Solving the Mysteries of Breed Type E-Book

Richard G. Beauchamp

• Herausgeber: CompanionHouse Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 376

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Solving the Mysteries of Breed Type is one of the leading titles in the Kennel Club Pro™ series, targeted at experienced and avid dog fanciers who demand the absolute best. This book is the "standard" against which all other dog breeding books will be measured.

Leseprobe

EDITORIAL

Andrew De Prisco

Editor-in-Chief

Peter Bauer

Managing Editor

Amy Deputato

Senior Editor

Jonathan Nigro

Editor

Matt Strubel

Assistant Editor

ART

Sherise Buhagiar

Graphic Layout

Bill Jonas

Book Design

Joanne Muzyka

Digital Graphics

Facing page: The brothers Kishniga—Dalgarth and Desert Song. (Callea photo)

Copyright © 2008

An Imprint of I-5 Press™ A Division of I-5 Publishing, LLC™

3 Burroughs, Irvine, CA 92618 USA

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Kennel Club Books®, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beauchamp, Richard G.

Solving the mysteries of breed type / by Richard G. Beauchamp. --2nd ed.

      p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-59378-663-2

ISBN-10: 1-59378-663-8

eISBN-13: 978-1-62187-000-5

1. Dog breeds. I. Title.

SF426.B44 2007

636.7'1--dc22

2007024040

Printed in Singapore   

10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of my two greatest mentors— Beatrice H. Godsol and Derek Rayne— without a doubt two of the most knowledgeable, and at the same time most humble, individuals I have ever had the good fortune of knowing and learning from.

BEATRICE H. GODSOL

(William Gilbert photo)

DEREK GLENNON RAYNE

(Photo courtesy of Derek Rayne, Ltd.)

Acknowledgments

The content of this book owes a great deal to Allan Reznik, former editor of the monthly magazine Dogs in Canada and now editor-in-chief of Dog World and Dogs in Review. It was Allan who found merit in my approach to developing a better understanding of breed type and encouraged me to first present my material as a series of articles in Dogs in Canada.

What originally appeared there is supplemented by many of the articles I’ve written for Dogs in Review and the United Kennel Club’s official publication Bloodlines. Both publications have been keenly supportive of my attempts to pass along the storehouse of knowledge I have been fortunate enough to accumulate through my many years of involvement with purebred dogs.

It would have been impossible to convey my message without the use of the many excellent photographs contained herein. A special note of appreciation is due each and every one of the photographers whose work is included. Our dog-show photographers record history as it is being made.

It is my hope that seeing the work of these photographers, including the many new photographs in this second edition, will enable the reader to better appreciate the quality of these dogs and to apply the principles discussed in the book to each of these winning dogs.

Kudos and appreciation are most certainly due my editor Andrew De Prisco, who has been able to harness the wandering attention of this writer and bring the project to fruition. Not an easy task!

And I would be completely remiss if I did not acknowledge the unceasing support and encouragement I have received from that very special person who will remain known simply as “she who knows all”—priceless!

Richard G. Beauchamp

Contents

Prologue

Honor Roll of Excellence

Part I: The Enigma of Breed Type

Chapter 1Essentials

Chapter 2Pictures on a Wall

Chapter 3Eliminating Confusion

Chapter 4Defining the Term

Honor Roll of Excellence

Part II: The Five Elements of Breed Type

Chapter 5Common Denominators

Chapter 6Breed Character

Chapter 7Silhouette

Chapter 8Head

Chapter 9Movement

Chapter 10Coat

Honor Roll of Excellence

Part III: Applying Your Knowledge

Chapter 11Breed Type Workbook

Chapter 12The Graphing Technique

Chapter 13The Journey Taken

Recommended Reading

A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

Strange, isn’t it, the way life unfolds? You’d never expect some minor childhood illness to become a turning point in your life. But as time certainly did prove, this was the case in mine.

I was introduced to purebred dogs in the most coincidental way. At about nine years old I came down with one of those childhood diseases that run rampant through boarding schools. To tell the truth, I don’t recall exactly which of the non-catastrophic afflictions it was. Let’s just say it was definitely one of those “catchy” things that if one student got, we all got. While my classmates were being banished to the infirmary on a daily basis, I somehow managed to hold off on succumbing until I got home for the Christmas holiday. This, of course, totally destroyed my chances of doing any of the things I had planned over the past months. Instead, I was forced to idle away my vacation days in bed.

“There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.”—from Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory

It was the early 1940s, the time of World War II. My stepfather, a US naval officer serving with the Pacific Fleet, was on his way back to our home in Detroit, Michigan, on leave. He was aware of my illness and probably had been advised by my mother that I was at that stage of recovery where my boredom and restlessness were making life unbearable for her and everyone else within shouting distance. Now this was before the advent of television, so parents couldn’t keep their children occupied by gluing them to what would become known as “the tube” (and certainly not to the even more distant PlayStations® and Internet).

