Oodles of poodles at the fair

Poodle Show

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Michelle Harrell from Florida and her poodles will be entertaining at the Trumbull County Fair.

Photo by: William D. Lewis

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Michelle Harrell guides one of her poodles through a hoop during a show at the Trumbull County Fair. Harrell travels the country with her poodles doing shows.

Photo by: William D. Lewis

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SITTING PRETTY: Two of poodle handler Michelle Harrell’s dogs sat and watched during Harrell’s show Tuesday at the Trumbull County Fair. Harrell said she will put on a show twice every afternoon through Saturday.

Photo by: William D. Lewis

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DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: Poodle handler Michelle Harrell shows that her poodles can jump through hoops, retrieve a pretend baby in a pretend burning house and otherwise ham it up. They were performing tricks Tuesday, the Trumbull County Fair’s opening day.

By Ed Runyan

The county fair will close Sunday evening with a fireworks display.

Poodle handler Michelle Harrell showed on the Trumbull County Fair’s opening day that the animal incorrectly known as the “French Poodle” can do more than just look cute.

Blondie, Emelia and Pirouette, the three curly haired canines Harrell shows all over the United States, were a little tentative in their first performance Tuesday at the fairgounds in Bazetta. But they warmed up by show’s end — and warmed to the children who greeted them even more.

“It has been my dream job to travel around with them,” said Harrell, a Pensacola, Fla., resident who travels with the dogs about six months a year to fairs and festivals.

The dogs jump through hoops, retrieve a pretend baby in a pretend burning house and otherwise ham it up.

“They’re a joy to work with,” said Harrell.

Harrell jokes with her volunteers during the show, with warnings about holding rings properly for the dogs to jump through — or “you’ll have to be the ‘pooper scooper,’ and the scooper is broken.”

Unlike most performances at the fair, Harrell’s shows will repeat twice every afternoon through Saturday. The fair, which concludes Sunday night with fireworks, costs $7 per person. The fairgrounds are on Everett Hull Road, about a mile north of state Route 305 on the west side of Mosquito Lake.

At the end of the 20-minute performance, spectators are permitted to pet the dogs, which were happy to meet humans after their Tuesday show.

One thing Harrell asks that patrons not do is feed the poodles.

The poodle breed did not originate in France, as some people think, Harrell said. Instead, they are thought to have been found first in Germany, where the name poodle came from the German word pudel, meaning “to splash in water.”

Poodles were first hunting and duck-retrieving dogs whose coats protected them from water and debris and kept them afloat while working in the water.

When Harrell is not performing with her poodles this week, she also will perform as a living statue, meaning that she stands perfectly still, and people won’t be able to tell for sure if she is a true or pretend statue.

Tuesday was the first day when most of the livestock were in their barns, with many of the animals getting a bath from their handlers.

Cloudy conditions and intermittent rain appeared to diminish attendance numbers and kept ride lines short.

runyan@vindy.com

SEE ALSO: Trumbull County Fair Schedule.