showing a female in season?
 

Howdy GSD Community! I was hoping you guys could give me a little insight into this.

Finding shows has been very tough in my area, but there was finally one close enough to enter. The show is this weekend, and my emale just started her heat yesterday night. Considering where I live and the entry fee, I dont want to waste this entry and I know that others have shown females in season before.

My game plan was to make sure I have wipes handy, have a diaper on her, and stay a distance from the ring til it's her turn up. Going to use lots of scented stuff too, and when the judge comes to evaluate her I'm going to tell him/her. Fortunately the show entry is very small for GSDs. There is 1 class dog, 2 special dogs, and all the rest are females.

I've read scores of different opinions on this matter all over the web, and people seem to either think it's a-ok or a sin. As a steward I've never seen any issues at shows with females in heat, and the next shows in our area wont be til the Summer. Considering money, and this is the last opportunity I can enter her in 'puppy' classes, I'm pretty set on going. But I'd like to know what other GSD people think/feel about this and what I'd be in for.

Thanks ahead of time!

I show a male and don't mind, though I appreciate if I'm going in the ring with the bitch, the owner/handler tells me she's in heat. I've shown my dog where he was positioned directly behind a bitch in standing heat, but the handler came up to me and told me so before we entered the ring. It's not your fault if my dog isn't trained.

Thanks for that, I might try and grab some of the handlers aside and tell them too then.

I was also thinking of bringing some Vicks vapor gel in case any of the handlers wanted to use it. Heard that also helps males cope better.

Depending on how she is, she probably won't even be overwhelmingly "interesting" at the show as she just started bleeding. What type of show are you showing in? If it is SV, they will be fine with it. At one show, handler showed a bitch in full standing heat, and bred her right after the show :)

Just watch her so she doesn't get too close to other females in her class

I think I've heard everything now haha!

It's an AKC show. I havent started looking for SV shows yet, not even sure there are any that come near my area. I'm in Upstate NY, but depending on who you ask I could also be considered Central NY State.

I'll be doing my best to watch her! In a way this is sort of good, before I was nervous about the show, but now I'll be too busy keeping an eye on her and making sure things go well to get nervous.

Thanks!

I believe it depends on the show and the club that's running it. They could get a lot of complaints if a male doesn't act right and people realize its due to your female. If you're in a very closed space, and this is an all-breed show you'll have a lot of people to deal with.

I know training helps but I've got obedience titles on my boy and when there is a female in heat around, he's definitely losing his head. In the show ring...its not as big of a deal, but if there is also obedience work going on, you'll hear some groveling and the club may get some complaints. When it comes to conformation...it might get my boy to pull harder and get more extension so I probably wouldn't mind lol.

Now that you added that its an AKC show...I'd watch out. AKC people are vicious about that kind of stuff.

Don't know about AKC shows - SV people are a little bit more rough and tumble so we don't care about bleeding bitches in the ring or breeding with an audience LOL :p

Ask the club - email or call so you can know for sure

AKC has no rules against bitches in season for conformation shows. Just try to keep her away from the obedience area if there is one.

AKC people wouldn't care as long as it doesn't affect their dog's performance. Most of them will find any excuse to blame a loss on anything but their dog being out of standard (at least the ones I've dealt with). You'll just hear grumbles and make a lot of enemies lol.

Good luck and have fun!

From what I've been told theres no rules against showing a female in season, and in all the shows I've stewarded there's never been an issue. Double checked the premium list too, and the only place it mentioned females in season was in the obedience and rally sections.

There will be obedience and rally, and thankfully were going on very early. Show opens at 8:30, and were on at 9, so I wasnt planning on being anywhere but the Grooming area until it's time to go in. Thankfully my boyfriend will be going too, so I was going to have him sit ringside, and text me when GSD's start. Since there's only 1 class male, I figured he'd be in-and-out.

The AKC nastiness is what I was mostly worried about, since I know it's not against regulations. Honestly I dont want to ruffle any feathers, so I'm going to do whatever I can to make the situation easy on everyone. I've already read so much back and forth about this sort of thing from AKC people and otherwise. On a Dane forum absolutely no one had anything bad to say about showing females in heat, apparently it happens a lot in that breed. Rotti people seemed split down the middle, and one forum I went to for Bassets made it sound like this was criminal.

It seems like one of those things where there are so many opinions on it and so many radically opposing views that I'm better off doing what I think is best. Still I think I'll contact the club as well, see what they have to say on it and if there are any extra precautions I should take.