While running around in the ring & waving food around looks pretty easy, it's so totally not. Needing to understand structure, how to properly stack your dog, showcase its strengths, finding the right pace for gaiting...it'a a lot of work.
AND
You are on the right track looking for a strong pedigree, but you can breed GCH to GCH and have no show pups....
My advice is to avoid a "grey area" puppy/golden. This is a dog who has too many faults to finish easily, but yet too many virtues to give up on. The dog will earn singles like pulling teeth and struggle with majors.
Couple different thoughts on this... fwiw.
I've been showing for about 3.5 years now - maybe less but close enough.
First year of showing...
My dog was about 16 month's old (or so) when we entered out first show in Jan. Very big show. Very busy show. Among else, I was not that good at grooming my dog (meaning bathing, drying, prepping - I had somebody else do all the trimming for me). I packed my table and dryer and little tack box, but was embarrassed about bringing any of that in to the big show grooming area. It was bad. LOL. I did bring odds and ends in, but did not really groom that much at that show. Because I did not have much confidence. Literally my worst nightmare was getting my dog wet and not being able to get him dry in time to show him!
Even so, my dog had flips all over the place. And he was also ALL OVER THE PLACE when I was gaiting him. Jumping in the air every other step. Hahahah. It was BAD. I SERIOUSLY NEEDED A PAPER BAG. And I'm not kidding, I really hoped and prayed that nobody I knew saw us out there!
Next show was in April. And similar stuff, though I did attempt to groom this time. But not that great at grooming. My dog was still crazy in the ring. Difficult to control. And this was the same for the next few shows. Literally we did not actually start having any idea of "success" until the end of the show year. And when I say success, I mean getting a purple ribbon (winners) and the same time beating 2-3 of the country's top pro handlers. In the eyes of people who have been around the block a ton, you can't measure success merely by winning your classes or placing. We had been placing all along with my dog winning our class or placing with a lot of time in the Winners ring and chances at winning.
Here in Michigan, the show season really starts in April... starts slowing down by August... and ends in January. So literally that meant if showing once a month, only about 5 shows during the main portion of the show season, and only about 6-8 total shows in a year. <= Just to give you an idea of how fast a show year can pass and how long it can actually take to learn on the job so to speak. Considering most greenies are not traveling all over the country, they are doing one show cluster per month for only 5-6 months a year. That's why it can take about 2 years to get your feet under you. And a lot of people don't actually get any wins in that first year, which can be discouraging.
Speaking personally (again)... we got just the one or two points that first year of showing.
2015 we got odds and ends or 2-3 more points through the whole year. Some limited showing because of both my work schedule suddenly changing mid-year, and also me cutting back to focus on getting to the National that year. Boss from heck messed that up too... <= I tied the National to celebrating my parents' 50th anniversary to get time off work. And even there, my boss refused to give me time off work except for maybe 1-2 days. I missed showing my dog at National even after paying a ton for entries and my hotel. Just gives you an idea that work schedules and bosses can make or break dog showing for you. That's not even getting into the issue where even though shows are on weekends, you do have to take time off on Fridays or Thurs-Fri's to get to the shows and set up ahead of time.
Work schedule changed again (for the better - new job) in 2016 but had an injury mid-year which again limited things, but we still got at least a couple points.
And we are getting in the middle of the show year now in 2017 and I'm starting to worry about majors to finish my dog off. What that means is entering shows and hoping and praying it's a major and burning entries or pulling out when the majors fall. Which it going to be tough because I hate wasting money and missing shows.
Again - best case scenario with a good dog and using a pro (or if you are as good as a pro), if showing just in Michigan and OH... you are talking about showing every month between April and August. That's five shows. If you can get the bulk of your points during that time, particularly hitting and winning the majors in May/June and July... you are going to finish the dog pretty fast. Pros have that advantage for many reasons. Among else, they aren't still learning how to groom and prep the dogs for show. And they usually don't have problems gaiting and stacking the dogs in the ring.
If you are learning as you go - it is going to take more time. That first year of showing - my boy was evaluated by his breeder who raved about him and was excited about how "together" he was. But then she saw me handle him and saw the different issues I had - and pulled me aside before I left and strongly advocated hiring a professional to finish. That it would take me years on my own. <= And she was right. It hasn't bothered me too much because I can be very humble and stubborn when it comes to working towards what I want. And even if I don't finish my dog before a certain point, I'm learning every show so when I have a puppy next - that dog will have more advantages than my dog had in the past 3 years.
Some dogs out there aren't all that great and you know why they don't finish even when taken out there by really big handlers who were hired as special cases to finish these tough dogs. Those are the dogs who are singled out and need their majors and it's struggle to beat better dogs with them.
Other dogs might have more advantages to begin with if you buy a puppy from a breeder who is also an active pro handler who can actively mentor you at every single show. And that's not just hand holding all the time. These people can tell you what you should do or where you should go, but you need to actually invest in the sport with them.
If you've been to shows lately - you've probably noticed that a lot of the dogs out there look the same. Usually people are not showing dogs and hoping to get lucky. They are showing dogs who have been evaluated and given the green light for showing.
Sometimes you DO SEE some dogs shown who don't belong out there. But because the breed is so competitive, those people don't show up very often. And they certainly do not last longer than the main bulk of five shows during the show season.
^^^ I'm typing all this out because I do think that you need enthusiasm and a sense of humor and adventure to get started. And there are people out there who are really natural handlers - who are going to have a TON of fun and never look back once they get started. It is more than just running around the ring and getting your dog to stand up straight and do "food face" when not moving. It is also more than just having a good ideal show dog.
UKC shows are helpful - though very different from AKC shows. If your main thing that you are working through is handling in the ring, UKC is great practice to get through those problems. So my dog hauling me around the ring and not liking a judge goosing him.... this was great filler in addition to showing AKC the entire time.
If your main issue is grooming and presentation.... UKC is not going to help you. There's little to no grooming in UKC - and I don't just mean what is encouraged. I mean literally you show up at these shows and there is no electric outlets for you to plug in a dryer. So if your dog has ring around the neck or flips on the one side from how he slept in the car the way over or what happened in his crate while you waiting 6-8 hours to show in UKC, you're out of luck.
More to the point, a good chunk of showing in AKC is presentation. You have every dog going into the ring most days deserving to be out there because they are nice dogs. What gives one dog an extra boost over another is presentation. UKC - it doesn't matter. The judges expect to see rumpled and don't hold that against a dog.
AKC - a judge might hold presentation against a dog.