Dealing with Disappointment at Dog Shows
By Vicki Ronchette
Dog shows can be amazingly fun. They can be rewarding and allow you and your dog to build your relationship, compete together and grown and learn as a team. When everything goes well; you have an amazing win, you get to hang out with good friends or you finish a new championship, it’s easy to remember why you are doing this. However, dog shows can also be disappointing, frustrating and draining.
Here’s the thing, if you are going to do this sport and expect to have longevity in it, you have to be able to accept and deal with disappointment. In most dog sports, if you train, practice and put in the time, you will title your dog. This is because the judging is more objective. Your performance is based on measurable factors like; Did the dog find the odor? Did the dog sit when he should? Did the dog take all the obstacles. Of course, there are fine points that may be more subjective on the judge’s part, but for the most part, the dog did or did not do it, therefore, you do or do not qualify. This isn’t so in conformation. In the show ring your dog can perform everything absolutely perfectly and still leave the ring with nothing. This is the part that is hard for results based people to cope with. When you are used to training, practicing, working hard, performing well and having that result in success, it is difficult to swallow performing perfectly and being dumped.
It’s okay to feel disappointed. We all do sometimes. You traveled to a show hoping to do well and then get nothing. You fly through all your singles and majors and then struggle for that last single point. You pay a lot of money for entry fees, parking, hotel and gas only to go home empty handed. These things all suck. They suck BIG time. And again, it’s okay to feel disappointed, but it’s how you process and deal with that disappointment and frustration that matters. The quicker you can feel it, accept and move on, the better.
If you are still feeling upset about the show results a days, weeks or months afterward, this sport may not be for you. On my social media posts where I am attempting to teach, encourage and cheerlead new people we will always have comments like, “All that is fine but you can change all the bad judging”, or “What’s the point, it’s all political”, or “I gave up showing years ago when I saw….” and they go on to describe some judging they didn’t approve of. Being a subjectively judged sport, there ARE going to be times you don’t agree with the judging. But, if you can’t deal with it and move on, maybe getting out of the sport IS the best option for you.
In my mindset work I often explain to people that this type of mindset actually sets you up to fail in the show ring. If you are planning for defeat and walk into the ring as if you already lost, you are not going to show your dog to the best of your ability. Your body language will literally tell the judge you don’t want it, don’t look at my team, we are losers. You can’t do that. I have manifested HUGE wins. Manifesting doesn’t mean I said, “I want this” and then waited for it, it means I strategized, I planned, I trained, I prepared and I did it. I have also tried to manifest some things that didn’t happen. Does that mean I think the whole sport is crooked and rigged? No, it means, for whatever reason that the dog judge preferred the other dog. It’s as simple as that.
If you want to stay in this sport you must learn to cope with and accept the disappointment and frustration that comes with it sometimes. I recently worked hard to make something happen in the show ring. I have a nice girl that needs a single point. There was some self-sabotaging happening on my part. One show I forgot to enter. Two shows my entries didn’t make in on time. Then we showed a few times and won some and lost some. Then a big show was coming up that I really was hoping to finish her at. I’m not worried she won’t finish, she needs a single point. For me, it’s the money. It’s spending $38 on an entry, $10 on parking, $8.5 for the bridge toll, $100 for gas for one day and not getting a point. So, when I am in the ring and I didn’t win, I felt bummed. I still congratulated the winner. By the time I was sitting with my bestie and then walking around the show shopping I was laughing and happy. On the drive home I was thinking about the shows I would look to finishing her at. By the next day, I was over it. Nothing “crooked” happened, the judge just liked the other dog better.
When I start to feel down I remind myself of how well we do at shows. How at the last few specialty shows I put majors on not one, but three of my dogs. I felt on top of the world on those days, so there is no way I am going to let not winning here and there ruin the sport for me. 
When I do finish my girl who has a grooming required coat type that I have never groomed for show before (wirehair), who is not a classic color and who is slower to mature and nearly finished at 1.5 years old, I will feel proud of myself and of her. She always shows beautifully for me, makes every person she meets at the dog show smile and makes other dogs feel relaxed and happy. Honestly, what more can I ask for?
