Life With Pat

192 – October, 2010

by Pat Gellerman

The four shows, all judged outdoors, were Fort Steuben Kennel Association on Thursday, August 5, Columbiana County Kennel Club on Friday, August 6,Beaver County Kennel Club on Saturday, August 7, and Mahoning-Shenango Kennel Club on Sunday, August 8.

The entire cluster realized an increase in entries from the 2009 numbers and cluster chairman, Gail Lewis Damron, reports that 162 breeds were represented plus obedience, rally, agility, specialties, and supported entries. This cluster was hosted by Eukanuba which held breeders’ stakes at the show.

Everything possible was done for the comfort of the exhibitors, judges and, of course, the dogs. There were evening specialties, scavenger hunts, and specialty dinners. There were seminars on health as well as heart and eye testing clinics. They had tests for therapy dogs international to see if the dogs tested can be used as therapy dogs. There were bathing facilities on site and a junior handling clinic was given by one of the AKC Reps. All exhibitors were greeted in the morning with hospitality snacks and there was an armband raffle for gas cards every day. It is very obvious that this show is planned with the exhibitor in mind.

Parking was handled by Phil Thomas, show chairman of Beaver County. Phil is the father of Tim Thomas who is now an AKC Rep.

Sarah Karger was the specialty coordinator and is also show chairman of Columbiana. She also handled advertising, publicity, and judges hospitality.

Ashely Wenglik assisted with the junior handling seminars, the scavanger hunt, and judges hospitality.

Judy Lair, show chairman of Mahoning-Shenango, and Paula Thomas handled vendors and, new this year, the sale of special T-shirts for the cluster.

Judy Withee was chief ring steward. Working on hospitality for judges and Eukanuba were Louise Zazorski, Linda Kubla, and Luann W Nclik. Groundsmen were Bob Damron, Joe Knowe, and J.R. Lerby.

Susan Fithian handled judges communications and Phyllis Balcastro was coordinator of obedience and rally.

The cluster also held numerous breed specialties. I attended a Weimeraner futurity and maturity as well as a breed seminar that was very interesting.

Dr. Patricia Haines gave a seminar on Traveling with Dogs that was excellent.

As a judge for this cluster, I was impressed with the way it was presented so efficiently. There were numerous carts to transport judges and stewards from ring to ring.

The entire staff of this cluster was very knowledgeable and had every possible job covered. This is an enourmous cluster to run and it was a pleasure to judge the shows there.

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