# Question showing long haired GSD's



## tripleoption (Feb 15, 2016)

Today I showed my GSD in UKC conformation. He's long hair West German line, and I know long coat is a minor fault, at least it's supposed to be a minor fault. There was another dog in his category (1-2 years old) that he competed against. During our time in the ring, this other dog repeatedly growled at mine, barked twice at him, sat down several times, wouldn't let the owner show the bite and the judge had to open the jaws while the owner held him, and kept pulling his owner to try and sniff at my dog. When the owner tried to stack the dog, it wouldn't stay in position. There were a few other things I saw too but I'll leave it at that. It also had really bad rear duck feet, which I get is part of being a young dog, but mine doesn't have that.

My guy did a great job ignoring the other dog, and overall I thought did fairly well. He kept his attention on me, stayed in position, let me show the bite, and did what he's supposed to. The judge gave first place to the other dog. I strongly suspect it's because mine is a long coat.

So I'm wondering am I wasting my time doing UKC/AKC conformation? I've asked judges this question before and they always tell me to keep showing him, he's a great looking dog. Yet after today, I'm thinking I'm barking up the wrong tree (pun intended :wink2 and I should just work on other things. Watching this other dog was like watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion. I know it's not an obedience competition, but I've never seen a dog behave that badly in the ring, yet we came in second (or third, or last among however many dogs there are) again. 

On a side note, I've shown him in IABCA and he's done very well there. He's won two best in breeds and he's placed in group, and he has his national and international titles. But after today when it comes to UKC/AKC it seems like we could go up against a group of rampaging chimps in the ring and we'll still take last. Thanks for any advice or insight you guys can give me.


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## Mary Beth (Apr 17, 2010)

After what happened today, I can well understand how you musr feel but try not to let one judge's behavior discourage you when other judges have encouraged you. 

This thread has some more information:

http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...04050-showing-long-coat-akc-conformation.html


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## tripleoption (Feb 15, 2016)

Mary Beth said:


> After what happened today, I can well understand how you musr feel but try not to let one judge's behavior discourage you when other judges have encouraged you.


Thank you. I'll try not to get too discouraged, but after yesterday it's hard not to. We've got 100 points in UKC but no wins, and I was certain we'd get our first win yesterday. I'm fairly sure the other judge had decided since my dog was long coat the other dog would win no matter what. My wife told me she heard the other judge say something about the other dog having a short coat. 

What also frustrates me is other judges told me I was doing things in the ring that was affecting how my dog placed, and if I fixed those things we'd start getting some wins. He's also filled out and his rear feet have straightened out, and that was another thing they said once it happened then he should start getting wins. So, those things happen and we still finish last. On top of that not only did the other dog behave poorly, the owner didn't know how to show. On the down and back she was pulling hard on the dogs lead upwards and the dog was doing a prance that looked like an exaggerated attention heel. I always thought the point of the down and back was to see how the dog moved naturally.

When we left the ring my wife had a face like :| , and we had several other people walk up to us out of the blue and ask me what the judge was looking at, and one woman got pretty worked up over it. 

I know I'm probably still sour graping but 










I'll just have to get back on that horse and try again.


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## dogfaeries (Feb 22, 2010)

I’m getting ready to hop in my car to go show Scarlet this morning (AKC), but I’ll try later this evening to do a little write up on the UKC show I was at last weekend. Maybe it’ll make you feel better, or maybe not!


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## tripleoption (Feb 15, 2016)

dogfaeries said:


> I’m getting ready to hop in my car to go show Scarlet this morning (AKC), but I’ll try later this evening to do a little write up on the UKC show I was at last weekend. Maybe it’ll make you feel better, or maybe not!


Yes, I would be very interested to read what you experienced last weekend. Thank you. :thumbup:


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