“Think of something for him to do,” I can imagine her saying, “before he drives us all crazy!” My stepfather’s remedy for boredom was a book: Albert Payson Terhune’s classic Lad: A Dog. It was the story of a Collie—a Collie so brave, so noble and so endowed with human qualities that one expected him to speak at any moment (truthfully I felt he could have, had he been so inclined!). Terhune, in addition to being a breeder and exhibitor of Collies, was a longtime newspaper man and a gifted teller of tales. I was spellbound.

Terhune, his wife and the dozens of Collies they owned lived in what became for me a magical, mystical kingdom called Sunnybank, New Jersey. It was there that those super-canines he wrote about performed their feats of derring-do.

An aunt came to visit just a few days after my stepfather had arrived with book in hand. She, too, came bearing gifts for her bedridden nephew. Completely unaware that I was already lost in the world of Lad, she had decided to bring a book as well. Her choice was another volume by Terhune, A Dog Named Bruce. Fate does have its way!

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Ch. Annatika Andreas and his handler Taffe McFadden. “Andy” was the first dog to which the author awarded an American Kennel Club all-breed Best in Show in the United States. He holds the breed’s all-time American Kennel Club all-breed Best in Show record with 12 such wins. Bred by Mr. and Mrs. George MacAlpine of the United Kingdom and owned by Dale R. Martin and Kim E. Murphy of Rayne, Louisiana. (Glazbrook photo)

Lad had hooked me; Bruce reeled me in. I was taken hook, line and sinker. I would have Collies; I would breed them; I would show them. They would be my friends, my bosom buddies. They would perform all of the same incredible feats for me that the Sunnybank Collies had for my new favorite author, Mr. Terhune.

The Sunnybank Collie books opened the door to the wonderful world of dogs for me. I entered with the enchantment and wonder that only children can know and experience. In all of the years that have passed since then, I’ve never found any reading material more likely to encourage a respect and love for dogs than the Terhune books. They should be a part of every animal-loving family’s library.

I realized back then, however, that my dream wasn’t to become reality immediately. The war, apartment living, food rationing, being away at school—all of these conditions prevailed, dashing any immediate hope of acquiring a kennel full of Collies. Still, none of those obstacles prevented me from fantasizing about the day I would own a dog. No, not a dog—many dogs!

I scrimped, saved and wheedled money out of every member of the family until I owned every single one of the many books in Terhune’s series on the Sunnybank dogs. Lad, Bruce, Lochinvar Luck, Treve…a wonderfully extensive list. From there I went on to every dog and horse book I could get my hands on.

During those same years I was fortunate enough to spend considerable vacation time with an uncle who lived nearby. Uncle Al, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, raised field dogs—English and Irish Setters and Beagles. He became my hero, my substitute Albert Payson Terhune. I was truly fascinated by my uncle’s tales of hunting expeditions and dog lore. I knew everything he said to be true: “the canine gospel according to Uncle Al.”

Lad: A Dog was originally published by E.P. Dutton in 1919. Hardcover reprints were issued by Dutton in 1926 and 1943. A Pocket Books paperback edition was published in 1946. In 1947, both Grosset & Dunlap and World Publishing issued hardcover editions. In 1953 and 1957, G&D published juvenile adaptations by Bella Koval and Felix Sutton, respectively. In 1959, Dutton released an anniversary edition. In 1961, Scholastic Book Services issued a paperback edition. Signet released a paperback edition in 1978.

After peace was declared, in 1945, dog shows, practically at a standstill during the war years, resumed full swing. I can remember as if it were yesterday the excitement of taking the Woodward Avenue streetcar to the Michigan State Fair Grounds to my first dog show, the Detroit Kennel Club’s all-breed show. Little did I know as I paid my admission and walked through the turnstile that I was walking into the rest of my life.

Terhune was right. This was unlike anything I had ever known! Dogs of every make, shape and kind imaginable were everywhere. I was bedazzled, awestruck by the beauty of some of the breeds and at the same time amazed that anyone could be attracted to some of the others, which were nothing short of grotesque as far as I was concerned. “That one looks like it’s part pig!” (Bull Terrier); “Somebody should tell the lady to give her dog some food!” (Saluki); “Scotties—one white, one black, just like those whiskey ads!” (West Highland White Terriers and Scottish Terriers).

I spent hours trudging from one trade stand to another, collecting pound after pound of dog food samples for my dog-to-be. Eventually I gathered up enough courage to start asking questions of the people sitting in front of the dogs chained to their benches.

The people sitting there spoke to each other nonstop, it seemed, and in a language that I understood only snippets of—a language that was English, but not any English I knew. Their conversation contained so many strange words that I felt very much the outsider looking in. They were, of course, speaking in terms used by experienced breeders, having conversations that to the uninitiated made little sense but in the end were responsible for shaping the future of many a breed.

