I have my Katy Bear, who is not the perfect newfie, but she has such presence in the Show-ring that sometimes the real beautiful not so showy dogs are surpassed by her. Katy loves to show, loves all the attention and really put on a show. She is a funny to watch ( so very happy) and very animated and has great action.
Lukey...When we first got him, he crawled when he came into our "pretend" Show at our kennel Club. We had been told he would. It was one of the reasons he was not wanted
We thought he should get over this, to help him. We were not interested in points or showing, but thought he needed to be comfortable. So we played a lot of pretend shows and made them fun.......We had Katy along, lots of friends with dogs and because she had so much fun, it became infectious. We only handle our own dogs in the ring and we are not just out there to win. We have kept it light for our dogs. And guess what, in amongst all the serious show people we were/are winning.....Lukey now is a Champion. Which did surprise us. We knew he had the look, but now he has the vitality in the Show-ring and he loves it now. Maybe not as much as Katy, but he gets exited and wants to "show-off".
I think sometimes Handlers make it worrisome for some dogs. So by Handling the dogs ourselves and not being "perfect" and too demanding, we have initially allowed the dogs to like it. And now we can be a little picky and expect more from them.....They are now happy in the ring.
Katy managed to lick one of the International UK Judges in her last show, whilst he was checking her teeth. I apologized and he just laughed. She has her way of making people do that......