Purebreds primped to prance at top show at Expo Center

[DoozyDog]

Rose City Classic - 15,000 people are expected to see the 4,000 dogs over the four-day run, which ends today

Sunday, January 22, 2006
KATY MULDOON

Wrapped in luxurious black and white fur, the model lifted her chin, tilted her head and, like a pro, shot a moist-eyed glance down the photographer's lens.

"That's nice. That's fabulous. That's beautiful," said Dan Hogan, the compliments gushing as his camera clicked. "Gorgeous. Gorgeous!"

Yes, those bony runway models have nothing on Panda, the singularly named Siberian husky who posed, as so many did Saturday, at the biggest fashion extravaganza this side of Paris -- the Rose City Classic Dog Show, which ends its four-day run today at the Portland Expo Center. Organizers expect that by the end of the weekend, 15,000 spectators will have panted over the 4,000 purebreds entered in what has grown to be one of the nation's top dog shows.

On Saturday, dog lovers streamed through the Expo Center's doors with such enthusiasm they must have known they were about to get a W-A-L-K.

They were there to check out how obedient the otter hounds were and whether the borzois behaved, to see how well the corgis conformed, and on the agility courses, to find an answer to the "Who-could-beat?" question: the Shetland sheepdog or the cocker?

For those who enter their canine companions, events such as the Rose City show are serious sporting business. Dogs compete to qualify for such Olympian events as the American Kennel Club's National Obedience Championships.

Behind the show rings, cavernous halls serve as makeshift salons. Clippers buzzed. Hair dryers hummed. Silky coats got teased, smoothed and parted just so, as dogs stood, patiently enduring the process. Others, like Tula, a white standard poodle from Lake Oswego, seemed to think enough was enough. She squirmed as breeder Evelyn Sera snipped her coat into a glamorous English Saddle Trim, one of two AKC-approved poodle 'dos.

Sera would spend three hours readying Tula for showtime, which would last, perhaps, two minutes. She didn't mind. "In this breed," she said, "it's a labor of love."

With love, though, comes tension. In one show ring Saturday, men and women in dressy suits, comfortable shoes and grim expressions gripped their schnauzers' leashes and trotted circles in graceful unison. Two judges, each with hands clasped in prayerful poses, turned slowly as the pairs passed. They consulted quietly, adjourned to the judges' table and, one by one, handed out ribbons.

Back at Dan Hogan's makeshift portrait studio, Family Tree Imaging, Erika Kronenberg of Eugene watched her husky's pictures pop up on a computer screen. She debated: the horizontal or the vertical? The pose in which Panda looked regal, or the one that captured her goofy, tongue-happy side?

Panda, meanwhile, scooted under the table, rested her head on her owner's feet and, apparently exhausted by her modeling gig, drifted off to sleep.

Katy Muldoon: 503-221-8526; katymuldoon@news.oregonian.com