In those days, before the general use of magazines to publicize dogs, breeders and exhibitors used stud cards and brochures to describe their individual dogs’ attributes and wins and their breeding programs. They passed these out as they sat all day in front of their benches at the shows. Those I collected on that first day were treasured keepsakes for many years: Knightscroft Irish Setters and Dachshunds, Tokalan Cockers, Blue Bar English Setters, Frejax Springers, Stonewall Norwegian Elkhounds, Honey Hollow Great Danes. As baseball cards were to other boys, so these wonderfully illustrated and descriptive kennel cards and brochures were to me.

One woman, who sat in front of what I was sure was the most beautiful Collie ever seen, told me she had puppies at home whose father had come to America from Scotland. She handed me a picture of the dog, and I realized that while her benched dog was beautiful, the dog in the picture was even more so. She also told me that she had driven all the way to New Jersey (yes, that New Jersey!) to breed to the dog in the picture because she said he was “the typiest Collie that’s ever been.”

I hadn’t a clue as to what she meant by “typiest” but wasn’t about to let on how much of a novice I was. I stored the word in my mind and found that it would become the one word I would hear for as long as I was to remain involved with purebred dogs.

This “typiest Collie” was Ch. Braegate Model of Bellhaven, who remains a Collie icon to this day. Model was imported and owned by Florence Bell Ilch of Red Bank, New Jersey. Her Bellhaven-bred dogs served as the foundation for countless producing lines. Model was shown 40 times and remained undefeated in the breed. He won many Working Groups, including Westminster Kennel Club, and even two all-breed Bests in Show in the days when Collies did not do such things.

The picture of Model touched something within me that I was unable to fully appreciate until much later. That “something” proved to be a sense of stockmanship that I have come to believe I inherited from the British part of my own pedigree. My biological father, Andrew Freeman, was a Scotsman who came from generations of stockmen in the rural regions of northern Scotland.

Later in the day at the dog show, I noted that something important appeared to be going on in the center of the building. The spectators stood three deep around the ring. I wound my way through the crowd and saw a whole ring of what I recognized (thanks to my uncle) as “hunting dogs”: setters, pointers and spaniels.

I found a seat in the gallery and took in the scene: a judge, a big red Irish Setter and an orange and white English Setter. The English, even to my untrained eye, was stunning—vaguely reminiscent of the dogs my uncle used in the field, but somehow so much more in every way. I was fascinated.

When the judge had the English move down the center of the ring, the ringside came to its feet and roared its approval. The charismatic presence of the dog and the electricity of the moment sent chills along my arms!

It was at that moment that I heard the word “type” used for the second time. The man next to me turned to the lady he was sitting with and said, “I still like the Irish, but my God, the type on the English!” I wondered how a Collie and an English Setter could both have this “type” thing. One looked nothing like the other.

The English Setter was no less than the marvelous Ch. Rock Falls Colonel. He won the Sporting Group that night in Detroit, and by the time he retired, at the great Morris & Essex Kennel Club show, “the Colonel” had won 160 other Group Firsts as well as 101 all-breed Bests in Show. It was an unparalleled accomplishment in that day, when cluster shows and air travel to shows were all but unheard of. He had broken, by one, the Best in Show record set by the mighty Pekingese winner Ch. Chik T’Sun of Caversham. I remember being very happy when he broke the record. I was a devoted Colonel fan and, in any case, totally convinced that any English Setter was better than someone’s funny-looking Pekingese!

Ch. Braegate Model of Bellhaven. This picture was given to me at my first dog show, the Detroit Kennel Club. Model remains a Collie icon to this day. (Tauskey photo)

The Colonel’s descendants dominated the breed for generations, and to this day his show record stands unchallenged in the breed. Not surprisingly, the Colonel was a product of the breed’s Golden Age, in the 1940s and 1950s. They were banner decades for the breed, which said much for English Setter breeders in that the Sporting Group as a whole was at an all-time high in overall quality during that time. The high level of quality in the sporting dogs of those years had a profound influence on my education in dogs.

Every once in a while I pull out the photograph I have of the Colonel—a treasured gift from the dog’s owner, Bill Holt—to see if the dog was as wonderful as I remember. I am never disappointed. Here was a dog that clearly illustrated the old dog phrase “a successful sum of all the parts.”

The classic elegance of his exquisite head, his overall balance, the angles, the ease at which one portion of his anatomy flowed into the next and allowed him to float around the ring—all sheer perfection. Add to this a ring presence that commanded every eye, and you have what all who breed, show or judge keep looking for—the once-in-a-lifetime dog that makes all the rest of the effort worthwhile. Although I had no idea at the time, I had been introduced to a dog that not only had, but was, type.

