Best in Show by Laurien Berenson Page A

were being shown by a professional. It’s extremely important that a dog focus on his handler while he’s in the ring. The handler knows how to present the dog to its best advantage; he watches the judge and positions the dog accordingly. A dog that’s inattentive to its handler’s cues or distracted by its owner in the audience, is unlikely to give the winning performance.
    Bearing those factors in mind, Edith Jean would need to position herself in such a way that she had an unobstructed view of the class but that Bubba could neither see, hear, nor smell her. The quest to achieve such a goal often led to comical antics at ringside, with owners bobbing up and down, and into and out of sight, depending on which direction their dogs were facing. Wherever E.J. was planning to go, she certainly didn’t need to be tied to the raffle table.
    â€œKeep your fingers crossed for us,” she said. “Now, after what’s happened, I want Bubba to win more than ever. What a nice tribute that would be to Sister’s memory.”
    â€œYesterday you seemed to think he had a pretty good shot.”
    â€œYes, well . . .” Her gaze slipped away. “Harry Gandolf’s been lobbying pretty heavily for that dog of his, Vic. And Leo Mancini, the Toy judge, comes from the Midwest, so he and Harry are pretty tight.”
    Judging dogs is supposed to be a totally objective exercise. Judges should enter the ring carrying nothing but a mental image of the breed standard in their minds. More often than not, however, the dog that has generated the ringside buzz is—deservedly or not—the one that ends up at the head of the line.
    E.J. was right to be wary of advance, word-of-mouth promotion. It had worked to dogs’ advantage many times in the past. Now she shook her head.
    â€œSomething’s up with Harry and that puppy of his,” she said. “I wish I knew what it was. Sister and I don’t go to many shows and Harry Gandolf’s never said two words to me before in my entire life. But don’t you know, there he was bright and early this morning, standing outside my hotel room and wanting to ask me if I was going to pull Bubba from the competition on account of what happened.”
    â€œThat’s pretty rude. What did you tell him?”
    â€œI said, ‘Son, they don’t call southern women steel magnolias for nothing. My sister was looking forward to watching Bubba win PCA and if I have anything to say about it, that’s exactly what our boy is going to do.’ Then I just pushed right past him and left”
    â€œHe’s a professional handler,” I said thoughtfully. “I imagine he probably brought a whole string of Poodles to this show. I wonder why winning with that one puppy is so important to him?”
    â€œBeats me,” said Edith Jean. “All I can say is that Sister’s and my lives were a whole lot calmer before Bubba started winning this spring and Harry started making threats.”
    I turned and stared. “Wait a minute. I thought you just said you’d never spoken to him before this morning.”
    â€œThat’s right. Leastways, not in person. But I sure as hell knew who he was. Just like he knew me. Roger, our handler . . .” She stopped, glanced my way. “You know Roger?”
    I nodded. I knew who he was.
    â€œRoger heard from Harry a month or so ago. Right after Bubba did all his winning on the Cherry Blossom circuit. Harry said he had a client who was interested in Bubba and was he for sale. Hell, no, Sister and I said. Bubba’s the best thing that’s happened to us in years. He’s not for sale.”
    â€œAnd then?”
    â€œNext thing Roger knew, someone had put the word out that Bubba was oversize. Now you Standard people don’t have to worry about that, but with Toys it’s a big deal.”
    I knew about that. It was important with Miniatures as well. The Poodle breed