LEWISTON – They’ll come to the Lewiston-Auburn Kennel Club’s dog show clipped and coifed, shaved and styled.

Barking.

Whining.

Ready to win.

And 80-year-old club President Arnold Woolf will be ready to judge them – just as he has been for the past 50 years.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said. “But I really enjoy it.”

Woolf began showing dogs in the 1940s. Someone had given him a collie – “My first love,” he said – and he brought the dog to a few shows. People liked how he showed, how he handled the dog.

The next thing Woolf knew, he had three collies to show and was starting to judge. Over the next five decades, he owned eight champion show dogs and served as judge in 49 states. He wrote freelance articles about dog shows and wrote and self-published two children’s books on dogs. He became president of the Lewiston-Auburn Kennel Club, one of the oldest kennel clubs in the state, and helped spearhead the club’s popular annual dog show.

Woolf resigned as president a few years ago. There was too much friction within the ranks, he said. He figured the club needed new blood.

But things didn’t go smoothly after Woolf left. The group ran into financial trouble, particularly when it came to the dog show.

“They wanted this judge and that judge and forgot about the expenses and very nearly went bankrupt,” Woolf said. “So I stepped in.”

Because of its problems, the club didn’t hold a show a couple of years. It’s taken Woolf and a small committee two years to organize this year’s event.

The show – one of the largest in the region – has already drawn attention from dog owners across the country. Woolf hopes to get at least 500 entries each day of the Sept. 27 and 28 show. Entries close Wednesday.

Prizes (dog food and LL Bean tote bags) will be awarded to the winners of the sporting, non-sporting, hound, working, toy and terrier groups, as well as best in show.

For years, Woolf’s declining health has kept him from judging. But for this show, he’ll take to the ring again. He will replace a working group judge who had to drop out.

Woolf will assess akitas, mastiffs, great Danes and 23 other breeds. He’s owned, shown and judged dogs for nearly 50 years, but he’ll carry along a copy of the American Kennel Club’s breed standards to remind him, for example, how energetically a boxer should move or how deeply set a komondor’s eyes should be.

“There are so many little details,” he said. Then he smiled. “I’m looking forward to the show.”

The dog show will be free and open to the public. It will be held at the Topsham Fairgrounds from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and will include a junior showmanship competition and obedience trials.