Ruff competition: Area hounds to compete in national dog show

By KATIE SEMINARA

Two of Bob Urban’s hound dogs “have a little bit of ham in them,” he said.

That trait will favor Camilla, an American foxhound, and Zeke, a black and tan coonhound, while competing in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden, which starts today.

Urban, 47, of Orwell in Ashtabula County, and his girlfriend, Megan Anderson, 34, of Boardman, packed up the dogs and headed to New York City on Saturday.

“They are used to traveling,” Anderson said of 2-year-old Camilla and 5-year-old Zeke.

The dogs have competed in many shows before, but both will be first-timers at Westminster.

In the dog showing realm, Westminster is considered one of the most “prestigious” of competitions, Anderson said.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is known as America’s Dog Show.

The kennel club was established in 1877, and the same year the First Annual New York Bench Show of Dogs was hosted at Gilmore’s Garden, the forerunner of Madison Square Garden, according to www.westminsterkennelclub.org.

“Westminster’s claim to fame is that it’s the oldest [show],” Urban said.

“It’s the toughest to get in to,” added Anderson.

The show entered 1,201 dogs in its first year and now hosts about 170 different breeds, totaling more than 2,000 entered dogs. The annual show is the second-longest continuously hosted sporting event in the U.S., a year behind the Kentucky Derby, according to its Web site.

Urban has witnessed the event first-hand since 1985 and is confident that Camilla and Zeke will perform to the show’s standards.

“I think we’re going with the best two in their breeds,” said Urban.

“It would be nice to win best of breed with both of them,” he said. “Whatever happens after that would be gravy.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.