Page 434 - ShowSight - December 2019

Mariko Saum continued
Do I co-breed and co-own with others? Yes, I have co-bred sev- eral litters and co-own with most of my owners.
Is my breed easy to place? I don’t believe it is ever easy to place puppies as it is work matching up the right home for each puppy. Puppies stay with us long enough for us to know their personalities and learn to be good companions (house training, crate training, walking on leash, and more). We typically have a waiting list, we appear in Breeders Lists in our Breed and use AKC Marketplace.
Do I think “Breeders’ Showcases” as a special event at an orga- nization’s site will give breeders the recognition they deserve? I don’t believe the general public will find such listings easily. Many are using the internet to find their future dogs. Most are not very well educated in what they should be using as tools to find a reputable breeder.
What can AKC do to help breeders attain great results? I have been very pleased with AKC’s Marketplace. I was even happy to hear some folks were surprised to find a Breeder Of Merit listed.
Any hint or trick I can share with fellow breeders? I would tell anyone find someone who has been doing their breeding program for at least 15 years with success in both Conformation and Perfor- mance (dogs doing work they were originally bred to do) and find out what that person is looking for when they breed.
Do I show my own dogs? Yes, I show them myself to their Championships and I also groom them.
The most amusing thing I’ve ever witnessed at a dog show? I watched Dixie Rae Sick, a Professional Handler, in the Group ring showing a Bearded Collie on the individual go around the ring, all was well until the lead broke. The dog stayed right in step with her up until the last quarter of the ring. It was fun and wonderful to watch.
FRANCESCA SCORZA
How I got started in dogs? Well I was in love with dogs since I was born but, unluckily, my fam- ily wasn’t “a dog lover family” so I had to wait until my 14th birthday to have the first dog in the house. My breeding adventure started four years later when I had a relation with a breeder and I was involved into breeding and show life. After some months the boyfriend disap- peared, leaving me this breeding “mad disease”.
What made me know that this was what I wanted to do? It wasn’t something I thought about—just happened that I started to spend all my free time studying pedigrees, flying to look at dogs and offspring of dogs I loved, traveling for dog shows and enjoying every single moment used to develop my passion.
My mentor was an old Australian breeder, Mrs. J. Cansdell of the well known kennel, Myrmidon. I knew her in Sweden and after one year I started with a Jack Russell Terrier. When I met her for the first time, I felt like I knew her all my life. We started to talk about dogs and we din’t realized how long we stayed in front of our coffee. Then she took me under her wing and taught me all the bases about morphology and breeding; but what I really cannot forget is that she taught me how to look at a dog standing and in movement. We were deep in touch even if we were living at two opposite parts of the world. Every summer she spent at least two months in Europe and she never forgot to come and spend time in our house until she died ten years later. I really miss her and her amazing personality.
The best thing about being a breeder? I like almost everything of the breeding life: planning a litter, helping the mother give birth to her puppies, making the best socialization possible of my pup- pies, finding the right families for each puppy I decide to sell, work- ing deeply with puppies I decide to keep longer, spending energy and time on them and then looking that my dreams and projects become reality and the small puppy that I kept in my arms since the beginning, is now a top winning dog. Also finding the perfect home for my retired dogs and have “my” dogs sleeping on our sofa.
The toughest part about being a breeder? For sure looking at my dog without heart: sometimes you plan a litter two years before, then finally you have puppies in your arms but it can happen that while they are growing, they are not the kind of puppies you dreamt of or their health test is not like you expected or not the kind of mover you thought they’d be. Well you have to forget how much effort you put in this litter and find the best families for them. Then you go ahead with your breeding plans and start again to plan other pairings. Another thing is that you can never forget that the breeder is responsible for every puppies you decide to whelp.
Do I work outside of the home? I have been an employee for an international company for 15 years. After that I met my husband, who was a professional jumping rider for 30 years, but at the time we met, he was involved in dogs and together we decided to dedi- cate all of our time at our breeding passion. So I stopped working in the office, we moved into a bigger place and now we have a big place with a breeding kennel and a boarding kennel that allow us to dedicate all of our time to our passion.
Is my family involved? Yes, my husband is breeder of Miniature Bull Terriers for ten years. We share every day of our crazy dog life. Am I involved with a breed club or all-breed club and held posi- tions within the club(s)? I was involved into the Italian Terrier Soci- ety for 17 years since 2000. Then the board changed and the new
one didn’t reflect my values, so I decided to go outside the club. My kennel/exercise areas described: we and our dogs live on a big property near Como Lake. We have a small house, a new kennel and 40.000 squared metres of land with big paddocks with grass and trees where our dogs spend a big part of the day. The kennel is
warmed up in winter and air conditioned during the summer. How did I come up with my kennel name and is it registered with AKC? The affix Touchstar comes from a mashup of the names
of my first two dogs.
Do I co-breed and co-own with others? I co-breed with my hus-
band, Mr. Roberto Petazzi, and I co-own the affix Touchstar with Mr. Maurizio Massolo, he has helped me develop our breeding line since the beginning.
Is my breed easy to place? The Jack Russell Terrier is a well- known breed now and is a breed well appreciated family member for kids, for peoples’ first experience with dogs, and an easy dog to live with. This breed fits well into apartments in the city but it’s also a good sport breed for active people—a big dog in a small box. So it’s easy to place puppies. I don’t like so much to offer puppies to sell or stud service of my males. I want people that come to us to buy a puppy aren’t looking for “a puppy” but are looking for a Touchstar puppy, so we like to meet our future customers beforehand, to listen to their needs and expectations and evaluate together if our puppy can have a perfect life with the new family. I have been breeding for 20 years now and Touchstar dogs are exported and shown in many parts of the world, so I’m happy to advertise success of dogs bred by us in nice dog magazines but not to sell. All our puppies are born in our house, so we pay big attention to their future life.
Do I think “Breeders’ Showcases” as a special event at an organi- zation’s site will give breeders the recognition they deserve? I think successful and healthy dogs are the best advertisement of a breed- er. Of course, a nice example of a good breeder but I like that the
Breeder Q & A
430 • ShowSight Magazine, DeceMber 2019