many AKC circles not that many dogs actually finish their title in only one weekend. And when they do what most AKC folks forget is that there are often FIVE shows in a show weekend so it is more of a small cluster then just a single show. FYI I am aware of more then one dog who finished their title in a single AKC 5 show cluster... But yes CH is fairly easy to get in UKC since competition wins can come from the group which helps rare breeds. 
Grand is much harder as until next year you could only earn points IN YOUR BREED. So you needed to beat 2 Champions or Grand champion poodles FIVE times for your poodle to earn the Grand title. That will change next year as will how points for your CH title are counted. 
There are some other big changes coming in the new year. We will be able to legitimately use some brushing sprays. There will be tiers of Grand Champion, how you earn the Grand title will change allowing wins from the group ring to count towards you Grand points BUT some levels include the requirement for a BIS

Really glad you had a great experience at your first UKC show. Sounds like it may not be your last if one is near you.


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Thank you so much for all of your kind words Lily cd re, Skylar, Johanna, Muggles, and Spindledreams!! You are all so sweet. I agree that we were very lucky to Champion in just 3 shows, especially with the amount of competition there. There were some nice dogs there, some groomed much better than Luna. So we were lucky and very happy with our wins. I finally received the official win photo. Thank you judge Karen Whyte for our RBIS win! It was a great honor!


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Meant to add my congratulations this morning after I watched the videos. Never to late to say, well done Team Luna!!! I loved your look, pretty dress that moved well and a great backdrop color for Luna. Brave of you to wear flip flops and pull off a nice stride. I would be afraid of wiping out Luna’s stack was very impressive, her judge flirting was adorable. Won me over.

I don’t understand why standards and mini’s end up in the AKC mashup of Non-sporting Group. UKC putting them in a gun dog category makes more sense, to me. Glad you had fun, finished Luna in one weekend and got more handling confidence.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

I so agree that poodles should be in gundogs. After having had working springer spaniels, I was hoping that Asta would take the field with me and retrieve. (No such luck - at least he doesn't shy at gunshots-LOL) Luna's wins and the videos were fantastic. That is some beautiful babe you got there. Congratulations on the championship.


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

THANK you so much mfmst and Astas mom!! You are both just too sweet! I agree that spoos are more correctly placed in the UKC gundog group. I believe that the AKC has poodles in the non sporting group more for political reasons than anything else. The sporting group is has a lot of high entry breeds (think Golden’s, labs, cockers) and standard poodles are one of the highest entries in non sporting. I definitely agree that they should be in sporting but also don’t mind that we don’t have to compete with some of those sporting dogs at the group level in AKC (not that I foresee us ever making it to groups lol!)


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Standards (and minis) are definitely working water retrievers and should be in the sporting group in AKC, but they will never move there. The sporting group is too big and has lots of very popular breeds as chinchillafuzzy points out. I actually had heard at some point that there was the potential for splitting the sporting group into pointers and retrievers to deal with the huge numbers.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

To put poodles in Non-Sporting is like a slap in the breed face. Toys can be our stealth athletes in the Toy Group  Hunters and Retrievers makes sense. I notice the female judge in chinchillafuzzy’s show only seemed to have eyes for the poodles.


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Mfmst I think she really just loves how much Luna loved her lol! When we took the win picture I asked her about her breeds and she has Dalmatians and dachshunds! Maybe it helped that she probably sees a lot of poodles since they compete in the non sporting group with the dals ? My breeder said that it was really nice of her to recognize Luna so highly even though her own breeds are quite different than poodles.


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## JenandSage (Mar 9, 2018)

Congratulations to you and Luna. The official photo is beautiful and you look so happy. 
I should say I knew nothing about showing because now I do! I have been following your thread and after reading about your adventures I have learned a lot. I still don’t understand all of the terminology but I really appreciate the work and dedication involved. In my youth I was really involved in dance so I appreciate the aesthetics of lines and movement and I agree with everyone that you looked great showing the beautiful Luna. I also get the beauty of spoos in their show cuts and how they move 
It’s so neat to learn something new. I can’t wait to hear and see more. 
JenandSage


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Thank You Jenandsage for your sweet comment! I am so glad that I have been able to help you learn a bit more about showing through our experiences. Hopefully within the next several months I will have some new AKC show posts to put up ?


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