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Cats, dogs reign at Pet Expo
Pet owners and their best animal friends will show off fashions, agility, rescue ability, good looks and other attributes this weekend.
By ANNE LINDBERG
Published February 18, 2004
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[Times photos: Jamie Francis]
Ginger, a Weimaraner who belongs to Jessica Alleman, practices Friday at the Upper Suncoast Dog Training Club in Clearwater. Pets will display their talents at this weekend's Pet Expo in Pinellas Park.
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Sally Foote of Clearwater encourages her Welsh Pembroke corgi, Gillie, to pass through the correct jump during training.
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PINELLAS PARK - Kurt Young runs alongside Scarlett, the Shetland sheepdog, directing her to jump and weave.
It's impossible to hear him though, because Scarlett, who looks like a miniature collie, constantly barks as she runs, jumps and crosses obstacles.
"Good job! Good girl!" he tells her when they're finished. Young hugs Scarlett and says, "Poor thing's all barked out . . . . She's not a real big barker until this happens, then a whole new personality arises."
This is dog agility, which has been popularized recently with televised national championships on the Animal Planet network. It is a competitive sport open to any dog, pedigreed or mutt, testing the teamwork between a dog and its handler over a timed series of obstacles.
The course is 160 yards long, or about 11/2 times the length of a football field. The handler directs the dogs to jump hurdles, scale ramps, cross an elevated walkway, run through tunnels, cross a seesaw, weave through a line of poles, and jump on a table and stay put for a five-count.
This weekend at the Pinellas Expo Center, dog agility is one of the featured exhibitions at Pet Expo, where animal lovers can shop for doggie doors and pet massage therapists, pick up tips on training and care, and enter their best friends in contests, waggiest tail for example.
The activities begin Friday with the BOWser Fashion show, a "real Paris fashion show," said Joan Marzi, executive director of the Animal Foundation.
The clothes, canine and human, are designed by BoneSoir Fashion Bone-tique, which is run out of Marla Cindric's Madeira Beach home. Cindric co-owns BoneSoir with Shelli Askins.
Cindric, who designs human fashions for such notables as soap opera star Susan Lucci and television comedienne Suzanne Somers, said she became a dog designer last year. A friend asked her to design a formal dog outfit for the Bowser ball.
"It blew into this unbelievable demand," Cindric said. "They're very upscale. They're very Chanel-looking . . . . We're sort of a home-grown version of the Legally Blond look."
The BoneSoir line is intended to poke fun at a fashion industry that takes itself too seriously, she said.
The motto is "the next step in dog evolution is domestication, then sophistication because humans used to go naked, too."
As such, Cindric has created such things as "Bed in a Bone," a takeoff of "Bed in a Bag."
The "bag" is bone-shaped and, when opened, has a dog bed. She calls one fashion line "Hers and Hound" and she's preparing another that will be known as "Werewoofs of London."
"This has been the most fun I've ever had," she said. "It's very cute stuff."
For Friday's show, Cindric designed both dog and human clothes that are very much tongue in cheek.
"These models don't care about anorexia, bulimia. They actually eat for pleasure and they really don't care how they look in their clothes," Cindric said. "It should be pretty interesting because usually in New York when I do a show, the models don't poop on the side of the stage."
But if the spectacle of dogs and humans treading the fashion runway is not enough to bring a smile to spectators' faces, there are always the refreshments: Poochie punch. As in Pucci, the designer. Get it?
PET SHOW
A doggie fashion show, the Family Pet Expo, BOWser Games and a cat show will be at the Pinellas Expo Center, 10601 U.S. 19 N, this weekend. Animal adoption also will be available. The fashion show, which will benefit the Pinellas Animal Foundation, is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday. Admission is $5. The expo and games will be 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults. Children 12 and younger are free. Leashed pets are also welcome. For information, call 572-7100.
BOWSER GAMES (on the hour each day)
Best pet trick or talent, pet/owner look-a-like, tallest pet, shortest pet, longest ears, longest tail, waggiest tail, slobberiest pet
OTHER ONGOING FEATURES
Pet first aid; BowwowHaus Exhibit of doghouses made by Tampa Bay artists; Tampa Bay Feline Fanciers cat show; Sydney the Wallaby; Cash, the "Spokes-Horse" for Little Everglades Steeplechase; Tiny Pinocchio, Guinness Book of Records' Smallest Dog.
THE REST OF THE SCHEDULE
SATURDAY 11 a.m.-noon
Flying Disc Dog Demo
Dog Bite Prevention
Noon-1 p.m.
K-9 agility demonstration
1 p.m.-2 p.m.
Bucs cheerleaders and their pets for meet/greet, photos, autographs
Q&A with Florida Veterinary Specialists
2 p.m.-3 p.m.
K-9 agility demonstration
Bucs cheerleaders and their pets
Guide dog demonstration
Outdoor Pet Parade
3 p.m.-4 p.m.
Flying disc dog demonstration
Sheriff's Office K-9 Unit
4 p.m.-5 p.m.
K-9 Search and Rescue Team of Florida
Dog Training Club
5 p.m.-6 p.m.
Behavior training (dogs)
SUNDAY 11:30 a.m.-noon
K-9 Search and Rescue
Noon-1 p.m.
K-9 agility demonstration
1 p.m.-1:20 p.m.
Behavior training (cats)
Holistic healing for animals
2 p.m.-3 p.m.
K-9 agility demonstration
Housebreaking 101
Outdoor Pet Parade
3 p.m.-4 p.m.
Flying disc dog demonstration
Pinellas Park K-9 unit
- Source: Pinellas Expo Center
[Last modified February 18, 2004, 01:31:43]
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