Despite my deep admiration of the great Colonel, I couldn’t entirely dismiss a begrudging appreciation for the Peke whose record the Colonel broke. When I began going to shows, Chik T’Sun was the dog of the hour, the day, the month, the year. I knew nothing of Pekes, but even back in those early years I couldn’t help but be impressed by both the dog and the talent of his handler, Clara Alford. Chik T’Sun had been imported from England by Nigel Aubrey-Jones and R. William Taylor and later sold to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Venable of Atlanta, Georgia. He was the top-winning show dog of all time until Ch. Rock Falls Colonel eclipsed his Best in Show record.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

My own first purebred dog was a black American Cocker bitch, purchased from Marion Bebeau, whose Beau Belle (later Maribeau) dogs were highly respected throughout the Midwest. I paid the $150 price with all the money I had received as gifts from family and friends on the occasion of my graduating from elementary school.

Ch. Rock Falls Colonel, the English Setter bred, owned and handled by William T. Holt of Richmond, Virginia. (Evelyn M. Shafer photo)

Marion Bebeau had a special knack for encouraging all who bought dogs from her to try showing their own dogs, and I took to the ring like a duck to water. My junior contemporaries at the time were youngsters who stayed on in purebred dogs for decades to come, making their marks not only in Cockers but also as breeders, professional handlers and important members of the sport on countless levels. Among them were Patricia Craige Trotter (Vin-Melca Elkhounds), Terry Stacy (successful professional handler and later vice-president of the American Kennel Club), Dan Kiedrowskie (editor and publisher of Terrier Type), Michael Kinchsular (master breeder of the Lurola Cocker line) and Ron Fabis (Dream Ridge Cockers and English Toy Spaniels).

We competed fiercely, each of us trying to come out on top. The perfect day was to be asked by one of the professional handlers to assist him or her for the day—to run and fetch a dog—or, glory of glories, to take the “other” dog in for Best of Winners. Our group of aspiring dog fanciers regarded these professional handlers in the same way that our non-doggie contemporaries regarded the great athletes and popular musicians.

The Pekingese Ch. Chik T’Sun of Caversham. (Frasie Studio photo)

When I look back on that time, I realize what a profound effect the greats of the past had upon us youngsters. When one considers the fact that people such as Dick Cooper, Jack Funk, Lina Basquette, Clara Alford, Norman Austin, Ted Young, Jr., Howard Reno, Clint and Dorothy Callahan and Maxine Beam were our mentors, it is easy to understand how they inspired devotion and appreciation for excellence on our parts. The local breeders were also exceptionally supportive of the youngsters, and we all were given an opportunity to show dogs of quality far beyond that of our own dogs.

I landed a pre-high school summer job with the Department of Parks and Recreation, and I used that money to buy my second dog, a parti-color Cocker, and then my first Boxer, a fawn daughter of the famed German import Ch. Utz von Dom. Utz, for those not up on their (ancient!) Boxer history, was bred by the doyenne of the breed herself, Frau Stockmann.

Every purebred dog fancier is destined to meet the breed that suits him or her to a T, and I found that Boxers did just that for me. There have been few years in my life that have been without a Boxer. Breeding Boxers resulted in a few noteworthy champions, but of all the breeds I have bred and owned in my lifetime, none has provided me more hours of pleasure than the extroverted and loving product of Frau Stockmann’s breeding genius.

My first Group win was under Alva Rosenberg with parti-color Cocker Spaniel Ch. Merikay’s Merry Lark. (Frasie Studio photo)

It was during my high school years that I began showing Cockers for others and first tried my hand at managing the breeding programs for several local breeders. The combination of their quality stock and my sense of what might work well with their lines brought the Merikay parti-colors and the Har-Dee blacks and black and tans into national prominence. I began to see that of all of the many alluring aspects of purebred dogs, breeding was the area that I found most compelling.

It was also during my high school years that writing became a part of my life. A journalism class in my sophomore year of high school was my first attempt at putting thoughts to paper. I will never forget the teacher of that class, Rose Winters, saying, “You have a talent. Apply yourself to your writing, and it could well become a very important part of your life.”

Apply myself I did, and it led to my becoming editor of the school’s weekly newspaper. I also began writing for several of the all-breed and breed specialty magazines of the time. Then came the job of my young lifetime—on the feature staff of one of Detroit’s local area newspapers. Move over, Ernest Hemingway!

Admittedly I was having considerable difficulty in deciding if purebred dogs or the literary world were to be my future. One week this, the next week that. After college, the Beach Boys and their songs of California living lured me to the Golden State and a position as assistant to the editor of Daily Variety, the film and television industry’s trade paper.

Hollywood, its attendant glamour and celebrities admittedly turned the head of that fresh-from-the-Midwest young man. After all, actually attending events such as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes after years of having watched them on television was bound to impress.

