Kennel Club

It took more than an hour of meticulous brushing, styling and blow-drying - and a little last-minute shaving - to get Marlene ready for her big moment. The intensive grooming paid off: The cocker spaniel from France was named the best female in her round during competition at the Maryland Kennel Club's 93rd All Breed Dog Show yesterday. More than 1,800 dogs competed. The top honor - Best in Show - went to Garbh Aerie of Eagle, an Irish wolfhound. The dogs competed in 12 rings against others of the same breed and age. More than 140 breeds were represented.

Tundra's favorite things are animal crackers, kissing, liver and her owners Ed, Jenna and Christopher Lipnickas, not necessarily in that order. If she suspects an animal cracker is nearby, a little frown of anxiety appears on her broad forehead, between her triangular velvet ears, and she gazes up with unblinking, warm, brown eyes and cocks her head.She gets a lot of crackers this way.Tundra is a show dog. Her formal name is American Canadian Champion Northstar's Polar Express, and she's dozing in the back of a van as it rolls through darkness from Dundalk to New York City.

NEW YORK - As a stylist daubs lipstick on Dovile Virsilaite's bee-stung lips, you notice they're the only plump thing on her. The 17-year-old model from Lithuania is a leggy beauty, but volatile. Left unattended, she barks into her cell phone. Maestro is a 3-year-old champion bichon frise from Pennsylvania. Her pink tongue hangs coquettishly over her lower teeth as her handler blow dries her luxuriant white fur. She's beautiful, but not too choosy. Left unattended, she licks the hand of any stranger who comes near her. In recent days, both these pedigreed types were put through their paces in their respective milieu: New York's Fashion Week, held in Bryant Park, and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.

When the region's finest canines strut into the 5th Regiment Armory Sunday to put on the dog at the Maryland Kennel Club's annual show, they will be greeted by Eve Ballich.As club president, she won't be showing her champion wire fox terriers in this event; instead, she and other club members will assist with the general operation of the 86th All-Breed Dog Show and Obedience Trial.Other days, though, Ballich is right in the middle of the ring, positioning her dog for the judge's keen eyes.

Marion Thompson addressed her Chinese Shar-Pei with fond impatience."Now why can't you do that in the ring? You look so good."Dekema's Spice Girl -- known at home as Holly -- tilted her head in reply and took the admonition to heart. Minutes later, she trotted into Ring 5 and emerged with a second-place ribbon, two championship points and an owner whose impatience had been replaced with triumph.Holly was one of 14 Chinese Shar-Peis competing in the 87th Maryland Kennel Club show yesterday, among the nation's oldest dog shows.

As she struggled to unload groceries from the back of her car, Sherrie Schenning got an uncharacteristically queasy feeling. Her family's Essex neighborhood had always felt safe, but on this recent Saturday, she noticed two unfamiliar young men in a nearby schoolyard eyeing their home . "They looked like they wanted to steal something, but there was nothing valuable in the yard," she says - just her shopping bags and the family's beloved 12-year-old...

Adelaide Close Riggs, one of the great supporters of Maryland's thoroughbred horse breeding and racing industry, rode until the age of 77, when her favorite pony had to be put down and she decided she was too old to break in a new one.Mrs. Riggs died Dec. 31 from complications of pneumonia at Happy Retreat, her 540-acre farm near the Howard County village of Daisy between West Friendship and Lisbon. She was 90."She was certainly one of the grandes dames of Maryland racing and an absolutely wonderful sportswoman," said Snowden Carter, retired editor of Maryland Horse magazine.

A wrong number was listed for the American Kennel Club's Customer Service line in Sunday's Home & Family section. The correct phone number is 919-233-9767.The Sun regrets the errors.Pub Date: 5/05/98

Critic's Pick -- More than 2,600 entrants, including new breed Tibetan Mastiff, compete in the 132nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (8 p.m., USA).

Another caption Sunday should have said the Yorkshire terrier Lively's Peeper won the Best of Toy category at the Maryland Kennel Club competition. German shepherd Altana's Mystique won Best in Show.The Baltimore Sun regrets the errors.