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I have a question about feeding and sessioning in order to prepare a dog for a show. (I'm not a new player - have been playing for years on and off)

Normally I put all my sessioning pups/dogs onto a food that is either 1666 or 1777, and I pop them on the Kennel Assistant program (being sessioned daily) until they reach 20 in everything.

But I read somewhere in a post that you can actually stop sessioning them (for Muscle and coat) at a certain stage - and just keep feeding them the 1777 food and that will continue to raise their status? Is that right?

I'm assuming the benefit of this method is that it saves you money on sessions, but the negative is it takes longer for the dog to reach all 20's?

How many people do this - or do most do it the normal way?

I do 1777 and session everything, but my breeds session fairly quickly.
I do however, have a few sibes, and their obedience has taken me ages to session - so I could see the benefit to stopping sessioning in coat/muscle in that breed since it takes significantly longer to complete sessioning for obedience.
I'm also curious to see what others say on this.

That's true. I haven't sessioned for show in a bit now, but in my breed, obedience takes FOREVER. You can stop sessioning for grooming and exercise at a certain point, and it will naturally rise to 20 on good food before your dog is show ready in obedience.

As to whether this is a good move or not, it likely depends on your breeds sessioning patterns. If your breed takes the longest to grow out coat, but trains quick, then obviously you want to concentrate sessions on grooming, and you always have to session for obedience- that won't rise on it's own.

I find coat goes up faster so when it gets to 18 I will quit sessioning and it will still be 20 by the time muscle, the slowest gets to 20. I keep them on 1777 for a few days after to finish them off.

With Sibes which take forever to session obedience, you can stop sessioning muscle tone & coat condition at ~14 and they will reach 20s just on 1777 by the time obedience does.

grif,

my secret is .....






(I don't sell sessions that night if I have puppies the next day, so they get a kick start on sessions) 1777 and full sessions until coat is 16, then muscle changes next, which can also stop at 16. they will be sessioned enough to show at 14 days. the obedience takes FOREVER!! in RR's 22/23 days before they are 20..no amount of food will fix that.

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Last edited by Studio Dogs on 3/31/2014 11:15:45 PM

I stop at 17 days. 16 with the really bad breeds.

I just keep sessioning until they're all 20s. Most of my breeds are relatively fast sessioners, so I really don't care about saving sessions. Plus, I think I'd worry, if they went up that slowly, lol.

Alexandria

ok...now I am wondering if the stats haven't changed, now I do have to session the muscle more. >-(

It has always worked for me, I stop exercise and groom at 15 and let the food do it while continuing to session obedience by the time it hits 20 the other 2 are there also. Terriers are VERY stubborn and obedience does take longer than alot of other breeds that might play a part in it.