By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford County Fairgrounds is no stranger to showing animals and on Saturday and Sunday it was man’s best friend being judged at the annual Crawford County Kennel Club’s Dog Show.
Dog breeds including terriers, retrievers, huskies, and more strutted their stuff in the show arena on their and their owner’s quest for best in show. In its 37th year the Crawford County Kennel Club Dog Show has been held at the fairgrounds since 1984. Crawford County Kennel Club President Dan Smith explained that some specialty shows were taking place along with the regular dog show.
“This year we have two specialties. We have a St. Bernard specialty and a Samoyed specialty in conjunction with our show this year, and it brings in a lot of the top dogs from all over. I know for the St. Bernard’s we have people from Canada, we have three dogs that came down from Canada, we have pulling from many different states for the specialties.”
Joe Wolf along with his wife Shirley was showing his St. Bernard, Joey, at the specialty. Wolf explained why he chose the St. Bernard breed.
“I have bred St. Bernard’s since 1971, and like my wife said they are your favorite stuffed animal come to life,” Wolf said.
Waiting to go back into the show were owners Samantha and Jeff Szafranies and their Alaskan malamute, Nali. Samantha explained why they were waiting to return to the show.
“She is waiting to go into group because she did take best in breed today,” Samantha said. “She is my very first malamute that I have ever had and she is my first ever show dog.”
While some pups and owners were being shown or waiting for their next show, others were being groomed before judging. Alabama transplant Rebecca McMillion was showing her border collie, McMillion explained what got her showing the border collie breed.
“I did it when I was little, and started doing it when we moved to Alabama a couple years ago,” McMillion said.
Rob Bedford gave his golden retriever, Buck, a fresh hairdo before going to show.
“I have been doing this for about over 30 years now. We started with a humane society rescue that we had to take to dog classes because he was a little out of control, and we met a lot of friends and we kind of just got into the dog show business,” Bedford said.
Related content: 2016 Crawford County Kennel Club Dog Show