# How do you prepare your dog for shows?



## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

I have a young dobermann he is rusk and tan, took him to a few shows since he was old enough but he never look as smart as the other dobes. [so far he's got two 3rds and one fifth] I always find that black and tan dobes have shinier and denser coat than him. i rarely groom him as he got such short coat but i bath him before the show to make him cleaner to touch. is there anything that people do to make their dogs look pretty before showing? or it is a secret that no one shares??...


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## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

With my Lab girl the only thing I need to do is trim the untidy hairs at the end of her tail, other than that, I never bath her, she has a shiny coat in any case. 

With my other girl, who's a flatcoated retriever, I trim her ears, tail and feet, which can get a bit fluffy, so it's easier for the judge to see the shape, size and set when looking at them from a distance. Other than that, I just strip dead coat out, and give them a good going over with a grooming mit. I don't shampoo, as I don't believe in stripping their natural oils (and any badger poo they may have rolled in) out.


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## Tigerneko (Jan 2, 2009)

How soon before the show do you bath your dog?

I have a Manchester Terrier which is very similar in coat & markings to the Dobe, we used to bath ours the day/night before a show but were told not to, now if we feel she needs a bath, we'll do it 2 or 3 days before the show but the vast majority of the time we don't do anything.

Have you tried going over your dogs coat with baby wipes? I don't know if it'll work on a rust and tan but certainly with black and tans, a quick wipe over with a baby wipe and they look gleaming  do it just before you go in the ring and it should make the coat look nice and shiny! Although as I say, I don't know how well that will work with rust and tan!


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

He gets his bath in the morning before the show coz one walk he'll get dirty, he like to rub his neck and face on the grass and some times in smelly stuffs. I do use baby wipes but not for that reasons (didnt know it works that way), he gets dandruffy around his neck when he's on his show lead, found the wipes get rid of dandruffs quite well.

It might sound weird, but does people oil their dog's coat? I have seen some black n tan dobies that are SO shinny under the sun and i couldnt believe it, they looked fantastic tho.


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## Sleeping_Lion (Mar 19, 2009)

Diet can play a big part, what sort of food is he on? 

Mine are raw fed so get a lot of natural oils, the two I show are in my siggy pic, they all have nice shiny coats. 

Re the scurfy neck thing, don't put his show lead on too soon if he pulls into if, that's what I find tends to lift any dead skin to the surface, leave a nice wide soft collar on him until the last minute.


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## BessieDog (May 16, 2012)

I have an Irish Setter who gets bathed the day before every show as otherwise her feathers don't look so nice. I bathe the evening before the show otherwise she'd get filthy on her walks!

I do think diet is a very big part of it. Bess is raw fed, and has a particularly shiny coat.

What shampoo do you use? As Bess gets bathed so often I use good grooming products. Have a look at this site Plush Puppy UK - Grooming products for show dogs if you search it you'll find a list of recommended products for your breed.


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

He has been on a few different types of food, at the moment he is on skinners. He was on raw with the breeder and i carried on till he was 5/6 months then switched to skinners puppy dry...then JWB large breed....then TOTW...now back on skinners. he didnt like the JWB but loved the TOTW, it was too expensive after a while tho. I think he's doing well on skinners at the moment. 

I use this aloe vera thing on him that i bought from a show once.. its designed for human as face wash but they say you can use it on dogs as well..so i went for it.


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

Got any pics of your boy? 

To start off with, I would definitely *not* be bathing him before the show. Dobermanns dont need bathing (unless theyve rolled in something!) it just strips the natural oils out of their coat. I think I have bathed my boy about 2 or 3 times in his hold life. I just use baby wipes to clear out the dead hair before we go in the ring. Dobermanns should not have a soft coat, it should be short, hard and thick.

A black coat is much easier to keep in show condition than a brown coat. Brown coats are largely down to genetics, if the parents had good brown coats then the progeny are more likely to have good coats too.

Here's my black boys coat:





I feed a lot of oily sardines, I dont put anything on the coat.

Browns are prone to getting sun bleached, so if you're going to be standing out in the sun a lot, I would recommend looking at one of the various sun reflective or cooling coats you can get.

If his coat is thin or very coarse in areas, you might want to get his thyroid checked. Hypothyroidism in Dobermanns is extremely common.

I think one of the most important aspects of grooming a Dobermann is the nails. I hate seing long nails! Dobermanns have beautiful feet; compact, arched and cat-like, and short nails make the foot look 100% better. Long nails can also interfere with gait. They should be well clear of the floor, and ideally as short as you can get them 



Best of luck in the ring!