Yet, I found I couldn’t quite let go of my interest in dogs. I became a close friend of Pat Seger and Hansi Rowland, whose Essanar Cockers had made their mark on the West Coast. Their breeding program was based on an old California line that was sound and well constructed with all the basics but lacked the finish and type characteristics I had grown accustomed to in my breeding experience in the Midwest.

My first litter as a breeder: parti-color Cocker Spaniels heavily linebred on what proved to be the revolutionary Honey Creek bloodline.

The “Essanar gals,” as I called them, commissioned me to find a dog that could bring those characteristics to their line. I found just that in Mijo’s Martini, an extremely typey young red dog of five generations of solid black breeding. I purchased the youngster from Pat Fender, a client of Ted Young, Jr.’s. I had a hunch that he would be just the ticket for the Essanar dogs, and he proved to be just that. He was the catalyst that the Essanar line needed, and the results not only produced a spectacular array of champions for Essanar but also served as the foundation stock for a number of highly successful Cocker kennels throughout the country.

At this point I still suffered from the Piscean dilemma of deciding between two equally engrossing occupations to which I could devote my energies and my future—purebred dogs or the entertainment world. A single but terrifying incident that occurred on a blazing hot evening in the summer of 1969 made the decision for me.

Southern California—Hollywood’s film industry in particular—wraps itself around an individual’s life in such a way that as the tides and trends go, so go all those who work within their confines. You attend the same parties, see the same people and shop at the same stores, and the lifestyle dictates where you attend to things such as personal grooming.

Jay Sebring’s salon was the place where the Hollywood set of the time went to have their hair cut, or rather “styled,” as the trendy Mr. Sebring preferred to describe his services, and I was not about to have my locks shorn by anyone less. Jay Sebring and I became good friends, and knowing of my interest in dogs, he asked me to help him find a Toy Poodle puppy for an actress friend of his whose two dogs were senior citizens and probably would not be with her for too much longer.

Ch. Beau Monde Boquet of Box M, pictured winning the Working Group at the Orchid Isle Dog Fanciers show in Hawaii under judge Nick Kay. Handler Sue Cates. (Mike Johnson photo)

I contacted Pamela Ingram, in Topanga, California, whose success with the Sassafras line warranted a continuous line of new arrivals. I made arrangements for a silver toy for Sebring’s friend. It was not until the day I had set aside to pick the puppy up that Pamela asked what name to enter on the registration as the puppy’s new owner. I told her that the new owner would be Sharon Tate.

“You mean Sharon Tate the movie star?” she asked.

“The one and only,” I told her.

Pamela hesitated a moment and then said that she didn’t think the particular puppy I had reserved was “really the right one for such a famous owner.” She said, “I have a younger litter that I think will have something much more suitable for her.” (The asking price of the new choice increased suitably as well!)

I explained that it was Sharon’s birthday and her friend had planned on giving the puppy to her as a birthday present. “Oh, I’m sure she’ll be more pleased with what I’ve picked out for her, and besides, I noticed the puppy I told you about was limping the other day.”

I wasn’t able to persuade her otherwise and could do nothing but call Jay Sebring and explain the situation. Jay was understanding, and since I lived just a few miles up Benedict Canyon from the Cielo Drive home that Sharon Tate shared with her movie director husband Roman Polanski, Jay insisted I come down for the birthday celebration anyway. I knew the Polanskis, but not well, and having a movie review to complete for the next day, I made a last-moment decision to stay home and work instead.

The following afternoon’s Los Angeles newspapers were headlined:

FILM STAR, 4 OTHERS DEAD IN BLOOD ORGY Sharon Tate Victim in “Ritual” Murders

Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring and several of their guests had been murdered in her home! There was so much unofficial information leaked concerning the case that the Los Angeles Police Department clamped a lid on any further disclosures, which only served to create wild speculation in the news media. The more bizarre the stories, the more those of us even remotely connected to Jay Sebring and Sharon Tate grew paranoid.

Sometime during the following months a news story released the fact that Charles Manson and his groupies (the eventually convicted murderers) had returned to their quarters in Malibu via Benedict Canyon, stopping at the corner home on Portola Road (five doors down from my own home) to wash the blood off their hands and clothes. This did nothing to reduce my level of panic.

Was I somehow being looked for that night? Had my peripheral association with the victims somehow involved me in the bloodlust? I never knew the answers to those questions, but I did know I had had enough of the Hollywood scene to last me a lifetime.

Ch. Mijo’s Martini, a red Cocker Spaniel that came from five generations of black breeding and who proved to be extremely dominant in passing on his excellent breed type. (Ruml photo)

A gruesome tragedy of this nature can hardly be said to ever have any positive consequences, but it did result in my final decision to concentrate both my writing skills and my interest in purebred dogs as editor and publisher of Kennel Review magazine. I have never regretted my choice. In fact, the world of dogs has provided more excitement and artistic expression than I can imagine in any other calling.

