Unleashing the competition

Their conversations are one-way, but Debra Evalds knows Scarlett is looking forward to her big weekend.

"If she didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't show her," Evalds says, confident she knows Scarlett's feelings as she prepares the 4-year-old vizsla for this year's Kennel Club of Philadelphia dog shows.

On Saturday and Sunday, Scarlett and about 1,400 other canine contestants will compete for top-dog honors at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Montgomery County.

Bill Burland, the shows' director, hopes that the venue, with its plentiful parking and spacious layout, will become a permanent home for the event, which has been staged at various locations in the area in recent years.

Burland expects the number of entrants to be smaller than at some past shows because of the recession, with tight budgets cutting the number of visitors from outside the area.

But he believes the event will remain what he calls "the best public-education show" on the major-league dog-show circuit.

The competition, which goes back to 1879, is known as a "benched show." When not actually in the contest, dogs, owners, handlers, and judges are available for spectators to see close-up, find out more about, and frequently pet (just the dogs, please).

It's a great place to learn about dogs and dog shows, and families deciding whether to get a dog or what breed to choose find the shows a good way to help them decide.

"It's a laid-back place where you can really talk to the owners," says Evalds, an elementary schoolteacher who lives in Haverford. She has been active in promoting the vizsla breed - the original hunting dogs of Austro-Hungarian nobility - but avoids the year-round grind experienced by the most competitive owners and their dogs.

Owners frequently show their own dogs in the Philadelphia shows, but Scarlett - Ch. Rheingold Erda Scarlett Sonja, to be precise - is handled in the ring by Roxanne and Jessy Sutton of Quakertown, mainly for one reason. "I'm kind of clumsy," says Evalds, laughing.

This year's event offers a blend of custom and innovation. As usual, there will be two separate shows, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

NBC will tape Saturday's show for broadcast at noon Thanksgiving Day as the National Dog Show Presented by Purina. The host again will be John O'Hurley of Seinfeld and Family Feud fame.

Both days will see more than 150 breeds competing in 11 show rings. Events start with breed judging at 8:30 a.m., followed by group judging at 1 p.m. and the Best in Show competition at 5 p.m. Four or five new breeds generally are recognized by the American Kennel Club each year, Burland said.

Tours of the shows start at 9 a.m. and continue through 3 p.m. These include discussions with judges about what they look for in particular breeds, which can be surprising. Evalds, for example, says that Scarlett has a classic face, but that judging of vizslas is less concerned with that, concentrating mostly on the shape of the head rather than facial features.

At 9:30 a.m. the Family Fun Zone opens, with events including arts and crafts, a talk by a junior handler on getting into the sport of dog showing, and a moon bounce.

Both days include dog-agility demonstrations and demonstrations of "doggy dancing" to music.

On Sunday, the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School will offer seminars on canine vaccines, cancer, and cardiology.