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

Just to add, a lot of Dobes when they first start showing get stress dandruff on their neck around their collar, and once they've gained their confidence this goes away


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## dexter (Nov 29, 2008)

vividobie said:


> I have a young dobermann he is rusk and tan, took him to a few shows since he was old enough but he never look as smart as the other dobes. [so far he's got two 3rds and one fifth] I always find that black and tan dobes have shinier and denser coat than him. i rarely groom him as he got such short coat but i bath him before the show to make him cleaner to touch. is there anything that people do to make their dogs look pretty before showing? or it is a secret that no one shares??...


nails,feet and hocks trimmed and then washed and plenty of hard craft grooming! . do Dobermann people still use velvet and surgical spirit on dogs coat?


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

wow your boys are so glossy, love it  how do you get the nails so neat? mine has got rather long nails compare to yours, they dig right in when he climbs to sit on me lol. i've got a lot of pictures of him but i don't know how to put them on here. 
i mentioned about his coat when we visited the vet last time but the vet didnt comment much about it, just said they are not the hairiest of breed. Hypothyroid did cross my mind but since he is so young and not showing any other signs like drinking more/lethargic/weight gain I didnt have him tested. 
I'll try the oily sardine on him, every one is talking about natural oil in the diet so i'll definitely have a go


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

My boy Rupert has always been skinny and he was diagnosed hypothyroid at 14 months, he had no physical signs like weight loss or hair loss. So might just be worth a try 

You can upload pictures if you google imageshack and upload them there, it will give you a code to copy and paste here.

I wrote a quick guide here might help with the nails http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-chat/288304-guide-cutting-black-nails.html


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

Thanks for the links, both are very useful =) but gosh thats young for hypothyroid...you have me worried now.... does the treatment make a difference for Rupert tho he didnt show any other signs?

here, if it works, photos of Juniper


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

Oh wow, check him out handsome chap!!!  I love his mushy face in the second pic- LOL! His coat doesn't look bad in the pics. 

Unfortunatley hypothyroidism is a big problem in dobes as I'm sure you know, lots of dobes are being diagnosed younger and younger. I think this is because people are now testing younger, whereas in the past people always looked at it as something which only really affects older dogs. My Ruperts is autoimmune hypothyroid, which can be found as young as 12 months in some cases. I had him tested as I saw a rapid and unusual behaviour change which I initially put down to 'dobeteens' but wanted to rule it out. Vets were initially reluctant to test him, as he was skinny with a good coat. What they didn't understand was that traditional symptoms of hypothyroidism only tend to show once 70% of the thyroid gland has been distroyed in autoimmune hypothyroidism. 

I shouldn't really say hypothyroidism is a big problem in Dobermanns, I should say a frequent one. Really, it is very cheap and easy to medicate and manage. Once correctly medicated, all symptoms should disappear. Give me hypothyroidism over DCM any day of the week!

I would personally try the other things first, and if you do have any concerns about his coat I would just pop a test off to the lab just to make sure  I sent mind to Dr.Dodds (who is a specialist, google 'hemopet' if interested) as it costs about £60 plus the cost of blood. I didn't mean to worry you, just thought is mention it as an idea  I hope I havnt bored you to death with my essay!!


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

Oh no I found it very entertaining I must say  I think since I got him I've turned slightly dobie-mad... get really excited when I see a new dobe in town, and its nice to talk to people who also have dobermanns. 
What behaviour change did you see in Rupert?? Since it got warmer Juniper has been quieter than usual at home, he still runs like a luni outside tho. I dont know whether it is the heat or he's getting more mature or what.... 

his coat doesnt look too bad when its at the front but if you look at him from the side or from behind you will see thru to his skin, not like he's bald, just ever so slightly thinner than the other dobies I have seen. so i'm not sure if that's normal or not, as i said the vet didnt pick up on that, its not obvious unless you look for it?..i think thats the best way to describe it.


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

vividobie said:


> Oh no I found it very entertaining I must say  I think since I got him I've turned slightly dobie-mad... get really excited when I see a new dobe in town, and its nice to talk to people who also have dobermanns.
> What behaviour change did you see in Rupert?? Since it got warmer Juniper has been quieter than usual at home, he still runs like a luni outside tho. I dont know whether it is the heat or he's getting more mature or what....
> 
> his coat doesnt look too bad when its at the front but if you look at him from the side or from behind you will see thru to his skin, not like he's bald, just ever so slightly thinner than the other dobies I have seen. so i'm not sure if that's normal or not, as i said the vet didnt pick up on that, its not obvious unless you look for it?..i think thats the best way to describe it.


Could you take a pic to post? Has it always been a bit thinner, or just recently?

