# Assistantships?



## MyDogElwyn (Nov 27, 2010)

Hello all!

I am starting the search to find a handler that I could be an assistant to in the North Carolina/Virginia area.

I have been in touch with some extremely helpful people already and they are helping me find my way, but I thought I'd get on here and ask for your tips and advice with how one gets involved, gets into poodles, and finds opportunities with handlers! If anyone has done this, I'd love to hear your experience!


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

Where generally are/will you be located? There are several excellent handlers in the Triad area. There is also a good poodle club (Central Carolina Poodle Club) in the Charlotte/SC area that you might want to join.


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## MyDogElwyn (Nov 27, 2010)

Well, my exact location is still undecided. I am moving to the area in around 6 months. It may be the triad area or over in extreme southern Virginia. I know I am being super vague but I would use more details if I could! I'm probably too early in asking since I am not sure, but I'm just trying to get some information and start figuring out how this all works.

I will definitely try to join the club though! I've been looking into that already, it looks great!


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## Jacknic (Sep 14, 2010)

Have you shown dogs before? Most handlers are not going to pick up an unexperienced assistant. You are being a bit too vauge to give real advice. It would depend on your age and experieince. If you are not experienced you might look for a job as kennel help to start out as, if you are young--under 18, you need to be in junior handling. You might look to assist with a handler who shows breeds with much less grooming requirements, they would more likely take you on, but poodle handlers are rather picky about who they would want in their set up, it is very intense and breed specific. If you start with someone else at least you can learn how the shows work and what a handler needs from you before you throw the grooming asspect into it. You might start with akc.org, and look at the PHA (Professional Handlers Assc)page, you can find handlers according to state, check out their web pages. Sometimes they offer help wanted, but again you have to start at the beginng levels if you have no show experience. Remember this is their livelihood, you would not start out building a house with a carpenter if you never cut a piece of wood.


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## MyDogElwyn (Nov 27, 2010)

Hey there, yeah I can give more details. I'm 22 years old. I grew up with dogs, trained my first dog when I was really young, and then trained my miniature schnauzer when we adopted her when I was a girl through high school. I taught myself hand stripping and kept my girl in coat and learned clippering and scissoring. Then I learned the finer details and the tips and tricks from a great breeder who let me come visit one day, she taught me how to really get the dog ready for the ring.

I worked with my dog in obedience and took conformation classes in high school. I learned a lot about showing from my teacher then, but I have to be honest with you, I didn't get to show in the ring because....well...it can be hard to suck your entire family into showing at age 15!

I've been to many dog shows, I follow them now, I've been learning breed standards, learning how to calculate points, learning how it all works. I pop around infodog, dognews, all of that as much as I can. 

Basically, what I'm saying is, I'm no newbie to dogs, but I just haven't been able to get into the ring, haven't been able to really get involved so my experience has huge gaps that does, as you say Jacknic, kind of make me stuck between a rock and a hard place of helpful and useless. :/ 

I would be willing to work under an all breed handler or a handler with "easier" breeds...definitely! Anything to get me involved and started. The difficulty with grooming and intensity of the breed has really made me unsure...I have been considering other breeds as well, more specifically the lowchen. Its hard though, I really love poodles! I'm just seeing what my options are and what opportunities I can find. 

So there you have it, the whole story!


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## Jacknic (Sep 14, 2010)

Well that sounds good, so like I recommended, start with akc.org looking up PHA, you can find handlers according to state so should be easy, check out websites and make phone calls, go to as many shows as you can buy a catalog and follow certain handlers around, ( they are listed as agents on a dog). Plan to stay for Best in Show, most of the bigger handlers are still there and much easier time to talk to them and make contacts. It is not good to do this during show times becasue things are too busy, plus it will show your inexperince. But again, handlers have a protocol of "paying your dues" so expect to start on the bottom, but if you are a quick study you can move up fast--Good Luck.


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