South Sioux City has gone to the dogs.
Or maybe the dogs have gone to South Sioux City.
Whatever the case — our community is hosting another national dog show this week as the best Saint Bernards in the country are participating in the Saint Bernard Club of America National Specialty this week at the Marriott Riverfront Center.
About 100 Saint Bernards are on display throughout the week for the 87th edition of the National Specialty Show, and the show’s chair, Elizabeth Crook, said it’s been a great week so far.
“This is a really dog-friendly environment,” she said. “South Sioux City has been wonderful. The Chamber has been phenomenal in supporting us, as well as the Marriott.”
This is the second time this show has been hosted in South Sioux City, with the first show taking place back in 2013.
That positive experience made South Sioux City the obvious choice when it came time to pick a location for this year’s show.
“We had a show here back in 2013, and when I became the show chair for this year’s nationals and started looking for show sites, my mentor, Glenn Radcliffe, and his wife and I were looking for venues across the central region, and when it came down to it we decided to come back here,” she said. “They did it right here the first time, so we decided to come back.”
When Crook made her first visit in early 2023, the Marriott looked a lot different than it did when they showed up for this week’s event.
“They had not started construction yet and we didn’t see any renderings, so we had no idea what it would look like here,” she said. “We knew the facility was effective for us the first time around and the business standing behind it was solid, and the staff here have just been phenomenal.”
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