Owners, handlers bring purebred dogs to show
FRANKLIN TWP — The Big Butler Fairgrounds was starting to fill up with purebred dogs Friday afternoon, making themselves at home for a weekend away from home.
More than 1,600 dogs of 131 breeds are competing at the fairgrounds this weekend at the Butler County Kennel Club's annual Autumn Classic.
The show attracts dogs, their owners, professional handlers and spectators from the region and from out of state, show chairman Jean Kroll said.
There will be more than 800 dogs competing on each of the two days of the show, which the club has been doing for more than 70 years.
It is a conformation show, meaning the dogs are judged on their conformation to standards specific to their breed.
Each of the more than 250 breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club have their own national club that sets the breeding standards, Kroll said.
In many cases dogs in the United States have been bred over the years to look differently from their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Many breeds of dogs were historically used to herd livestock or protect its masters, but now dogs are bred and taught to be comfortable in an urban environment as a family companion. There also has been an increase recently in the number of dogs being used as therapy animals.
“They have to get along with people in the world,” Kroll said. “Dogs play a huge role in today's society.”
Arthur Peterson and his wife, Sandi, of Huntsburg Township, Ohio, brought one Boston terrier to show. They brought all four of their dogs, three Boston terriers and a pug.
Peterson said they have owned various breeds of dogs and taken them to shows for more than 35 years.
Having the dogs at home is like a “security blanket.”
“We laugh seven days a week at them in the house,” he said.
The shows are a fun time and offer a chance to make friends with other dog owners, he said.
“If it's not fun it's not worth coming for. If we win we win, if we don't, we have a good time,” he said.
Mary Yoders of Mount Morris, Greene County, brought a golden retriever and a Newfoundland to show.
“People think it's a beauty pageant. It's really not a beauty pageant show; each dog is bred to do a certain job,” she said.
Golden retrievers, for example, are bred to retrieve birds for hunters and thus need to get a lot of exercise and have muscle definition.
Altha Graham, a member of the Butler County Kennel Club, was helping to set up and run the show. But that didn't mean she didn't bring her dogs with her.
Graham had five of her six wire fox terriers, which were playing outside in a pen near her RV. Graham and her husband frequently travel to shows. There are enough shows within a five-hour drive of Western Pennsylvania that a dog owner could go to a show almost every weekend of the year.
“This is how I spend my retirement. Sometimes I wish I was still working, it was a lot less tiring,” she said.
Spectators are welcome at the show, which runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.
Though breeders are not allowed to sell dogs at the show, it can be a chance for a prospective owner to learn about dogs and dog shows.
“If they want to research a breed, they can talk to the people who breed and show them,” Kroll said.
