pet connection

Do not read if you don’t want to know who wins.

The hounds are in the house! My Afghan-fancying seatmate, Joanne Anderson, is taking a photo of the Afghan, although it wasn’t the one she wanted to win. They seem to be going through the breeds very quickly tonight, perhaps because this is a group with 26 members.

As I sat in the stands earlier today, I was amused to see Dachshunds in one ring, with Borzoi in the ring just down from them. Gave new meaning to the phrase “the long (tall) and the short of it.” There’s nothing more graceful than a sighthound’s gait. Or more charming than a longhaired black-and-tan Dachshund lying belly up in his young handler’s lap. “He was lying like that when I passed here six hours ago,” says a man as he walks through the benching area.

Susan’s Bloodhound, Rita, is being examined and gets lots of applause. Bloodhounds are often crowd favorites. That, or Susan has a good cheering section here. Even though Bloodhounds have made it to the Best-in-Show lineup previously, they’re always bridesmaids, never the bride.

Wow, the Harrier is getting lots of applause. There were only two entered in the show. Now I’m watching the Otterhound. I don’t usually notice that breed, but this one really stands out.

I’m so attracted to these classic breeds. They have such a history behind them. Even though there are surely differences, you know that if you traveled back in time 2,000 years, you’d be able to recognize the ancestors of many of them.

It’s being announced, as it is every year, that the Pharaoh Hound is one of the most ancient of breeds. I seem to recall, however, that DNA testing showed that it was a relatively recent creation. I guess it makes a more interesting story to say that they were the dogs of the Pharaohs.

I wonder what the Plotts think of a dog show like this. Is navigating New York and the Garden as satisfying as hunting bear?

I’ll leave it to Christie to blog about the Deerhound. She probably knows him. Seeing the Whippet reminds me of Vivi, the Whippet who was lost at the airport two years ago and never found.

The judge is making his cut. Rita was not among them. Sigh. Gina may be right with her Beagle prediction. The crowd loves him. But they also love the PBGV. Crowds are fickle. Of course, what the judge thinks is an entirely different matter. He’s pulling out the Beagle, followed by the longhaired Dachshund. The 15-inchBeagle Ch. K-Run’s Park Me In First takes it, living up to his name. He was also the Hound Group winner at Eukanuba. He’s won everything this year, a bystander says.

Westminster smells like sawdust and hotdogs. You might think it would be noisy, but the primary sounds are the murmur of spectators, a scream of excitement from one of the terrier rings, polite clapping and occasionally raucous woo-wooing. The only bark I hear is an importunate French Bulldog who wants out of his crate in the benching area. His wish is granted.

The breeds showing today belong to the Hound, Terrier and Herding Groups. I’m fortunate to know some of the people showing in those breeds. One of them is Kate Eldredge, a junior who’s showing her Belgian Tervuren, Queezle, in the breed. I missed her in the ring while I was waiting for Bloodhounds to go in, but last I heard she took Best Opposite Sex. That’s great news, considering that her mother, Deb, was concerned that Q was out of coat.

As I cruise the benching area, where the dogs are on display unless they’re in the ring, I come upon Arco, a Beauceron, whose owner is being interviewed by a television crew. Beaucerons are at Westminster for the first time this year, new members of the Herding Group, along with Swedish Vallhunds. When I come back, Arco’s owner has stepped out for a few minutes, but Rhydonia Ring of Orinda, California, also there with a Beauceron, says the six dogs entered are coping just fine with all the attention. It’s her first trip to Westminster–and her first benched show. “It’s been an experience,” she says.

The other new breeds are the Plott Hound, a bear-hunting dog from the southern United States, and–I think–the Tibetan Mastiff. I haven’t had a chance to go look at the Plotts yet, but I’m interested in seeing them in the flesh. They’re very handsome dogs.

Moose, a 12-year-old Swedish Vallhund, is the oldest dog at Westminster. He just turned 12 last week and in his spare time is a therapy dog. There are always dogs here with interesting stories or achievements that go beyond those of the typical show dog. One is Border Collie Triple Champion Gymbaroo Tried and True (Smasher to his friends). Imported from Australia, Smasher became a conformation champion with four Best-in-Show wins and earned his obedience trial championship. His owners decided to see if he could earn a herding championship as well. No problem. He didn’t win the breed today, but his owners are happy with his record as they retire the almost-9-year-old dog.

I’m off to see what happened in Bloodhounds. My friend Susan Hamil is here with her bitch Ch. Quiet Creek’s Mi Amor, and I have my fingers crossed for them.

[Update from Gina: Young Kate Eldredge did indeed go Best of Opposite with her Tervuren, and Kim's friend Susan went Best of Breed with her Bloodhound. Guess Kim's a bit of a good-luck charm!]

Our Kim Campbell Thornton, as you can see by the previous post, is at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show. She’ll be posting vignettes and sending me cell phone images to post for her over the next couple of days as she can. (Congrats on the DWAA win, Kim!)

