Bolado park is buzzing this weekend with the roar of
industrial-sized blow driers, yips and barks from dogs of all sizes
and the hum of ribbon talk.
Tres Pinos – Bolado park is buzzing this weekend with the roar of industrial-sized blow driers, yips and barks from dogs of all sizes and the hum of ribbon talk.
The sixth annual Gavilan Kennel Club Dog Show will bring about 900 dogs and their owners to San Benito County over the next two days to compete for the titles of most obedient, Best of Breed, and the coveted Best in Show.
Friday’s specialized all-golden retriever competition drew goldens from all over the state. Some, like Travis, a platinum-blond retriever from San Jose stood patiently as their owners primped, trimmed, combed and dried their long coats. Others trotted in circles alongside their owners as judges looked for their picks for Best of Breed.
“Right now a lot of people wanted to come to this show because of the location,” said Gavilan Kennel Club President Kathie Dettmer. “They like the grounds or they live nearby. There’s one or two shows in California every week, and this week the other one was down in Southern California. So a lot of people come here that might not want to go all the way down there.”
Finnegan, a 2-year-old golden retriever from Orinda, and his owner Suzanne Bria took second in the American Breed competition Thursday.
“It’s a ribbon; we’ll take it,” Bria said with a laugh as she and friend Christine Hsu and her retriever Lola watched the competition from a sunny patch of grass.
Although it’s early in the competition season, dogs like Finnegan are already stockpiling their wins for national ranking later in the year. After each competition, a dog will receive one point for every dog it’s beaten in that show. At the end of the season, dogs are nationally ranked based on point accumulation.
Sharon Shilkoff brought her golden retrievers up all the way from Los Angeles for this weekend’s specialty competition, and though her dogs didn’t walk away with any awards, she said she’d hang around for the rest of the weekend just to watch the other dogs compete.
According to Dettmer, this year’s show will bring thousands of people like Shilkoff out to San Benito County this weekend, and they’ll either set up camp in a motorhome out on the field next to the show area or stay in the increasingly-hard-to-find hotels that will accept animals.
“Hotels don’t understand that these are very well-groomed, well-behaved dogs,” Dettmer said.
But, according to Dettmer, this weekend is about more than just the dogs: This show is also aimed at bringing in tourists and showing people that San Benito County can pull an event like this off.
“People had been having to go to Gilroy or Salinas for a dog show (before),” she said. “But now, this means a couple thousand visitors here. They fill their cars up with gas here and they stop on the way to town to buy groceries here. And we think Bolado park is a terrific spot and we’d like to continue having the show there.”
