Greater Gainesville DFA

January 24th-25th, 2009

Greater Ocala Dog Show Grounds, Ocala, FL  (Group Results below)

CLICK ON A PHOTO TO ENLARGE IT!  IT IS YOUR GREEN LIGHT TO SPEED IN LOADING!  

Greater Gainesville Dog Fanciers is in Gainesville, Florida, a city of 125,000, is the show grounds for the Greater Ocala Dog Club. Its about 40 miles north of Ocala, and Ocala is 100 miles north of Tampa, all Interstate driving.  The locals are very proud of their college, the University of Florida and the Gators. On football days, stay off Interstate 4. Just a suggestion...

You know you are getting close to Ocala by the white wood fencing and the beautiful fields with horses happily grazing. You will also see practice race tracks. Allow some time to visit one of the Thoroughbred farms. You will be dazzled by so many pickup trucks, as Ocala is considered by most of Florida as horse country. The population for Ocala as of 2007 is 53,491, with Marion County at 325,000.

The Ocala National Forest is large, peaceful and hilly. Many homes are on dirt/sand roads, and no cell service. The Ocala show site is also out in the country. You can park your motor home for $15/per night, as they have no electrical hook ups, but the many large shade trees are wonderful  So are the nice larger than normal porta-potties on the grounds.  The site also supplied porta-hand washing facilities.. had never seen these before, should have taken a photo..

Running the shows this year is a family affair. Sisters, Janet Fletcher (L) , Show Chair (Club Secretary) and Nancy Groff (R), Club President. Thanks to them it was a smooth weekend. Janet and Nancy both live in the Gainesville areas and their favorite breed for many years, is the Rottweiler. They are true Floridians and actually grew up in the same area as they live.

The Greater Gainesville Dog Fanciers Assoc was established in 1968 and have an active membership. Their training classes include Rally, obedience and conformation. They feel that the Junior handlers are the future of dog shows and thus assist, each year, three Juniors to attend and compete in their individual National Breed Shows.

Hannah Gwynn is one of the clubs active Junior Handlers. Hannah shows her PBGV in open intermediate, but first her BPGV is a big part of her everyday living and sleeping partner. Hannah is giving a great deal of thought to attending college and becoming a dolphin trainer. Do dolphin's like pretty red headed women trainers??   I bet they do!

A large variety of vendors and two beautiful days to show, visit and shop. There were three very unique food vendors, with what seemed like home made food. And as it warmed up, one very active ice cream vendor!

Florida's next shows are in Lakeland, FL Feb 12-15. A new four day cluster and indoors for a big change. Lakeland is south of I-4 between Tampa and Orlando. Until then, click on the photos to enlarge, thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.