Shanaea VanderPol, 10, stands outside the ring, biting her nails until they hurt.

Her parents say she gets so nervous she won't talk to anyone while she's waiting for her name to be called.

When asked what she does to calm her nerves before entering the ring, the Verda James Elementary School fifth-grader said she doesn't really know.

Whatever she does, it works. Most people who watch her, including the judges, would never know she gets so nervous before every competition because she is so "smooth" in the ring.

Maybe it's because she has been doing it for a while. Or maybe it's because she has someone she has known for most of her life by her side in that ring.

In the past year and a half, Shanaea has won more than 70 ribbons - an assortment of colors and many of them for first place - with her grandmother's 9-year-old Siberian husky, Ta'Tanka, competing in dog shows across the region.

Next weekend, Shanaea will compete in the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in California in the junior division with Ta'Tanka by her side.

Nerves might be at an all-time high during the competition, one of the biggest in the country, with thousands of people watching it live and television cameras everywhere. The competition will be broadcast at a later date on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. She will compete against 154 of the top junior handlers in the country.

Her parents and grandmother aren't worried though.

"She's taking it all," said her father, Brandon VanderPol.

Her grandmother, who has shown champion dogs for years, said Shanaea began working with dogs and learning how to show them when she was only 4.

"When I started taking her to 4-H classes, she just picked it up," Pam Dunn said. "This 4-year-old just handled so well."

Shanaea wasn't able to begin handling dogs in competitions until she was 9, but she won the first competition she entered in Greeley, Colo.

She initially kept the ribbons in a shoe box in her room, but as she won more and more, a shoe box wasn't going to work.

Her mother, Melissa VanderPol, said they had to buy her an album to put them all in and now that is almost full.

"We go everywhere," Shanaea said. "We've gone to Colorado a lot, Bismark [N.D.], Nebraska, and now we're going to California."

In Scottsbluff, Neb., Shanaea won best junior showmanship two days in a row competing against about 45 kids.

Dunn said the junior competitions are more about the handler than the dogs, but you still need a good dog. Shanaea said Ta'Tanka, whose competition name is Kanza's High Plains Drifter, is a good dog because he is "smart, pretty calm and a sled dog."

Shanaea needed five first-place finishes in AKC junior showmanship competitions to qualify for the national competition. She had eight.

"Judges have commented to me she has a rapport with the animals … She's a very smooth handler," Dunn said.

Shanaea now has her own dog, a golden retriever, Buddy, that she is training and will hopefully, show when he is older.

"She's done really well for her age," Dunn said. "I don't think she realizes all she's done."

Contact reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.

Casper in show

Four dog handlers from Casper were invited to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship in Long Beach, Calif., on Dec. 13-14.

- 10-year-old Shanaea VanderPol and Siberian husky, Kanza's High Plains Drifter, "Ta'Tanka"

- Susan Nelson and gordon setter, Amberlove's Desert Girl, "Lillian"

- Nora Pridham and beauceron, Bullwinkle J Moose, "Moose"

- Leslie Blythe and golden retriever, Mariah-Hillock's Magicl Mystry Tur, "Lennon"