Ironically, and though it was my first love, I never did get my Collie. There have been a number of other breeds in the interim, and a good deal of success in my Bichon Frise breeding program. Perhaps it’s just as well. I doubt any Collie, or any breed of dog, for that matter, could ever have lived up to the magic of the Sunnybank Collies, and anything less would have been a disappointment. What I did get has lasted a lifetime. My journey through the dog world has taken me through the realms of breeder, exhibitor, judge and journalist. Along that fascinating way I’ve had the unique good fortune of being able to meet and talk with the greatest dog men and women of our time, not only here in North America but around the world as well.

GLOBETROTTING

I was there in Sydney, Australia when Dr. Harry Spira was working on his critically acclaimed book Canine Terminology. Dr. Harry and I became close friends over the years, and his broad overview of the Australian dog scene and dog breeders opened up a whole new world to me.

Australia was long handicapped by extreme quarantine measures, so it was almost without question that what was to be accomplished in a breeding program had to be done within the confines of Australia itself. This might not present any great difficulty in a country such as the US, but consider the comparatively miniscule population Down Under and consider how it proportionately reduces the number of hardcore breeders at any given time.

In spite of its handicaps, Australia has developed bloodlines in many breeds that are envied the world over. Just scratching the surface of Oz’s premier breeders, we have Norma Hamilton (Quailmoor Irish Setters), Guy Spagnole (Driftway Labrador Retrievers), Barbara Luduwechi and Dyanne Baillie (Fergwyn and Dygae Pembroke Welsh Corgis), Rosina Olifent-Brace (Sjecoin Boxers), Cam Milward (Grenpark Smooth Fox Terriers) and Jeanne Montford (Elvenhome Cavalier King Charles Spaniels).

It was the late Nigel Aubrey-Jones who wrote, “The most important name on a pedigree is the breeder’s.” The foregoing are names that are without a doubt the breeder’s imprimatur. I consider my having known and spoken to them about their respective breeds as having gone to the source!

Judging at the famed Leeds Dog Show in England put me on the same panel as Finland’s world-famous judging trio: Reiner Voorhinen, Hans Lehtinen and Kari Jarvinen. (Photo by the author)

Breeding under the conditions that Australia imposes speaks well of judicious selection and clever line-and inbreeding. It behooves the early breeder to take note and realize that success comes not from adding a bit of this and a dash of that from every successful kennel in one’s breed but from following the plan laid down by a master breeder.

I also credit Australia with having given me my sea legs in Smooth Fox Terriers. It was to my delight and benefit that Cam Milward, breeder of the world-renowned Grenpark Smooths, sat me down one fine day and told me where he thought I was on (and off!) in judging his breed at one of Melbourne’s important shows.

It was through the late great dog man Robin Hernandez that I was introduced to the Mexican dog scene. I was judging south of our border regularly long before Mexico and its dog-breeding program were officially recognized by the AKC. I did all I could through the pages of Kennel Review to draw attention to the dedication and determination of that country’s dog breeders and their desire to have their efforts be competitive internationally.

Visiting Mexico today, one can only be impressed by how far breeders and exhibitors have progressed. Many of Mexico’s homebreds have journeyed northward with considerable success.

I was spellbound by the experiences and knowledge of Italy’s Paolo Dondino, which I learned about as we traveled through Finland on a judging tour. While there, we were given a glimpse of the obviously successful manner in which Finland trains its judges—a sterling example provided by the internationally respected Finnish judging trio of Hans Lehtinen, Kari Jarvinen and Reiner Voorhinen.

One of the funniest incidents occurred on my first trip to South Africa to judge the Goldfields Kennel Club’s all-breed dog show. At the time, the Kennel Review offices were located in Hollywood, California. Evidently, in the mind of South Africans, anyone in Hollywood was of the film and television scene—in fact, so much so that just prior to my arrival in Johannesburg, an artist’s rendering of me appeared on the front page of the sports section of the leading newspaper with the headline, “Hollywood Celebrity Comes to Judge Jo’burg Dog Show.”

As I stepped off the plane there in Johannesburg, the first question I was asked was, “OK, who really shot J.R.?” The television nighttime soap opera Dallas was an international hit at the time, and my hosts were apparently much bigger fans of the series than I was, because my startled response was only, “J.R. who?”

In truth, when I had imagined South Africa, I had pictured dusty roads with prides of lions roaming around every bend. What a shock I got! Johannesburg was a marvelously modern and sophisticated city in 1979. Subsequent trips there witnessed the upheaval of change, but back then the city abounded with world-class hotels, chic designer boutiques, upscale restaurants and resorts that compared favorably with the best of the world.

