The Nanaimo Kennel Club Dog Show is set for Beban Park this week.
According to Sandi Malcolm, a kennel club director and event organizer, the show is the biggest on Vancouver Island and events will run from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, Thursday (June 12) through Sunday.
She said that there are about the same number of entries as last year, with about 1,300 dogs over the four days of the show.
Conformation rings and competition will take place outside the Centennial Building while grooming will take place inside. Obedience and rally obedience will be held on the lawn bowling green across from the building.
“We’re doing a new event this year which is called benching and at the major dog shows around the world, you’ll find that when they bench a dog, they put a dog on a table and to the people that are there, you talk about the dog’s good points, bad points, what kind of families they suit, they don’t suit, all that sort of thing, health issues, testing,” said Malcolm, adding it’s about education.
The Canadian Kennel Club will also be present and will pass out information to children and adults related to how to find a dog.
Benching will take place all four days of the show at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., with each featuring a different breed of dog.
There is no admission and the public is welcome to walk around and look at all the dogs and while it might be noisy with all the barking, Malcolm also said it’s fun and the dogs are all contained.
“We really, really encourage the public to come out because it is a family event and it’s free,” Malcolm said. “You can spend all day here and never see the same thing twice.”
For information on the show, please contact Malcolm at mimicker@shaw.ca or go to the kennel club’s website, www.nanaimokennelclub.ca.
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com