Longview (Texas) News Journal
Boxer takes top prize in Longview Kennel Club's 49th annual show
By: Glenn Evans
Monday, July 17, 2006

The Longview Kennel Club Dog Show has been a jumping off point for standard schnauzers bred by Vivian Kurowski and Bob Fadick for 16 years.

"We start our puppies here every year," Kurowski said, explaining that dogs must be 6 months old to enter American Kennel Club shows like the one the Longview club has sponsored for 49 years. Their pup Hal, more grandly known as Hartgersotten's Mystic Magic, just turned 7 months old Saturday, winning the best of breed category.

Fadick and Kurowski, a married couple from Wylie, also brought Hal's pal, Mariah, better known to judges as Hartgersotten's Mystic wind.

"(This is) their first show as a puppy," Kurowski said.

They weren't alone at the 2006 dog show, which attracted its capacity of 1,000 entrants, each with a human or two at the end of a leash, plus some 300 families who just came to watch the fun. Longview Kennel Club President Celia Robinson said dog lovers from 28 states, Canada and the Virgin Islands attended the show.

Shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday, about 175 people filled Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center. Winners of contests that occurred earlier were competing in seven group categories in the main arena, while the last of the breed contests was pitting standard poodles, the tall ones, against each other at the end of the ballroom.

Amid the pens, travel cages and grooming tables filling eastern one-third of the activity center, Jane Wood of Lewisville and Longview handler Thomas Vinson were preparing to leave with Wood's American Eskimos, Chloe and Meg.

This is the third time Wood has come to the Longview event, which she likes because she knows her judges almost as well as she knows her critters.

"I usually try to come to shows where the judges like the look of my dogs," she said, distinguishing between long fur and fluffy fur, describing a "foxy look."

"It's just a different type of look that different judges like," she said. "If you show long enough and hit enough judges, you get a feel for what they like."

Wood didn't literally mean, hitting judges — very few of them like that, if any.

Grand champions were named from each of the seven groups; the Best of Show dog emerged from among those seven.

The 2006 Best of Show is a boxer named Bayview Some Like It Hot, which had won the Working Group category. The boxer took best in show honors both Saturday and Sunday, and notched her 40th top honor Sunday. (The Longview show repeats on Saturday and Sunday.) Bayview Some Like It Hot is owned by C.K. Robbins and R.S. Cormier of Flower Mound.

The other six grand champions were:

- Sporting Group: a clumber spaniel named Clussexx Crayola Crayon, owned by Beth Dowd, Aaron Owens and Wayne Holbrook of North Carolina;

- Hound Group, a 15-inch beagle named Bayou Oaks Longhorn Trouble, owned by Alyce Gilmour and Sharon Wilkerson of Louisiana;

- Terrier Group, an Irish terrier named Geordan Tiger Lily owned by Cecilia Ruggle and Daniel and Georgiana Sackos of Connecticut;

- Toy Group, a shih tzu named Winterholmes Hollywood Award, owned by Wendy Howard of Canada;

- Non-Sporting Group, a bichon frise named High Ridge Is Judges Choice, owned by Ruggle and Mini Winkler of Connecticut;

- and Herding Group, an old English sheepdog named Bugaboos Big Resolution owned by D. and M.A. Johnson and Bridget Callahan of Colorado Springs, Colo.