TAKE A LOOK AT WEEK TWO

While we wait for results from the limited breed shows in Palm Springs, let’s look at our upcoming shows for next week.

A chilly Niagara Falls 

It will be a week where exhibitors stamina will be challenged along with their dogs.  Five day clusters will available in three different locations.  It will be cold in Hamburg NY, some 13 miles from Buffalo, but Wednesday the Kennel Club of Niagara Falls will kick off their two days with the Nickel City Cluster.  The Kennel Club Of Buffalo will follow with two, and the Ashtabula Kennel Club will close the stop on Sunday.  There will be a very respectable 5500 points up for grabs.  It may be a cliché, but Niagara Falls is worth a DRIVE BY, especially in winter.  Local Sharon Skelley recommends a tour of Graycliff, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed estate, perched on a cliff above Lake Erie.  Sharon also has a DOGGY BAG suggestion, the Armor Inn Tap Room at 5381 Abbott Road in Hamburg, a serious pub grub establishment with a nice beer selection.  I spent a year traveling around upstate New York and I discovered that such taverns to be the only way to survive the winters.

If you want a little bit more bearable weather, try the “Celebrate Virginia” Cluster starting also starting Wednesday.  The Northern Neck Kennel Club Of Virginia, the Greater Fredericksburg Kennel Club, and the Chesapeake Kennel Club Of Maryland will host the quintet.  However, the week’s main attraction is the beginning of the Florida Marathon, twelve shows in seventeen days, all at the Greater Ocala Show Grounds.  The first leg, officially called “The Florida Gulf Coast Cluster I”, consists of five shows beginning Friday, January 11^th followed by three shows running Friday, January 18^th through Sunday, January 20^th, all hosted by the Clearwater Kennel Club, the Manatee Kennel Club, the Tampa Bay Kennel Club, and the Pasco Florida Kennel Club.  The first two legs will be followed by the “The Gat-R-Done Cluster”, four days with the Lake Eustis Kennel Club and the Greater Gainesville Dog Fanciers Association.  Once it’s all over, the judges will have done almost 15,000 examinations.   How about a national ranking and a tan?

The largest single shows of the week are in Puyallup WA where the Tacoma Kennel Club, the Sammamish Kennel Club, and the Puyallup Valley Dog Fanciers have drawn over 6000 dogs to the “Western Washington Cluster” starting Friday.  If you only have Saturday and Sunday off try the Corpus Christi Kennel Club’s two shows in Sinton TX, the  two shows hosted by the Golden Triangle Kennel Club Of Mississippi in Starkville MS, a weekend in Oshkosh WI with the  Winnegamie Dog Club and the Oshkosh Kennel Club, or the Greater Lowell Kennel Club’s duo in Fitchburg MA.

Wherever you are you will be among the first to see this year’s crop of hopefuls.  We will join in next week in Portland OR.  Everything points to another banner year.