Show Dogs, Vendors and Charities Highlight Dog Show at RCC

Last week, Cyndi Rusakovich, from Northbridge, Massachusetts, was showing one of her Pembroke Welsh Corgis in the dog’s first show — the Elms City Kennel Club’s show in New Haven, Connecticut.

Toward the end of the show, the judge pointed to her dog, and Rusakovich thought maybe the judge wanted her to move somewhere else. Then she realized that her Corgi was actually being declared the winner in the Puppy Bitches class for her breed.

Such is the life of show dog owners and breeders.

This weekend, more than 2,000 dogs and their owners are gathering at Rockland Community College for the annual Rock-Wall Winter Classic Dog Show, hosted by the Rockland County Kennel Club. The show concludes Sunday and runs from 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

Rusakovich showed another of her Corgis, Margarite, at the Winter Classic. She has been showing Corgis since 1990, and she likes the combination of the Corgi’s herding personality and small size.

“Many years ago I had a German Shepherd, and that’s a lot of dog,” explained Rusakovich. “I just feel that a Corgi has a very similar temperament; they’re also a herding dog. My personality suits having a herding dog, but a Corgi is much more compact. You can toss a Corgi into the car a lot easier than a German Shepherd. At the very least, because they have little short legs, things on the counter are fairly safe. […] If you leave a loaf of bread on the counter a German Shepherd can decide that they want the bread and it’s gone.”

Another dog appearing at the Rock-Wall Winter Classic was Great Dane Athena, owned by Mark Daren of Madison, Connecticut, who has been showing dogs for a total of 12 years. Athena became a champion while she was in the puppy class, a rare feat in the dog showing world. Dogs pile up points based on how many other dogs are at shows they win, and shows worth three points or higher are considered majors, according to the American Kennel Club website. A dog that obtains 15 total points, including at least two majors, becomes a champion.

“It’s a good activity to take your dog out, get socialized, have some fun,” said Daren about dog shows. “It is a little bit on the completive side, so you have to have a kind of competitive streak to you, but it’s an opportunity for you to show off what you’re doing from the breeders’ standpoint, that you’re producing really good dogs. Just because a dog isn’t a show dog doesn’t make it a bad dog in any way shape or form. […] It’s a way of seeing what other dogs are out there, and sharing the love of the Great Dane with other people.”

Also participating in the dog show were Joe and Pat Borracci and their daughter Veronica, from Dix Hill, Long Island. Pat and Joe, who is a “Star Trekker” according to his wife, were showing two of their English Mastiffs, Spock, who is 17 months old, and Bones, who is 22 months old, and they also have an 11-year-old English Mastiff show dog named Kirk.

The family first bought a Mastiff because they needed a gentle dog that would not try to attack the French Lop Rabbit that was living loose in the house. But they did not get interested in showing dogs until they actually started going to various shows.   

“We started going to shows to meet other Mastiff owners, because we didn’t really know any others and we didn’t really know enough about the breed,” said Pat Borracci. “And once we started going to shows, it looked kind of fun, we met other people, and our next dog [Kirk] was a show dog and we’ve been showing since then.”

Besides the shows themselves, there were also various vendors selling products for both dogs and humans. In one booth you could find large paintings of different types of dogs, while another vendor sold doormats with dog slogans on them, including “Beware: Dog Can’t Hold Its Licker.” Another booth was titled “Paws Up on Health” and sold healthy items for dogs to eat and chew on.

Other vendors had charitable functions. The Mid-Atlantic Great Dane Rescue League is a network of volunteers that helps both Great Danes and their owners. In particular, it rescues and cares for Great Danes that have been neglected or abandoned and then tries to find these dogs loving homes. They also help future dog owners determine if a Great Dane is right for them, because many abandoned Great Danes result from owners not knowing what goes into caring for these dogs before adopting them, according to the League’s president MaryFran Cini. Thus the volunteers at the boot brought a five-month-old Great Dane named Mercedes to the show to demonstrate what a typical member of the breed is like.

Cini said she also brought a booth to the dog show to teach dog owners and dog lovers about bloat, a twisting of the dog’s stomach that requires immediate surgery. The condition, which is more common in larger breeds like Danes, can be fatal, and there is no known cause. So Cini hoped to educated dog owners about the signs and symptoms of this disease so it can be dealt with in its earlier stages.

The American Cancer Society also had a booth at the show advertising its upcoming Bark for Life event. Bark for Life is a walk where dogs and their owners raise money for cancer research. This year’s event will be held on Sunday, May 1 at Rockland Community College. It will be the first time that the college is hosting the walk.

Also in attendance were representatives from Finding One Another, an organization that is paying tribute to both the dogs and humans in the Canine Search and Rescue Community that served during the September 11^th terrorist attacks. They are several items in exchange for donations, including the first in a series of 9/11 Search and Rescue Legacy charms. The charm is a German Shepherd designed by a New York Times staff artist who is a search-and-rescue dog handler, and they are being put together by Americans with disabilities.

“The funds that are raised are being used to underwrite the tribute activities honoring the search and rescue community, and going forward to pay for veterinary expenses that the handlers need help with,” said Linda Blick, a member of the Board of Trustees for the Tails of Hope Foundation, which is spearheading the Finding One Another tribute. “Also to fund targeted research […] that will directly benefit the search and rescue dogs.”

In the end, Rockland residents like dog-lover Mary Moore from Congers, who attends the Winter Classic every year, believe the show is a must-see event.

“This is the best day of the year," she said. They’re so good, all these dogs. They’re champions, and they’re all well-behaved and beautiful.”