.com Forum · Beginner Forum

Hello. I am new to showdog.com. I just created an account today and I would like all of the help that I can get in understanding how everything here works. Any helpful info or tips would be greatly appreciated.

- What is SOP? What does SOP mean?

- What all do I have to do to make sure my dogs are taken care of?

- What are all of the tips and tricks of showdog.com that I need to know?

Thanks.

Most information can be found by clicking the help button in the top right corner- it's a great all around view of everything, it would take far too much space to put everything here, but I'll try with the basics.
At 14 days dogs can be entered in shows. At 30/31 days they can be bred. (30 days if both animals being bred are owned by you, 31 if the stud is owned by someone else)
Puppies take 5 days to whelp, bitches take 5 more days to recover before being bred again.
You get so many sessions per day. These are used to train, exercise, and groom your dog for the ring. They should all be at 20 for maximum effect.
Condition also needs to be at 20 but is only affected by the quality of food you're feeding, once at 20 you can reduce food to pet house for adults and it will maintain that number.

All dogs are fed automatically, and you can set up automatic sessions using kennel assistants.

Don't waste time and money on starter dogs! Their quality is generally very far behind what is being bred these days. I'd ForeverHome all your starters - it's sort of like a pet home where the live forever.

Check the dogs (Dalmatians) for sale and write to some of the current breeders to see if they have a couple of nice dogs to sell to you.

I'd look for one good bitch of about 30 days (so you can breed right away). You have a 30 day breeding window as a Basic. Dogs can not be bred until 30 days. I recommend one or two to start so that you have room in your 5 adult dog limit (14days and up) to keep and show some of your first puppies.

Of course, if you take the plunge and subscribe you get to keep 30 dogs and can have as many as ten litters going at a time.

And a great big WELCOME to ShowDog. Write if you have questions - I'm happy to get you started, don't have Dals though (lol).