Understand What a Dog Show is

Series Summary

Man has long had a unique relationship with one particular animal on this planet: the dog. We’ve trained dogs to herd other animals, to hunt, to track, and to retrieve. Over time, dogs have proven to be well-adapted for human life, expressing qualities of loyalty and bravery, and responding to commands. So, perhaps as a gentler development from this history, we have begun to bring dogs into our homes, to domesticate and care for them, and to call them friends.

Since dogs are no longer the wild animals they once were, we’ve taken over many parts of their lives, including choosing which other dogs they mate with. The practice of dog breeding is a long and respected tradition of creating animals that possess distinct and desirable characteristics, including specific physical traits and types of personalities. Entire breeds have been established, with guidelines marking out which traits belong to which type of dog.

Eventually, people wanted to show off their dog breeding successes, and dog shows were born. Dog shows are contests that judge individual animals on the basis of established breed characteristics. A dog has the chance to win not only a breed level, but also to take first place overall, an award known as “best in show.”

In this free show dogs instructional video, learn how to prepare your pet to win at the next competition. Our expert will demonstrate techniques for grooming your dog, including how to brush its hair, clip its nails, and bathe it. She’ll also discuss feeding your show dog the proper diet, obedience training, performing tricks, and tips for improving your dog’s gait.

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Gretchen Brown. I have been teaching conformation training and handling professionally for 20 some odd years. I am coming today on behalf of expertvillage.com to teach you how to train and show your show dog. Dog show is a competition of purebred dogs usually sponsored by the American Kennel Club to determine how well an individual dog compares to its breed standard. It is judged by licensed judges and the AKC requires 15 points for a dog to achieve its championship. The number of points are determined by how many dogs are entered in a given show on that given day. I hope I have been of some help to you this afternoon. You can contact me through the website commanddogtraining.com. We run classes every Wednesday night and we are based out at Fort Lauderdale. Thank you. "