Page 102 - ShowSight - October 2020

SUSAN KAMEN MARSICANO, APU BASENJIS
Left: M Clean Run Cover. Karen Hocker photo. Top right: Gilda—one hour old. Gilda is FC Apu Painter Song RI BID CAA TKP GRC ORC VBS2. Bottom right: Down memory lane. My first basenji with Annie Clark.
Please comment positively on your breed’s present condition and what trends might bear watching.
Conversation with an observer ringside at the Big E in West Springfield, Mas- sachusetts: Observer, “Looks like a nice quality entry.” Me, “Unless you know the breed.” Observer, looking at me sideways, “Are they supposed to single track?” Me, “Uh huh.” Observer, “Then you should have won.”
A stable temperament is of utmost importance, and we do have some calm and friendly dogs in the ring, but I fear those remembered will be the ones that are not.
Absence of loin is not the same thing as short coupled. It makes for lack of flex- ibility. Underline. Underline. Underline. Underline means chest room, and not a straight line from the elbows to the tuck-up. The dogs should have a sternum, not a hollow front. Consider the air under the dog. They need to have a dark, far- seeing eye. Not only puppies have wrinkles. A gorgeous coat is not one that has to be doctored, or altered. It is bred. I prefer rich color on the dog, and I believe a brindle Basenji should be a red dog with tiger stripes.
The sport has changed greatly since you first began participating. What are your thoughts on the state of the fancy and the declining number of breeders? How do we encourage newcomers to join us and remain in the sport?
In my breed, nothing has made a change until COVID. I don’t think there are fewer breeders or fewer dogs. Same old, same old.
A friendly ringside atmosphere is a good thing.
Where do you see your breeding program in the next decade or two?
I am actually done. I bred my last litter in December of 2018. I hope to have those two pups around me when I am 90. Some of the youngsters living with my friends can continue the line (pending continued health testing).
Finally, tell us a little about Susan outside of dogs... your profession, your hobbies.
I have never had a hobby. I am a painter. I’m pretty good at that. The late judge Anna Katherine Nicho- las wrote about my paintings in Dog World. I used to earn a living by doing paintings of all the famous dog show dogs with their handlers and the judges who put them up.
I produce the Rip Van Wrinkler, which is the newsletter for the Rip Van Wrinkle Basenji Club. That name is a pun on Rip Van Winkle and the Basenji wrinkle. The Rip Van Wrinkle club was founded in 1997. We have been giving our members the opportunity to experience all the things these wonderful dogs can do. Our matches have includ- ed agility, rally, lure coursing, and racing. We have never cared to do the politics to engage in official breed shows. We all get along fine the way we are. The Wrinkler won the Dog Writers Association of America writing competition in 2014 for Best Club Newsletter. My artwork, as well as several articles and photos from the Wrinkler, have also done their share of winning DWAA Maxwell awards.
I train dogs. I make art. I encourage the people who have my dogs to allow the dogs to be versatile, and, above all, sleep under the covers.
100 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 2020