The purebred dog game was highly developed long before 1979, and the Goldfields show itself was a spectacular event in both numbers and quality. To have judged Rhodesian Ridgebacks in their homeland and then to have discussed the breed’s development with Ridgeback authorities Brian and Liz Megginson (Shangara kennels) and Margaret and Sammy Wallace (Mushana Ridgebacks) was an unparalleled opportunity and truly an unforgettable experience.

After Goldfields I was the houseguest of Nonnie and Peet Oosthuizen and spent the week studying the living pedigrees of generations of their Piketberg Bull Terriers. It was there I learned to appreciate the elusiveness involved in capturing and reproducing the desired breed type characteristics of this extremely hybrid canine.

A side trip that the Oosthuizens had arranged took me to the home of the late Ivy Kilburn Morris (nee Ivy Kilburn Scott), daughter of the Kilburn Scotts, who were the original importers of the Samoyed breed to England. Mrs. Morris’s father, Professor Ernest Kilburn Scott, chose the name for the breed and wrote the breed’s first standard based upon the dogs observed among the Samoyed tribes of Siberia from whom his founding stock was obtained.

Simon Briggs with Norma Hamilton’s Irish Setter Ch. Quailmoor Jumpin’ Jack Flash. (Cabal photo)

Mrs. Morris regaled us with tales of her life of traveling the world with her parents and of her early days observing and participating in the development of the Samoyed in England. Before we left that evening, Mrs. Morris took me aside and whispered, “Remember now, when you are judging the Samoyed, he is not just a sledge dog; any breed can pull a sledge. He was primarily a herder of reindeer who also helped with the draft duties. So look for the quick-of-foot dog—one that can stay out of the way of those flying hooves.”

Another remarkable day was spent at Rossut, the country estate of Group Captain “Beefy” Sutton and his famous wife Catherine. It was my first trip to England for the famed Crufts show, and the Suttons had invited Simon Briggs from Australia and me for the day. Simon Briggs was that year competing for the World Junior Handler title, scheduled to be judged by American Ann Stevenson. (Simon did take top honors that year.)

I had met Simon Briggs a year earlier when I judged the West Australia Junior Showman competition in Perth. He was my overall winner, and he went on to win the Australian finals under Edd and Irene Bivin later that year at the Melbourne Royal show. Simon’s knowledge and ability with dogs so impressed me that we established and maintained a friendship that has lasted through the years.

Simon and I were joined at the Suttons’ estate by our friends Geoff Corish and Michael Coad. In addition to being the Suttons’ highly successful handlers, Geoff had won Best in Show at Crufts on several different occasions with dogs of different breeds, and Michael was as staunch a devotee of the Bichon Frise as I.

I had become a great admirer of Mrs. Sutton in 1980, when she came to America to judge at Tom and Ann Stevenson’s famed Santa Barbara Kennel Club show. The story of our meeting is an interesting one. Mrs. Sutton had finished judging her huge Borzoi assignment late in the day. The Group judging had already begun when Mrs. Sutton came to join us at ringside. We introduced ourselves, and she told me that she had just put up to Best of Breed what was in her opinion one of the greatest Borzoi she had ever seen. The dog was Dyane Roth’s Ch. Kishniga’s Dalgarth, bred by John Reeve-Newson and Dick Meen. Mrs. Sutton went on to say that were she able to take Dalgarth back to England, he would become the most important winner in UK history—there was nothing in any breed in all of England that could touch him in the ring.

Mrs. Sutton was scheduled to do Santa Barbara’s Best in Show that day, and there was no doubt in my mind who the winning dog would be. However, that was before Jim Clark judged the Hound Group and awarded first to another of my own favorites, the Saluki Ch. Del S’mbran Aba Fantasia—the Borzoi second!

Now, Fantasia was the result of the breeding program of my longtime friends George and Sally Bell and was a noted winner in her own right. Regardless, there was no chance for the Saluki to go Best in Show under those circumstances, I thought. However, Mrs. Sutton did not let her disappointment show in not being able to give the Borzoi Santa Barbara’s top laurels. She gave the nod to the Saluki!

Mrs. Catherine Sutton awarding Best in Show to George and Sally Bell’s Saluki Ch. Del S’mbran Aba Fantasia, at Santa Barbara Kennel Club. Cynthia Woods, Frank Sabella and Tom Stevenson present the trophies. (Missy photo)

Mrs. Sutton and I became fast friends through the mail. I was fascinated by her knowledge of the countless breeds we discussed, and I was in awe of her ability to capture in just a few words what was, in effect, the absolute essence of the breeds she talked about. Coad and Corish were equally adept at doing so, and on that day at Rossut I became even more convinced that what separated those who knew from those who didn’t was an appreciation for type.

The travesty was that the day’s conversation was not recorded! We left no stone and no dog unturned, and I was amazed to see that in spite of country, involvement, age and breed preferences, we all saw quality in the same way.

