Your dog needs to become accustomed to crowds, noises, people, traffic, standing on a grooming table (depending on the breed), and a lot of incidental stuff. Try to expose your dog to as many sights and sounds as possible. Take him to parades, flea markets,softball games, football games, ....also as many indoor stores and malls that you can find that will allow dogs inside, (Petsmart and Petco, for example) and expose him to walking in high traffic areas whenever you can.

A dog that grows up in an isolated country area is at a disadvantage when it comes to a dog show uless you give him the skills he needs to cope with the noises and confusion of a dog show, and you can not epect to win, even if you have the best looking dog in the world, if he does not behave well. So...the first job is to train your dog well. Do not say, well, I'm going to put my dog with a handler....that may or may not do anything for you. Handlers are not the dog's owner and they are not miracle workers..they can not turn a country bumpkin into a city slicker and even if they can it doesn't happen overnight, so it will cost you more in the end. Drive him into the town and walk him around the streets.

I was at a dog show once in the middle of Missouri in the hot summer. I saw four adults trying to carry their Great Pyrenees dog up the outside stairway of a motel to the second floor where they had the air conditioned room. That poor dog was petrified and wouldnt go up the outside, wrought iron, open rise staircase. He had never been trained as a youngster to go up and down stairs.

Training for the stairs can be particularly trying if you do not do this early on. Do not carry the dog up and down. If necessary, put on his harness and literally drag him down, just once, and believe it or not, the next time he will go down without a fuss! Same thing going up. It only takes once for a dog to realize that when it's over he gets a treat or praise and he will not be afraid.

Take your dog to the playground and let him play on the playground stuff. Have him follow a kid up the stairs of the slide and get a cookie at the top! Take him across swinging bridges, take him into a hotel and go up and down the elevator a couple of times...prepare this dog!

Blowing flags and tarps at outside shows can petrify a dog if he has never heard them before. Be sure you have exposed him to this. Hang a tarp on your back fence. He will get used to this sound when the wind comes up.

Take him to construction sites. Big noisy construction sites, where air brakes squeal and dump trucks bump and jack hammers and so on are making loud noises. Take him out into a thunderstorm and feed him treats while you both stand under an umbrella. (and open and close that umbrella in front of him) The more you work at these sorts of things, the more it will be "old hat" when he goes to the show.

There is usually applause at a dog show, so you can get your puppy used to that also. Just take him to a softball game! Furthermore, while you are there, let eveybody play with him and he will learn to love these events. And he will also get more excited about getting into the car and going places if hhe always gets plenty of attention every time he leaves home.

NEVER leave your dog tethered to the grooming table and leave him, even for an instant. If he jumps a disaster of major porportions can occur. Be sure that he is trained to be on a grooming table and that he is trained to be on the "tether" if you are going to use one.