Champion Double Ring Moonlight
Serenade takes GROUP 4th at the 2001 EUKANUBA
Classic Invitational (Orlando FL.)
Sera had only been seriously into her show career for
about six months when she went to the AKC Eukanuba
Classic Invitational. The Classic is by invitation only,
and invitations are based on breed point wins.
Unfortunately, I had to work, so Sera went off to the
show in Florida with her handler, Rhanda Glenn.
I anxiously watched the AKC website for any news from
the show. Fortunately, my boss was a very tolerant dog
person himself! I waited impatiently for the call to tell me how
the Kuvasz breed judging went.
Finally the call came. Sera had won Best of Breed
Kuvasz!
The Working Group competition was going to be that
evening.
For those who do not understand dog shows...
First,
the dog has to be chosen as the
Best of Breed to be eligible to show in their
respective group. The Kuvasz is part of the Working
Group.
Next,
all of the Best of Breed winners meet to compete in
their respective groups: the Herding, Sporting, Toy,
Terrier, Hound and Non-Sporting groups. Of course, we
were mostly interested in the Working Group.
I had been watching the other Best of Breed winners on
my computer all day. All were top winning dogs with
multiple Best in Show wins.
Competition was going to be really
tough, but we would at least get to see Sera briefly on
TV when they aired the show.
A friend of ours had traveled to Florida to see the show
and stayed to watch the Group judging that night. She
surprised me with a phone call during the Working Group
judging. The judge was Roger Hartinger. I could hear
some of the loud speaker noise in the background as they
introduced each of the dogs. She filled me in on what I
was
missing.
He began making his "cut" (meaning he was pulling out
several dogs for additional consideration). There are
only four placements available, but he had pulled out
several dogs from the group. Sera was one of those!
All I could think of at the time was
that we would see more of her on TV.
After he moved the dogs a second time, he pulled out his
Group 1st winner. I could hear the loud speaker and my
friend, Jo, was confirming who he had chosen. I heard
the Group 2nd winner and I heard the Group 3rd winner.
Then everyone started screaming and stomping!
Jo was screaming into the phone and I
couldn't understand what she was saying. My husband was
home with me and asked me what was going on. I told him
I didn't have a clue. There was so much screaming going
on that I didn't know what had happened. Jo kept
screaming at me and I kept telling her I couldn't
understand.
Finally, a friend who had accompanied
her to the show took the phone from her and FINALLY told
me that Sera had won the Group 4th!
All I could do was cry.
My husband was still sitting here trying to find out
what had happened.
It still brings tears to my eyes to think about it.
All
of the screaming came from the crowd around them. For
some of them had decided on Sera as their
favorite. For others, they had
picked up that Jo was talking to Sera's breeder/owner
and the excitement was contagious.
It was one of the greatest memories I have from our dog
show history and I was still in my own living room! I
don't think it could have been any more exciting if I
had been there in the bleachers!
I will always think about, and appreciate, that timely
phone call from Jo Stubbs.
And Sera remains the first, and so far the only, Kuvasz
to win a prestigious Group placement at the Invitational
in December 2001!
—Kathy
OO
GO BACK to Sara's page
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One of the highlights of our conformation show career in
Kuvasok was the day our "Sera" competed at the
prestigious Eukanuba Classic. To date, Sera is the FIRST
and ONLY Kuvasz to win a GROUP placement at that show!
Go to Sera's page
here
Video of the show will hopefully be online in the future.
Please come back and see it!
click pictures to see large versions. Click your
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