One big family of dog lovers

WILDWOOD, N.J. - In pursuit of the perfect canine, it is a coterie that travels around the country on an almost constant calendar - as many as 40 weekends a year - for trials and competitions.

So when the handlers return with their 6,000 dogs to the Wildwoods Convention Center beginning Wednesday for the annual five-day Boardwalk Kennel Club All Breed Dog Show - a stopover on the way to that granddaddy of pooch pageants, the 139th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show held in New York next month - it will be like a pop-up dog-centric family reunion.

So down the row in the benching area - where the dogs and their owners await their turn to compete - will likely be the poodle lady who showed up late wearing her neon-green cat-eye glasses, complaining about her always-in-a-pickle love life. The all-business biz-ad guy will be there - having arrived early - counting his Rottweiler's kibble piece by piece and lightly brushing the dog's coat a precise number of times - 62 - before entering the ring.

And in between the show-dog owner stereotypes will be those blending in to let their pooches have the spotlight, who within the subculture of the circuit may with each other venture beyond acquaintance status and over the years become neighbors, friends, and even couples.

"We see the same people over and over. And over the years we've become a big, huge family," said Jennifer Modica, 50, of Cape May Court House, who has been competing with her black Russian terriers, pugs, and English mastiffs for more than 30 years. "We not only go to shows with these people and their dogs, we even meet up for holidays. They really are like another extended family for us."

About 150 breeds of dog will be judged in various categories at Wildwood, with a best-of-show winner announced at the end. A complicated system of wins and awards allows participants in regional shows, like Wildwood and the Kennel Club of Philadelphia's National Dog Show held every November, to accumulate enough points annually from October to October to qualify to participate in Westminster the following year. Many of the 2,500 dogs who will show at Westminster on Feb. 16 and 17 acquired qualifying points in Wildwood last January, said Wildwood show director Sue Shomo.

Shomo admits that the road to Westminster - including the stop-off in Wildwood - can be a long and expensive one for competitors, with entry fees, travel expenses, vet bills, and training and grooming costs. Some say it costs tens of thousand of dollars just to put one dog on the circuit each year.

But it is competition rooted in long-standing tradition, with Westminster dating back to 1877, making it the second-longest continuously held sporting event in the United States, behind only the Kentucky Derby.

"It's not a professional thing. . . . It's something that is done for the love of dogs, for a particular breed," Shomo said. "But it can be an expensive hobby."

But when the dogs arrive in Wildwood - to be judged on breed standards that include appearance, movement, temperament, and specific physical traits that make them an ideal specimen of that breed, - they will converge in a caravan of motor homes and minivans brought by their owners and handlers to this Cape May County resort for a 50-year Jersey Shore tradition that began in Atlantic City and moved to Wildwood 15 years ago.

Like at Westminster, the dogs will be judged in seven groups: sporting, hound, working, terrier, toy, nonsporting, and herding.

"It's really an exciting thing for everyone involved - the dog owners, the handlers, the exhibitors, the general public who comes to the show," said Shomo. "People who love dogs really appreciate the opportunity to interact with so many dogs and so many people who also love them."

Shomo is expecting about 6,000 members of the general public to come to the show over the course of the five days. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for senior citizens, and $2 for children 12 and under.

Competitions begin at 8 a.m. daily for specific breeds, and exhibitors will display and sell dog-related wares. The show also features obedience and rally trials, and there will be police K-9 demonstrations Saturday. Information on specific competitions and activities is at www.BoardwalkKennelClub.com.

"For us, it always comes back to the love for our dogs," said Modica, who will be showing several of her eight dogs this week, including her 2-year-old Russian black terrier, a 160-pound working dog nicknamed Sam, who competes under the prestigious-sounding moniker Ebonies Pride Russkiy Vityaz Ares of Agincourt.

Tina Camp, of Leesburg, the owner of a Chesapeake Bay retriever called Goose - aka Chesabars Duck Duck Goose - that will also compete this week, agrees.

"We're all very close, even beyond family in some ways," said Camp, 50, who works as a title clerk at a car dealership and who has competed at Westminster. "But when we get in the ring, we're definite competitors."

In the meantime, amid a backdrop of constant barking, there will be the usual hum of human jibber-jabber about the deaths, divorces, and assorted dramas that have ensued since this group last got together to scrub, spray, brush, tease, and ready their beloved best friends for the ring.

But no matter what the scoop may be, the stories always go back to the dogs.

"Whenever we all go out to a restaurant," Camp said, "the hostess will put us all in a table way in the back because they know we're just going to sit there all night talking incessantly about dogs . . . loudly."