Wagga All Breeds Kennel Club championship show held at Wagga Showground over the weekend

The Wagga All Breeds Kennel Club championship show and its many competitions took place from Friday to Sunday at Wagga Showgrounds, with several travelling exhibitors camping on site as part of a yearly circuit.

Kennel Club show secretary and Wagga local Nicole Pearson said Sunday saw 409 dogs exhibiting, all registered with the official NSW canine body as purebreds and each entered in a category such as terriers, hounds or working dogs.

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"Those groups are based on the function of the dog and its history," she said.

"For the likes of a working dog group, you would have cattle dogs, border collies and corgis because they work and do a job like herding."

Each dog is judged to a "breed standard".

"It's like the blueprint, so how their eyes should be, how their ears should be," Miss Pearson said.

Breed standards of physical traits or movement can be based on a number of specifications, like dogs who historically work in long-grassed fields expected to have protective set down ears rather than ones which are pricked up.

Miss Pearson said events such as this weekend's are all about bringing like minded people together.

"It is a community," she said.

"We may not see each other during the week but on the weekends we'll sit down and have a platter for lunch or have a chat and talk about dogs.

"We're passionate and a little bit crazy about what we do."

Canberra exhibitor Darren Skipworth was in attendance over the weekend, showing four-and-a-half-year-old Rocket, a Hungarian sheep-herding puli.

Leading Rocket to a best exhibit in the working dog group, Mr Skipworth, who estimated attending 40 shows a year, said he fell into dog showing at the age of seven.

"You have a pet and you think you can go on to dog shows and eventually you start going along, you have a great day and you keep on coming."

Second generation dog exhibitor Tracey Pascall also attended this weekend's competition, travelling from north-western Sydney with Elvis, among others.

As a keeshond, Elvis is in large part judged on his distinctively fluffy coat.

"They're a double coated breed," she said.

"So, he's meant to have a profuse mane, tail and trousers, and the rest of his coat should be harsh and upstanding."

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