Allergic as I am to cold, ice and snow (marginally) and crowds (severely), I just haven’t wanted to go for the last  few years. You haven’t felt claustrophia until you’re trapped in the benching area in the bowels of Madison Square Garden, with total human/canine gridlock in the aisles and some obnoxious professional handler trying to push his way through you into a crowd that simply cannot go anywhere because there’s nowhere to go.

Westminster marketing and PR ace David Frei has done an amazing job of making Westminster an even grander, must-see-it canine event than it already was, but since he has also managed to get it completely and utterly sold out since his masterful touch at promoting it, the crowds are too much for me. And since nothing is covered well from the comfort and safety of the press room, I’ll be watching from TV.

But I have a prediction: Uno the beagle will win it.

Not because I’ve been following closely enough to really know this year — with the pet-food recall, the books and more, I just haven’t had the time — but because I want a beagle to win it. That way, my college newspaper pal Anthony Sorci a/k/a “The Source,” now an editor at The Sacramento Bee, won’t e-mail me to complain that a “real dog” never wins.

This one’s for you, Source-Man. Ahhhhh-roooooooo!

New breeds at Westminster this year are the subject of the New York Times’ piece yesterday, which includes a nifty slide show. Check it out. 

And speaking of watching it from afar … don’t forget that the USA Network’s coverage will flip to CNBC tonight from 9-11 p.m. so wrestling can stay in its usual spot. Tuesday night, the entire three-hour Westminster coverage will remain on the USA Network. Set your TiVos accordingly. And somewhere, you know Christopher Guest’s wonderful “Best In Show” is playing as well.  I love that movie.

I’m feeling old department: I was there when the mother of the dog who just won Best of Breed in Rhodesian Ridgebacks was born.  (She was bred by a friend of mine.) Here is that dog  is at Crufts,where she was the first American import ridgeback to win her class, back in 2004.  If I figure/remember this right, the Best of Breed winner’s great-grandfather , Turbo, was also a Westminster Best of Breed. I can remember this, and I can’t remember where I put my keys on any given day. Go figure.

***

The young and the snarky:Word of advice to the student journalist… going into an interview with an attitide of “too cool for school” condescension and bemusement and a lack of even cursory research of a subject beforehand does not serve you or your readers. So quit being a twit, child. If you drop the attitude, you might learn something from the people you meet. In fact, learning about other people is the best thing about being a journalist, I can say 25 years after I was the editor of my college paper (most of which have been spent in a newsroom).

The show doesn’t start until tomorrow (well, now it’s today), but there are plenty of events surrounding it beforehand. I arrived in New York late Saturday afternoon and struggled into Manhattan on the train to Penn Station–now I know why they call it lug-gage. The next morning, I persuaded myself out of bed at 7:30 and headed down to the Affinia, across the street from The Garden, where Dog Writers Association of America members were meeting for a buffet breakfast. The draw was a talk by Steven Hansen, DVM, vice president of the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center.

When pet owners or veterinarians call the PCC, the case is handled by one of 30 veterinarians employed there, 13 of whom are board-certified toxicologists. They take detailed notes, all the while feeding the information into their computers. Specially designed software helps them instantly rule out some concerns and then make appropriate recommendations once they have enough details.

Pesticides used to make up the bulk of the calls received by the PCC, but these days they’re outnumbered by poisonings from human medications. Apparently, it takes dogs a whopping 15 seconds or so to break into a childproof bottle, at least according to the test Dr. Hansen performed at home with his German Wirehaired Pointer puppy and a pill bottle filled with candy. (Hmm, now I’m second-guessing myself. I’m pretty sure it was a GWP, but it might have been a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon.)

Some drug companies help subsidize the PCC, so if a case involves one of the medications covered by a company, there’s no charge for the consultation. It seems obvious that pet owners should keep all medications out of a dog’s reach, but apparently the message doesn’t always sink in. Remind guests, especially if they take a lot of medications, to put them up high.

Cats weren’t ignored. It’s not uncommon for cats to be poisoned when they’re treated with, say, flea and tick control products made for dogs. If people realize immediately that they’ve made that error, they should bathe the cat with dishwashing soap such as Dawn or Ivory, Dr. Hansen says. Unlike high-quality pet shampoos, they rough up the fur, which helps remove the toxic substances.

Gratuitous Darcy blogging: That evening, at the 73rd annual DWAA awards banquet, my article A Dog Like Darcy, which appeared in the Cavalier breed magazine Royal Dispatch, won a Maxwell for best feature in a club publication, as well as a special award from Petaholica for best dog memoir. The latter came with a cash award, which I’ll be forwarding on to the Darcy Fund. They were bittersweet wins, and I cried a lot, but I just imagined that the wetness was from Darcy washing my face.

Tomorrow I’ll be checking out some of the hounds, the Belgian Tervurens, and maybe a terrier or two, and I hope to preview the dog art and paraphernalia that will be auctioned by Bonham’s on Tuesday.

A picture worth a thousand laughs … The Onion takes a poke at Westminster.