By Pat Gellerman

About a four hour drive from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a booming seaside resort city called Mar Del Plata. Here, in this beautiful town, The Association Canina Marplatense held its annual dog shows on Feb. 16 and 17, the weekend following our Westminster shows.

Returning from New York City on the night of February 13, I dumped my winter clothes on the guest room bed, packed summer clothes for Argentina and was on the plane from Miami to Buenos Aires the next day. February is vacation month for Argentina and businesses are all closed with everyone flocking to the beaches. This was the case where I was judging and it accounts for the smaller than usual entry.

However, the quality of the dogs was high and a beautiful doberman bitch from Argentina went BIS at all three shows. This bitch is from the Lex Luthor Kennel and is a grand champion in most of the South Am-erican countries as well as Mexico, and has all but three points to finish her American championship. She is now a little more that two years old and is a wonderful representative of the breed.

There were judges from Argentina, Brazil, and Spain, and I represented the American Kennel Club. The professional handlers were excellent and the building very adequate for this small show. The president of the club, Horacio Perez Vidal was very gracious and fortunately his wife, Susana, spoke perfect English. They showed us the city and all the great restaurants. Every evening we were entertained in various restaurants and sampled the wonderful Argentinian food and wine.

My steward who spoke passable English kept me in line and in the other ring (there were two rings) to bring their exhibits into my ring. Unlike here in the U.S., handlers did not have their assistants show their dogs, hence we were allowed, and expected, to wait for them.

The dogs were in very good condition and there was good depth in Dobermans, Beagles, Poodles, Labradors, Pointers and Bulldogs.