Tia Smith has reached the pinnacle of her sport, twice, at the tender age of 18. Few competitors can say that, regardless of sport or game.

Smith’s talent: Dog showing.

Smith will make her second trip to the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York City as a junior handler next month. For the Newport High School senior, this marks a last hurrah of sorts before she will have to scale back her nearly life-long passion of dog showing as she heads off to Seattle University this fall. But she plans to go out with a bang.

“I was really excited, but I was so overwhelmed,” she said about her first time at the Westminster show in 8th grade. “This time I feel like I’m going there to compete and win. The first time was more to practice.”

Smith has a better idea where to stay in town, which banquets to go to, when to show up at events, this time, with the bright-light hype a little easier to handle.

Smith’s achievement represents the culmination of a passion she developed 10 years ago, at the age of eight. She saw her first dog show and was hooked instantly. With no show pedigree in the family, Smith, along with her parents, dove in to the sport that has been known to take over the lives of kids and parents alike.

Smith joined a local 4-H club, Eastside Hushpuppies, before beginning to participate in American Kennel Club showings. She quickly set her eyes on the Westminster Dog Show, the top event in the United States for dog showing. But getting there isn’t easy. It takes 10 wins at high-level competitions to qualify, and many individuals have trouble finding shows to compete in, let alone winning them.

In her quest to qualify, Smith won competitions in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, California and Arizona, while competing in more than 550 shows total.

“I had to sacrifice a lot,” said Smith. “I haven’t had a normal childhood. My weekends weren’t really spent hanging out with friends; they were dog shows.”

All those weekends led to this. Her second show, the 135th overall. The show is Feb. 14 and 15 and will be broadcast nationally on the USA Network. David Frei, spokesman for the Westminster Kennel Club, said 128 kids will compete in the junior handling category, with only eight moving on to the finals. The competition requires a close relationship between dog and handler. The handler asks the dog to remain in several positions emphasizing its body structure for the judges. The handler runs the dog around the perimeter to show its side-to-side movement.

The job of handlers like Smith is to put the dogs in the right position and train them well enough so they know what to do come game-time.

“The best handlers are invisible,” said Frei. “The very best handlers are doing their job, and you don’t notice them.”

It’s impossible to be totally invisible, however. The show is held at Madison Square Garden, one of the country’s most sacred arenas. The show is broadcast nationally, and crews come from all over the country to cover it. For those few minutes, she and her golden retriever Stuart will become the center of the competitive canine universe.

“All the hype, it’s there,” Smith said. “You feel like a celebrity when you’re there. When you’re in there, in that suit holding the dog, everyone’s watching you.”

And when the lights go down and Smith and Stuart leave New York, that chapter of her life will close, albeit with a bookmark so she doesn’t forget. Smith remains involved with her 4-H club, which she has been the president of for the last three years.

Part of why Smith chose to remain local for school was so she could stay in touch with club members, and the show community. While Smith will not have the time to do competitive dog shows during college, the activity she pointed to as her “calling” continues to influence her life.

Her constant traveling for shows ignited another passion within Smith, seeing the world. She wants to focus on international studies in college and go on to law school to become an international corporate lawyer.

While the constant demand of dog shows has captured most of Smith’s life, she’s managed to develop other interests. She’s a dancer, she’s been a member of the marching band at school and she’s built a group of friends. Smith’s classmates have developed a level of respect for her passion, which Smith said used to be a great source of ridicule.

Dog showing has become a part of Smith’s identity. With the prospect of potentially her final major event, Smith said she never wants to forget all the experiences she’s gotten out of the show community.

“I never want to leave the circuit completely,” Smith said. “It was my entire childhood and I don’t want to just abandon that.”

Nat Levy can be reached at 425-453-4290.