Story Photos
 Kris Oliversen of Pullayup, Wash., finishes grooming Apollo, her American Eskimo, before showing him at the United Kennel Club All Breed and Rare Breed Dog Show at the Cowlitz County Fairgrounds area Saturday. Greg Ebersole / The Daily News
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Primped, pampered pooches relish day in the sun at fairgrounds
Monday, July 21, 2008 11:47 PM PDT
By Cathy Zimmerman
Printable version
E-mail this articleNever underestimate the power of fluff. Cleaned and preened pooches scampered like clouds around the fairgrounds Saturday and Sunday, as The United Kennel Club Dog Show put them through their paces during a small but zesty canine contest.
The show, hosted by the Cascade American Pit Bull Terrier Club, drew fewer than the expected 100-200 entries from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia.
“Gas prices are probably keeping people at home,” said Julia Kleutsch of Shelton, who brought rat terriers to the show. “I come every year for this show,” Kleutsch said.
Unlike the barking, drooling, aromatic mutts some of us live with, these pageant hounds were clean, well behaved, and oh-so pretty.
“Stay, handsome. Very nice stay!” Greg Mann of Camano Island crooned to Blue, his 4 1/2-year-old, grand champion American Eskimo Standard.
“Eskies,” as they’re fondly called, are actually a German breed called “Spitz,” but the name was changed after World War II. Mann’s Esky was named for the blue food coloring used to distinguish show pups from pets.
Blue came from a litter of six that produced five show dogs, Mann said, with bodies and temperaments that show off the best of their breed.
Mann ticked off qualities: how they “stack,” which includes a nice chest, squared off sides, a body with the same length as height and a level top line (the dog’s back).
Blue has those pleasing proportions, and a tail with a loose curl, Mann explained.
Judges also look at temperament, carriage and how the dog presents in the show ring. For instance, Mann said, “is he docile and obedient?”
Because he has earned multiple “Best in Show” and reserve ribbons, Blue’s points earn him a place among the top 10 in the nation for his breed, Mann said.
Breeders obviously value prize-winning dogs, but “it’s not just the money, it’s the ability to enhance the breed,” Mann said, “to produce better dogs.”
When a stud is bred to a bitch, the stud owner gets the pick of the litter or the equivalent price of that dog, Mann said. A mature dog, especially a prize winner like Blue, doesn’t get sold. “He’ll never leave me; he’s my boy.”
The breeder unabashedly tells of how he talked to the pup (“Hello, hello my baby”) when he was still in utero. After the litter was born, Mann said, Blue stopped suckling at the sound of those words.
Learning about breeds is a big part of the dog mystique, and people get hooked based on the beauty they perceive or the temperament they find pleasing.
“When you have a breed like the Eskies,” said Mary Ellen Eichelberger of Salem, Ore., “they’re like peanuts or potato chips — you can’t have just one.”
David and Tessa Victor feel that way about Pomeranians. They brought a slew of them to the show. While Ewok, Irish and Metoo popped up and down in a playpen, David cuddled 1 1/2-pound Princess, an at-risk, 8-week-old Pom who has to be fed every three hours.
“They’re a very hard breed to raise,” Tessa said. “They’re prone to hypoglycemia.”
“But they’re a fun breed,” David added. “You just have to know what you’re doing.”
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The better-known American Kennel Club has more rules and restrictions, and “tends to be more aggressive, more competitive” than the UKC, said Kleutsch, the hairless terrier breeder.
“It’s the professional handlers that make the difference in the AKC,” she said. “We are not allowed to have professional handlers. It changes the flavor.
“We tend to be more family-oriented. ... AKC is a big business. But this is part of our vacation. All these people will eat together tonight.”
UKC families parked vans and RVs along the periphery, brushed their pooches, cooled them down under canopies or went from site to site chatting up friends from the circuit.
Tessa Victor said she attends two UKC shows a month during the summer. “It’s good, clean, outdoor entertainment.”
Traveling to dog shows is a family thing, said Mann, who lives on Camano Island. “It’s a picnic atmosphere, where everybody’s a friend. And I always know where my kid is on the weekend,” he said, laughing, about his 14-year-old son.
Up to the age of 18, youngsters can show dogs as junior handlers, Kleutsch said.
Her niece, 8-year-old Kelsea Keltner of Federal Way, for example, showed Marvel, an American hairless terrier.
And Levi McAllister of Tigard, a 13-year-old nephew of the Victors, is breaking in showing Pomeranians.
“These are the kids who will become handlers one day,” Kleutsch said. “Otherwise, we’re not going to have a sport.”
All afternoon, dog owners did that bouncy jog around the grassy ring with their dogs, whisking them up onto tables where judges solemnly stared at teeth and ears and posture.
Based on a big white board, owners gathered dogs from various groups — guard dogs, companion dogs, herders, terriers (from the word for earth, terra — they hunt close-to-the-ground critters).
There were Shetland sheep dogs, with their kind eyes and keen long noses.
Self contained White German Shepherds, sparky rat terriers, standard poodles with springy long legs and a shy air.
And yes, the host Cascade club with their American pit bull terriers, they of the prowling, Sherman-tank bodies.
Renee Teichmer of Maple Valley has been raising American pit bull terriers for 20 years. She fiercely respects the breed but minces no words about their irresponsible fans, “the “little gang bangers out on the street” who buy pit bulls as some kind of statement and don’t train or care for them.
As for rescued pit bulls, “Some of them are not meant to be saved,” she said. “You don’t pass a problem dog onto somebody else.”
Regulations only hurt the responsible breeders, Teichmer said, because outlaws will do what they do regardless.
Instead, “We need to help the people who don’t know how to raise a dog. Neighbors should organize to deal with problem dogs ... We could have programs in schools and training seminars.”
When asked about her own dogs, Teichmer’s face softens.
“They go to ground, like a Jack Russell,” Teichmer said. “They’ll hunt socks to rats, raccoons, possums, they love it. One of mine got a rabbit. ... they have individual personalities, like people. You need to know each one, read them in every circumstance.”
One of hers has a chapter she’ll never forget.
The pit bull terrier that became her “soul mate” died last year, Teichmer said, at the age of 14.
“She knew when I was sick, she knew when I worried, she slept with me.”
One day on her rural property, the dog breeder and horsewoman was working with a horse that spooked. It went wild, pulled off a gate it was tethered to, and came at Teichmer between two outbuildings.
“I had nowhere to go,” she said.
Suddenly her dog came racing into the enclosure.
“She ran up to the horse and faced it down. She just stood there, squared off in front, growling, until the horse calmed down.”
Few newspaper stories have Lassie endings that involve a pit bull. “People always say, ‘Oh, those killer dogs,’ “ Teichmer said. “But she saved my life.”
For more information on the United Kennel Club breeds and events, visit www.ukcdogs.com
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