Joanne Werth
For Susan - congratulations on your soon arrival of your show puppy. I am now showing a dog that happens to be the third one I've shown unvaxed. I took the first one with minimal vaccine all the way to ranking 13 in the breed, all-systems with multiple group placements, award of merit at national specialty and at the age of 9 she went best of opposite sex at another specialty from the veterans class. So we kept at it to her grand championship. The second dog went to his grand championship unvaxed and I am now showing a dog for someone else to his grand championship and he's unvaxed as well. I never took one of them to any kind of training class! Training for conformation is easy at home or with friends. You just need someone you know and trust to play the judge and practice "going over the dog" and you just need to practice gaiting on a show lead. You can teach the dog to not tug and how to properly go "around the ring". Your first few shows might be just for practice - it will be your training ground but far better to spend a little on show fees than to vaccinate just to get in a class. When you do show, make sure that when you wait ring side for your time in the ring that you stay a decent distance from the other entries, do not mill around with the other exhibitors and chat, focus on the dog and keep him focused on you. I see lots of people who know each other chatting and not paying attention to what their dog is doing - that is the perfect recipe for the perfect storm of ending up in a "situation". Just keep the dog close to you and keep our distance - it's better for the dog to be focused on you anyway. Good luck at the shows.