With Ruperts behaviour change, it was really quite subtle but he just didn't seem quite 'right'. His attention span suddenly went from pretty good to really bad, he became quite reluctant to get up and do things like he did before, he would stare into space and just look kind of depressed and slightly on the nervous side. Some dogs when left can get aggressive, he wasnt at all bit I did catch it very early.

He would also really feel the cold, we would be in shorts and t.shirt and he would be shivering in his fleece!

If you're interested in thyroid dysfunction, Dr. Jean Dodds has written some really interesting papers and things if you google her name. A lot of vets in the UK don't really understand how to correctly assess thyroid panels, how to medicate ect. They can be a little behind the times sometimes, I certainly had a time trying to get Rupert medicated since he was borderline low/normal, with no traditional signs. My argument was that I didn't want it to get worse, so I wanted to regulate it before the gland was distroyed and I did see classic symptoms  In the beginning, we tried medication to get him into the upper 50% of the 'normal' thyroid results, and I definitely noticed the difference so we kept it up. We have out 2nd recheck soon


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

vividobie said:


> Oh no I found it very entertaining I must say  I think since I got him I've turned slightly dobie-mad... get really excited when I see a new dobe in town, and its nice to talk to people who also have dobermanns.


Ahaha, yes they do that to you! 

In my experience...if something doesn't feel right, then it's probably not. You know you do best and when something's not 'right'.


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

its been very gradually thinning, it sort of reached a steady state now i think...its not getting worse than the photo. you can see through to his skin along his back... which i didnt see a few months ago. its been going on for few months, some days it doesnt look obvious at all somedays i wake up and thats the first thing i notice.


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

vividobie said:


> its been very gradually thinning, it sort of reached a steady state now i think...its not getting worse than the photo. you can see through to his skin along his back... which i didnt see a few months ago. its been going on for few months, some days it doesnt look obvious at all somedays i wake up and thats the first thing i notice.


Hmm, well there are a few things which can cause hairloss like that. Sometimes browns just do have thinner hair on them especially at this time of the year when the weather is changing, but along the back like that...points to something else in my opinion. Were either of his parents brown, and what were their coats like?

Does he itch/chew his feet ect? Are there any bumps? Sometimes allergies to certain foods, or things like dustmites can cause hairloss like that.

Parasites can cause hairloss like that...bacterial infections...follicillitus...And the vet didnt seem concerned at all when you pointed it out?

What do you feed? I think if it were me, I would probably switch to a grain free diet if you dont already feed grainfree, with some added sardines. Or RAW.

Hair regrowth takes a loonnng time, but if there wasnt any sign of improvement in the coat quality after about 6 weeks, I would go for a thyroid test. If the thyroid test came back normal, then I would look into allergy testing...I would try the food as the first port of call however.

If you post this in the 'health' section, some others might have some suggestions too.

Keep me updated please!


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

he is on skinners at the moment. he had been on raw before but i found it messy =p he doesn't show any itchiness anywhere else but I cant rule out allergy tho. I don't remember his mum's coat, his dad was black, mum was brown and i only saw his mum. will ask the breeder about it too. thanks for the advice and I shall give you an update in the future x


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## Dober (Jan 2, 2012)

Just wondering how you're getting on with this?


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## Kicksforkills (Mar 27, 2012)

Dexter gets a bath, meaning rinsed, shampoo'd, rinsed thoughoughly and dried. We use a whitening shampoo.

Then just brush him as he is dried using a hair drier and brush afterwards too. I don't (or try not to!) shampoo his fringing. 

Total time it takes is probably half an hour. An hour if I have to dry him on my own. Normally my mum helps me with drying.

At Southampton we got comments from people that it must take awhile to groom him. "Not really", I replied, "Just wash, brush and go!"

EDIT; The night before is when he gets a bath. If you wash them too often they gt pink feet/legs and some in the ring have this.

EDIT2 ; We take dog baby wipes with us to do his eyes and willy area before he goes in. But then apart from brushing we don't tend to use the wipes anymore.


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

thanks for sharing


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## vividobie (May 7, 2013)

Dober said:


> Just wondering how you're getting on with this?


his coat is looking denser i changed him onto a higher oil and protein food and it seems to work. he also put on a couple of pounds haaha.


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## Freyja (Jun 28, 2008)

Having italian greyhounds and whippets getting them ready for shows is easy for me. A quick bath the day before claws and teeth checked and thats it.

The one I have a problem with is Freyja she only does the veteran class now as she is 9 but her white coat is stained the colour came out of her brown bed and her white bits are stained a creamy colour. I change and wash her bed regulary but the stain in her coat just wont come out. The blue shampoo for white dogs has made the slightest bit of difference to it.

Some b;ue italian greyhounds suffer from something called greyhound allopecia I give all my IG's kelp tablets as this does help their coats and to keep the colour.


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