Mrs. Sutton and I also plotted that day to bring about the mating of England’s Ch. Tiopepi Mad Louie at Pamplona and America’s Ch. Devon Puff And Stuff—the world’s two leading Bichon Frise winners at the time. The Bichon had already caught on like wildfire in the United States in the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1986 that I was given the opportunity to judge the breed in the UK. It was then that I had the distinct pleasure of awarding Mad Louie the win that sent him on to his first Best in Show at the famed Scottish Kennel Club’s all-breed event.

Here at home I was a huge fan of Nancy Shapland’s Puff And Stuff, one of the early dogs who helped establish the breed as a formidable contender in the Non-Sporting Group. Mrs. Sutton and I thought there could be no better a mating than bringing the two great winners together. Unfortunately, quarantine regulations worked against us, and the breeding never took place. I think to this day that it was unfortunate for the breed on both sides of the Atlantic that it did not.

Judging at Crufts in 2004. The CC Dog and Best of Breed was (LEFT) Am./Eng. Ch. Paray’s I Told You So and the Bitch CC winner was (RIGHT) Eng. Ch. Carregis Cause for Applause At Tamalva. I Told You So went on to win the Toy Group at that show; he also went on to become the top dog all-breeds in the UK for 2004 and the all-time breed record-holder. (Kornfeld photo)

However, in 2004 I returned to the UK to judge at Crufts. My CC dog was the incomparable American-bred Am./Eng. Ch. Paray’s I Told You So, with the bitch CC going to the beautiful Eng. Ch. Carregis Cause for Applause At Tamalva—both outstanding representatives of the breed and of their sexes. Although bred an ocean apart, they were as if cut from the same cloth, something that Mrs. Sutton and I had envisioned nearly 20 years before.

Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and many more have contributed heavily to what we have and know here in the United States. Collectively they have provided me with an education far surpassing any I could have hoped for or ever imagined that day I walked through the turnstile at the Detroit Kennel Club.

As editor and publisher of Kennel Review magazine from 1964 to 1993, I was also directly involved in the promotional campaigns of a vast majority of the great winners of that era. I became privy to a great deal of the knowledge and experience that was invested in the winning and producing success of the dogs owned by our clients. Few really appreciate the talent involved in shaping the careers of the dogs that make history.

I was unable to judge for the American Kennel Club during the years I owned and published Kennel Review, but my status as an all-breed judge in countries governed by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI) gave me an incredibly broad picture of the world’s dog scene and the hundreds of breeds in it. It also gave me an opportunity to judge alongside many of the world’s great international judges, an experience I consider without equal. This judging experience made me keenly aware of the variations that time and distance can create within our breeds.

Geoff Corish and the author on the occasion of Bichon Frise Ch. Tiopepi Mad Louie’s Best in Show win at the Scottish Kennel Club. It was Louie’s and the breed’s first all-breed Best in Show in the UK. (David Lindsay photo)

And so in 1994 I came to judge in the United States for the American Kennel Club. Unlike the normal progress of most who judge in North America—experience in the US and then in other countries—my initial experience was abroad. In many cases I was fortunate to judge breeds in their countries of origin: Rhodesian Ridgebacks in South Africa, Akitas and Shiba Inus in Japan, Bull Terriers in England and Cattle Dogs in Australia, to name but a few. It gave me an opportunity to learn what was intended and hoped for by the true pioneers of the breed. I began judging at home, seeing American dogs through the eyes of the world rather than the world of dogs through AKC blinders.

The author awarding Best of Variety to Standard Poodle Ch. Ale KC Mikimoto at Westminster Kennel Club in 2004. (Ashbey photo)

I have been extremely fortunate to have judged at some of North America’s most prestigious events along the way—Chicago International, Westminster and the Del Valle Dog Club of Livermore among them. This lifelong and multilayered experience in the world of dogs taught me one monumentally important lesson: the more fully an individual understands the meaning of the term breed type, the more effective and successful the person will be in any chosen purebred-related endeavor.

My purpose then in writing this book is twofold: to pass along what I’ve learned from the minds of countless great dog men and women and to provide a key to understanding what excellence in purebred dogs actually means. The only compensation my own mentors wanted in return for what they gave was a promise from me to one day do the same for the generations that would follow. I hope this book will also help to clear away the ambiguity that surrounds that important term breed type. A full understanding of what this really means can’t help but provide greater access to understanding what separates quality from mediocrity and elevates an individual dog or breeding program to excellence.

The greater our understanding of the nuances of excellence, the better our ability to fulfill our responsibilities as breeders, judges and/or exhibitors. Thus we help to preserve the intent of the founders, pioneers and dedicated breeders of our given breeds and assist in the selection of stock that will best accommodate that goal.

The author awarding Best in Show to Afghan Hound Ch. Shenandoah Pistol Blue at Del Valle Dog Club of Livermore. (Tom Bruni photo)

Let’s begin our journey.