The Afghan Hound Club of America’s 77th National Specialty Show

By Fran Reisman

Mrs. Lee Canalizo awards GCh. Thaon's Wallstreet Best of Breed at the 2013 Afghan Hound Club of America National Specialty. Photo Credit: Nina Sage Photography

The Afghan Hound Club of America held its 77th Specialty Show in Portland, Oregon on the  25th – 28th of September. Along with conformation judging, the club offered Puppy and Veteran Classes, Obedience, Lure coursing, and Agility classes. There were 164 dogs entered for conformation judging.

This year the club shortened the amount of days the event covered from the previous four days to three days. For many years the exhibitors and visitors complained about the length of the event and felt that all judging could be fit into a shorter time period. Basically, this worked. Sweepstakes was held on Thursday afternoon, followed by Dog judging and Bitch judging on Friday. Saturday, at 1 PM, the Specials class entered the ring. As usual, the complaints now changed to how rushed exhibitors felt. Is there ever a way to please every person?

To add to this feeling, on Sunday two specialties were being held; one right after the other. I, for one, find this to be way too much. Not so much for the exhibitors and visitors, but for the dogs, especially the puppies. Isn’t this an awful lot to expect of a young dog starting out as a show dog? The owners have a choice! The puppies don’t!

The Afghan Hound Club of America had a foreign judge the dog classes, Dominique Denis from France. This was the first time for the Afghan Hound Club of America to invite a non American judge to the National Specialty. Lee Canalizo judged Bitch classes and the Specials class. Mrs. Canalizo is an Afghan person and also a well-respected judge of many breeds for close to 50 years. This show is the last big show that Mrs. Canalizo will be judging and the club was honored that she accepted this assignment as her final specialty.

The winners were as follows:

Best of Breed was awarded to Ch. Thaon’s Wallstreet.  He is bred by Jay Hafford and James Blanchard and owned by the breeders, Debbie and JW Rogers and Beverly and Joe Moore.

This win marks the 5^th consecutive National Specialty Best of Breed win for Thaon Kennels.

Best of Opposite Sex was awarded to the Winners Bitch, Silhouette’s Starlet. She is bred by Beth Berman and Joel Fisher and owned by Beth Berman.

Winners Dog was awarded to Polo’s Painted Black, bred and owned by Lorianne Amadeo.

The Sweepstakes judge was Chris Terrell of Kabik Kennels. Kabik Kennels bred two of the top winning dogs from the 1970s and 1980s, Ch. Kabik’s Pepsi and Ch. Kabik’s The Front Runner.

The Sweepstakes winners were as follows:

Veteran Sweepstakes was awarded to GCh. Can & Amer Ch. Polo’s The Aviator, bred and owned by Lorriane Amadeo

Best in Sweepstakes was awarded to Elmo’s Madonna, bred by Peter Belmont and owned by the Estate of Peter Belmont Jr.

I wish all who know Lee Canalizo could have been at the club banquet to see and hear the tribute that was written and designed by Stephen Fisher (Shylo Kennels, Watkins, CO). He captured the Lee we all know with all the laughter and smiles she shares with us. It was a great night and a great tribute.

The 2014 National Specialty will be in Texas, about 1 1/4 hours from Austin and 2 or more hours from Houston. (Need I say more). I do know that once we get there it will be great fun!

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Posted by chesliepickett on Oct 1 2013. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.