For dog lovers, watching Rumor — the German shepherd named best in show this week at the 141st Westminster
Kennel Club Dog Show — glide around Madison Square Garden with her owner was thrilling.
And if you decide to hire a professional handler to show your dog rather than do it yourself, those costs add up.”
Ms. Conway said a handler for a regular show costs $100 to $125, plus travel expenses.
Julie Schuh, the corresponding secretary of the Puli Club of America, said the time between one
and two years is the most labor-intensive for an owner.
“When you go back the next day, they smell musty.”
Ms. Schuh, who works for an electrical contactor in Appleton, Wis., said she
sometimes leaves her show Puli in the crate while she’s at work, dryers on.
“It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to have the top dog,” said Kim Vavolo,
who has been breeding and showing American cocker spaniels for 22 years.
“It’s very unpredictable,” said Mary Wiest, who for the past 50 years has been breeding
and showing Labradors from her kennel, Beechcroft Labradors in Warren, N. J.
But if something goes wrong, you can lose a lot.”
“In all the years I’ve been breeding, probably five of those years I’ve made money,” she said.
