Page 272 - ShowSight - July 2019

Owner Handler Q & A
Susan started with Cocker Spaniels in the 70s. Although her first official conformation show was in 1978, her first two Cockers, while well-bred, weren’t quite good enough and she got into obedience. Those two Cockers, Sinbad and Yankee, were good in obedience and excelled on the recall. They would sit at the end of the mat and wiggle their butts and with all their body
language say “Call me! Call me!” Hence the kennel name Kallmee! Susan got her first Vizsla in 1983 and finished her first champion Vizsla at the AKC Centennial Show in 1984. Susan’s husband spent 20 years in the US Army, and that afforded her the opportunity to live several years in Europe and show her Cockers, Vizslas and Eng- lish Cockers overseas. Although she phased out of Cockers in the mid 1990s, Vizslas have been their breed for 36 years. In 2013 Susan decided to segue into Toys and she now has Toy Fox Terriers and one Toy Manchester. She is an American Toy Fox Terrier Club Board Member, Brevard Kennel Club Board Member, is in charge of the ATFTC’s Meet The Breeds, Judge’s Education, and Facebook page and is the Legislative Liaison for BKC. She is a past President and Training Director for the Brevard County Dog Training Club and has been an active member of other clubs over the years. She stew- ards for two Ring Steward Associations and enjoys judging matches and sweepstakes.
I live in Cocoa, Florida. I am a Vice President for a company which provides base operations support services to the Federal gov- ernment. My other passion besides dogs is horses! I have three Appa- loosas and over the years I’ve shown to Reserve National Champion, Reserve World Champion and multiple times Top Five and Top Ten and Superiors and ROMs. And I started doing photography a few years ago and have won two photo contests.
I have been in Toy Fox Terriers for six years and Ricky is my first Toy Manchester—didn’t plan to have a TMT but fell in love with him when he was six weeks old and I was helping to take photos of the litter for the breeder to send to the co-breeders. I’ve been in dogs for more than 40 years though—my first time in the ring was May 13, 1978 with a Cocker Spaniel. I’ve had Vizslas since 1983 but we are sizing down because we want to travel more and Toy Fox Terriers are our main breed now.
How has the NOHS program affected my view of the sport? I have made so many friends in other breeds that I would never have met if it hadn’t been for NOHS. NOHS gives many people who used to leave after they showed in breed a reason to stay all day and that gives us time to chat and get to know each other. We root for each other and are happy for each other’s successes. I see much more sense of community—almost like it was when I first started showing dogs.
Do I feel that owner/handlers have an advantage because of their bond with their dogs? No. I think the fact that shows have gone to weekdays and big clusters has given an advantage to professional handlers that a bond with our dogs can’t overcome. With the heavy numbers of shows they go to the handlers have much more face recog- nition with the judges than most owner handlers who work five days a week and are limited to the number of days off for dog shows. Also, the question implies that handlers don’t bond with the dogs they are showing and with them out there four and five days a week showing and on the road with the dog for weeks they are bonding with the dogs just as if they were theirs. Some of the well known teams cam- paigning have amazing bonds!
What’s more important to me, an all-breed win or a specialty win? Specialtywinbecausethenumberscompetingarehigherandbecause you’ve won against the best in your breed, Specialty shows also give you a chance to see and learn more about your breed because there are more to compare your dogs to and people in your breed to learn from and grow. Also, many all-breed shows have very low entries of Toy Fox and Toy Manchester Terriers. That said, every group placement thrills me. Still on the hunt for a Group 1—I won groups and BISs when we lived in Europe (my husband was in the Army for 20 years and I took eight Cockers, English Cockers and Vizslas to Europe in the 80s), but still striving to get those wins here in the U.S. My best known Toy Fox Terrier, Sparkles, came close with three Group 2s among her many group placements. And my most exciting win with her was BOB at the 2015 Eukanuba/AKC National Championship show. Sparkles had been BOS each of the two years prior and winning BOB and getting to show in the televised group was my Christmas present that year! Sparkles was the Lifetime Leader NOHS TFT for several years—just this year she moved to second because we retired her to have puppies and her next litter is due in July—I am so excited!
If you’re a breeder/owner/handler, are your wins that much more special? Absolutely!
Is fitting the show schedule into my “regular” life a constant bal- ancing act? It is a constant balancing act with my husband and I both holding jobs that entail some travel. And we raised three children and often he was deployed and I was juggling children, career and dogs/ horses schedules. I think it used to be easier when most shows were two or three days on a weekend. Until recently I worked for the same company for 30 years and had built up a lot of vacation days—how do younger people with limited days off participate? I understand finan- cially why so many clubs have moved to clusters, but for young fami- lies with jobs and children, taking off for clusters hours away from home (many towns no longer have shows since the clubs moved to the cluster)—I don’t know if they will come and stay in the dog world.
We have bought an RV so we can carry our dogs with us and not use a dog sitter. Still working on the horse sitter issue—its pretty pricey getting someone to take care of three horses while we are gone to a long circuit plus the travel days. One advantage though is we are at a point in our careers where we can work where we are at so we set up the RV table like an office with wifi and carry our computers and work when we aren’t showing.
Advice to a newcomer: don’t let your feelings be hurt easily and remember it took us years to get where we are. Most of all remem- ber we started this because we love dogs—win or lose its still about them. And hang out all day and meet people, that’s how you make friends and learn. I’ve always been amazed at people who just show their breed and leave. It’s fun with smart phones to pick a breed, pull up the breed standard on the phone and sit ringside and watch and compare to the standard. Learning about different breeds is fun and develops you as a dog person. And who knows – one day you might want to be a judge and you’ll know what the other breeds are and something about them. Ask people to go over their dogs when they aren’t showing and tell you what their dog’s strong points are. It will help you meet people and learn more about dogs. Keep your sense of humor and have fun!
JUDITH WEBB
My husband and I live in a small town in the quiet corner of Con- necticut . I trained as a Dance Teacher, although retired now I still enjoy the arts and spend my spare time painting my favorite subject, Cockers.
I started out with my first Cocker 15 years ago taking part in agil- ity. Couple of years later I found my first show potential and two years later bred my first litter. I have over 20 Champions, mostly Owner/ Handled.
266 • ShowSight Magazine, July 2019