A Picture-Blog Of Our Eukanuba Experience

Now that Jen and I have had a chance to get home and debrief ourselves, perhaps I can give you a better view of the incredible and awesome experience we had at the AKC / Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach, California on December 4th and 5th. It will also give me a chance to publicly thank our hosts for the wonderful access we enjoyed while there.

For those of you who are new to the "dog show hobby world" (to borrow a phrase from a lawsuit to get back two of Jen's dogs taken from the kennel in 2009), you need to know what the AKC / Eukanuba National Championship is. According to my research, the AKC / Eukanuba National Championship is THE American Kennel Club's major show. It is not sponsored by a local kennel club - unlike the "National Dog Show" (hosted by the Philadelphia Kennel Club and Purina) or the "Westminster" (hosted by the Westminster Kennel Club in New York). While the National Dog Show and Westminster are indeed very prestigious shows and many champions and grand champion dogs attend these events, a dog must be invited to the Eukanuba, making it - in my opinion - the "Stanley Cup Finals" of dog shows.

(If this information is not correct, I would appreciate a redirect and I will post the correction)

In other words, the AKC / Eukanuba is a BIG DEAL! :)

So what follows is a rather long picture-blog of our adventure at the 2010 AKC / Eukanuba National Championship and the Eukanuba World Challenge:


Entrance to the Long Beach Arena


Blogger round table discussion with our incredible hosts Jason, Jenifer, and AKC Assistant Vice-President Gina DiNardo, who will also be a commentator during the broadcast of the event (scheduled for January 23rd on ABC).

Not pictured (as my pics were terrible) was the round table discussion with high level members of the AKC, P&G Pet Products / Eukanuba, and two distinguished members of the Fédération Cynologique Internationale. Most of this discussion centered around the Eukanuba World Challenge, which was also held at this event.


We were then escorted into the Arena where the televised event was to take place. Judging of Best Of Breed or Variety (the winners of Best Of Breed or Variety would represent that breed or variety in their "Group", such as the Hound group, Toy group, Working group, etc.) took place in the convention center earlier in the day. This picture is where group winners would have their picture taken.


This is the entrance to the ring, where all of the dogs, handlers and judges would enter and exit.


While looking over the winners circle and the 2nd through 4th areas, we were shown our seats - in front of the large AKC logo, on risers, 10 feet from the edge of the ring. Incredible!!!


The blogger tour group. Left to right: Jason from P&G/Eukanuba, Jenifer from P&G/Eukanuba, the blogger known as "Knobnotes", blogger Dr. V, Bev from P&G/Eukanuba, and Jennifer.


This is the view from our seats the night of the show - how AWESOME!


Bloggers at work.

This was an incredible opportunity afforded to us from the folks at Eukanuba, and I want to publicly thank Jason, Jenifer and Bev, as well as all of the other wonderful people who were responsible for this. Your hospitality was warm and welcoming. When Jennifer was invited to blog for this event, we never dreamed it would be like this. Thank you so very much for everything. :)

Next up - SHOWTIME!!!