Page 192 - Showsight March 2013

In the late 1960s, we were living
on Long Island and looking for
a non-shedding dog in addition
to our Pixiecroft-sired miniature
Poodle. Attending the Westbury
Kennel Club show, watching the
Miscellaneous Class, we fell in love with
what was then called the Soft Coated
Wheaten. Note that the word “terrier”
was omitted from the name. Good thing.
We had two young sons—we would never
consider a TERRIER! Billed as a minia-
ture sheepdog, these were shaggy, happy,
fun-loving, medium-sized and non-shed-
ding. Perfect for a young family.
After nearly three years of follow-
ing the breed, we finally acquired our
first Wheaten: Legenderry’s Iollann the
Fair, ROM, pick of the first litter sired by
Jackie Gottlieb’s Ch. Stephen Dedalus of
Andover (“Sweeney”), who was to become
the watershed sire of our breed. He was
personality-plus crowned with a glorious,
untrimmed, silky golden coat and I was
hook, line and sinker in love. I told my
husband if I ever left him for another male,
it would be for this dog!
Sweeney’s pretty, golden sheepdog look
changed the course of Wheatens at the
time as it had great appeal to the meticu-
lous housewife and stay-at-home Moms and
that’s what most of us were. My “mentors”
in the breed were in it maybe two or three
years longer than I. None of us were “dog
people”, coming to Wheatens from other
breeds. We were a bunch of PTA Moms
learning as we went.
AKC recognition was a distant goal; for
now, we’d show in Miscellaneous, get our
ribbon and go home. We proudly wore our
t-shirts that read “I Love Wheatens NATU-
RALLY!” and aimed for the Non-Sporting
group to allow us to retain the untrimmed
look. Meanwhile, across the Delaware Riv-
er, in Pennsylvania, lived our arch enemies:
“The Trimmers”!
The Trimmers believed these were ter-
riers and thus these heretics trimmed the
coats and docked the tails to a length more
in keeping with a handle of a vermin-hunt-
er—rather repugnant to Non-Trimmers
who worshipped the long, flowing locks
of our pretty house pets. We docked the
tails quite short—á la Sheepdog—and the
length of the tail alone revealed on which
side of the Delaware the dog had been
bred. Judges said they looked like two
different breeds.
In 1973, recognition came and we
were assigned to the Terrier Group. While
most of us were figuring out Reserve Win-
ners, the race to finish the first Champi-
ons began. Jackie turned Sweeney over to
the venerable Cliff Hallmark to handle;
Cliff picked up his scissors and turned
our mascot into a TERRIER! The halcy-
on days were over. The two factions made
peace and reluctantly, we began to trim
and, with many variations along the way,
eventually developed the look of today:
six hours of studied naturalness!
Fortunately, from our original Stan-
dard to the current, the mantra remains the
same: The Wheaten is a natural dog and
must so appear. Our Standard states, “Coat:
A distinguishing characteristic of the breed
which sets the dog apart from all other Ter-
riers. The Wheaten is presented to show a
terrier outline, but coat must be of sufficient
length to flow when the dog is in motion.”
It adds, “Dogs that are overly trimmed shall
be severely penalized.” We count on the
judges to preserve that distinction.
We’ve come a long way since then, and
a square Wheaten with a bang-up tail and
a silky flowing coat is a joy to behold. I
must confess, however, that when I see a
five-month-old untrimmed puppy with that
mini-Sheepdog look, my heart still melts.
BIO
Sue Goldberg, Wheatens of Shandalee, is a
Breeder of Merit with 70 Champions, Group
and Specialty winners and 3 of the breeds Top
Producers to her credit. She co-authored the
SCWTCA Owners’ Manual, Code of Eth-
ics , and the Breed Standard. She has been
a keynote speaker at numerous seminars, a
Delegate since 1988 and judges the Terrier
and Sporting Groups , half the Non-Sporting
breeds, Juniors and BIS. She judged Wheat-
ens at Montgomery in 2010; two National
Specialties inCanada; multiple Regional Spe-
cialties across the US, plus numerous Terrier
and Sporting Specialties; as well as assign-
ments in Europe and China.
TO TRIM OR NOT TO TRIM?
That is the Question!By Sue Goldberg
The ‘mini-Sheepdog’ look that put the breed
on the map on the East Coast. The year is
1971. Note the length of the tail.
By 1990, we had achieved and accepted the
trim we see today: a square terrier outline yet
leaving enough coat to flow when the dog is in
motion. Note that tails were nowdocked longer.
192 • ShowSight Magazine, March 2013