For the past six years, when not tending to her customers’ tresses as co-owner of Le Collage Salon in Mount Kisco, Elissa Dominici has been breeding, handling, and showing Italian Greyhounds on the dog-show circuit. One dog from her very first litter, an American Kennel Club (AKC) grand champion named Gioia Mia’s Femme Fatale (call name “Sienna”), recently beat out 27 other Italian Greyhounds to win Best of Breed at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club 135th Annual Dog Show at Madison Square Garden.
Four-year-old Sienna weighs 11 pounds and competed in at least two shows per month until the Westminster show. “She’s a little diva,” Dominici says. “She’s full of herself.”
Following a flurry of publicity, including an appearance on the Rachael Ray Show and a photo shoot with Fred R. Conrad of the New York Times, Sienna is now back at her day job—meeting and greeting clients as the official mascot at Le Collage. Next up for the big winner? Retirement from the show ring—and motherhood. “We already have a boy, another grand champion show dog, picked out for her,” says Dominici.
