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Perfect Hair, Nails ... But She's Still a Dog

Posted on: Sunday, 25 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By John Sutter, The Daily Oklahoman

Jun. 25--Tiger Lily is a princess, a primadonna of the dog world who gets a weekly pedicure and takes diet supplements to make her amber coat slick and shiny.

OKC Summer Classic Dog Shows List of breed standards

She has her own cage in a 40-foot recreational vehicle; a pillow bed fluffy enough to rest her dainty legs. And a hot-water, stainless steel bath tub at home, complete with a staircase entrance.

Her owner, Dr. Diane Young, hopes the Rhodesian Ridgeback will win at least one first-prize ribbon at the OKC Summer Classic Dog Shows this week.

"She's sassy. She gets on the rug, and she's sassy," Young said. "That's what gets her out and pulls her away from the other dogs."

The dog show will be from 8 a.m. to about 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday at the Cox Convention Center in downtown Oklahoma City. About 1,800 dogs, from across the country and some from foreign countries, will be judged in four separate shows for how well they conform to a written breed standard. A best of show will be crowned each day as the overall winner for all breeds.

About 145 breeds will compete, said Wendy Musgrove, spokeswoman for the show. Informational booths will be set up so potential pet owners can learn about breeds that may be right for them.

In the dog show circuit, dogs compete primarily for points and status, not money. Dogs carry point rankings with them from show to show and move up and down in their overall status within a breed based on those points.

The OKC Summer Classic will feature a variety of contests, but most are centered around how a dog looks. The American Kennel Club publishes a list of standards for each breed of dog -- how big their head should be, the appropriate fur texture, the correct height and weight. Most competitions start divided by breed (Labrador Retriever or Chihuahua, for instance) and then proceed to contests by breed groups (sporting or toy dogs).

The Rhodesian Ridgeback is a large member of the hound group that's identifiable by a stripe of hair on its back that grows in the opposite direction from the rest of its smooth coat. The dogs are native to southern Africa. Their packs have been known to pin down lions so hunters could make a kill.

Tiger Lily's life is much too frilly for all that, and Young pampers her so that she stays within show standards.

The standards are many and are specific.

"The ridge should be clearly defined, tapering and symmetrical. It should start immediately behind the shoulders and continue to a point between the prominence of the hips," according to breed standards on the American Kennel Club's Web site. The guidelines go so far as to specify how swirling hair patterns in the ridge should look.

The Ridgeback's fur should be "light wheaten to red wheaten." And the eyes should match the hair, it states.

But for Young, the most important thing about the breed is its facial expression. Good show dogs have to convince judges that they love being in shows and have big personalities waiting to bubble out from beneath their well-polished show personas.

Her face "has to be curious, inquisitive -- but smart, you know. Not an intense look but a kind look, like she wants you to be her friend," Young said.

After they're judged for appearance in the show, dogs trot alongside their handlers in any pattern the judge determines. This is the key time for Tiger Lily to show her personality, Young said. And it's not like she doesn't have the practice. Since she was a pup, Tiger Lily has gone through obedience training. Her incentives are treats -- hunks of steak and pig liver that Young marinates in garlic sauce.

Dogs at this week's show will compete in obedience and training categories as well as conformation to breed standards, Musgrove said.

Young said Tiger Lily has earned enough points to get her halfway to "champion" status. Then she'll start competing for best in show awards. Young travels the country with her husband in her RV -- rigged to carry three dog cages. It's her life, she said, and she wouldn't want it any other way.

"We do it almost every weekend. We don't have kids; the dogs are our kids," she said. "Our vacation schedules -- everything -- are scheduled around the dog shows."

Visit NewsOK.com for more information on the OKC Summer Classic Dog Shows and for a list of breed standards.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Daily Oklahoman

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