When you have a dog working on both- it can be done- but it is hard. While my shepherds did fine with understanding the difference by using different collars and leads- Zubin and Galina- we dropped it. As soon as Zubin hit the ring- he would not sit but free stack..lol. Just figure out which you want to do first and the most. Either of these sports can cross over into each other. If you do work on both- make the leads really obvious- I mean a show lead for show practice, and heavier collar and lead for obedience. Zubin was already showing when young- and as soon as he saw the ring, as I said, the " show dog " in him came out.