OUT IN ORLANDO DAY ONE

We are here at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando FL for the 2013 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship.  This year's event offers a plethora of doggy activities all house in a state of the art facility with over one million square feet dedicated to the event.

GCH CH  MARLEX Classic Red Glare

(Photo by Rhonda Cassidy)

We are going to start at judge Desmond Murphy's ring with Miniature Pinschers and our beloved Italian Greyhounds.  The Top Toy Dog in the US is the Miniature Pinscher, GCH CH Marlex Classic Red Glare, and today she was judge Murphy's Best Of Breed.  Italian Greyhounds are elegant, eye catching beauties, the tallest of the Toys.  However, they are routinely overlooked in the group ring.  Today's BOB, GCH CH Windmist Starchaser, will be hard to miss tonight

GCH CH Hill Country Tag I'm It. 

While IG's are often overlooked, Pugs are always competitive and judge Randy Garren had multiple BIS winners to choose from.  The one he chose was GCH CH Hill Country Tag I'm It. line betwee

GCH CH Lamplighter's Tattle Tail

We don't get to see many Silky Terrier and that makes a sad.  A true Terrier, the Silky straddles the line between papered Toy dog and serious vermin hunter.  So we were delighted to see that Judge Garren had 14 Silkies to choose his from which to choose his BOB.  While sitting at ringside we found that there is lively debate among Silky breeders and exhibitors over whether a Silky should be show with a natural tail. or a docked tail, as currently called for in the standard.  We usually come down on the side of tradition on this issue and would hate to see a Doberman with floppy ears and long tail in the American show rings.  However, a natural tail on a Silky is not quite as distracting as a long tail on an Old English Sheepdog.  Judge Garren's aptly name Best Of Breed, GCH CH Lamplighter's Tell Tail, carried off the natural tail beautifully.

GCH CCH Thaon’s Wallstreet

We waited all day to watch judge Dr Robert Indeglia go over his 37 Afghan Hounds which included the top four Afghans in the US.  All are in different parts of the country and rarely cross paths, but all roads lead to Orlando and those in attendance today were treated to a magnificent display of the “King of Dogs”.  Striding to the head of the pack was GCH CH Thaon’s Wall Street.

We will head back to our hotel to check in on the rest of the country before we return for tonight's groups.  The fun starts at 6:00 PM EST.  Join us for reports throughout the evening.