Page 56 - ShowSight Express, January 7 2021

BONNIE THRELFALL, EDGEWOOD ENGLISH COCKER SPANIELS
GCHB Edgewood Devilish Design, National Specialty Best of Winners, National Specialty Best of Breed from the Veteran Class
and all I got were males. I don’t want to spin my wheels with repeats. I always want to move forward.
I wish I could have done more breeding. Working for years as a handler apprentice and then showing dogs professionally leaves precious little time to breed and raise puppies. When I breed a litter, I always do so thinking that this could possibly be the last litter I ever breed, so it better be worth doing. We all know that the perfect dog of any breed will never be bred, but I like to think that the best dog I ever bred has yet to be born. It keeps me going.
How many dogs do you currently house? Tell us about your facilities and how the dogs are maintained.
Two are the fewest dogs that I have had and the most was six. Three to four seems to work best for me. The breed does not do well at all as kennel dogs. They thrive as nosey pets that are always underfoot. I don’t have a kennel. When I am home they are in the house. When I am not, they are in a garage that I had built that has never housed a car. It is heated and air-conditioned. At one end are two 4 foot x 4 foot stalls with dog doors. They go out to two 6 foot x 14 foot gravel runs. There is a roof over half the length of the runs. The garage has a grooming and bathing area, and a trotter. My entire backyard is fenced for free running.
Puppies are whelped in the kitchen. When they start escaping from the whelping box, they move to a big pen out on my all-weather porch. It is more like a playground than a pen. There are many toys, surfaces, a tunnel, wobble board, etc.
Who were/are some of your most significant English Cockers, both in the whelping box and in the show ring?
The father-and-son dogs that I started with, Ch. Kenobo Rabbit of Nadou, ECM (English Cocker of Merit, the top-producing designation from the par- ent club) and Ch. Kenobo Capricorn, ECM, exceeded any expectations that I might have had. Both were top producers, siring BIS and National winners; both were BIS winners themselves, both were Westminster Group placers (Rabbit twice), and Capricorn won the National twice. At the time, I had just graduated from college and was an owner-handler.
My foundation bitch, Ch. Graecroft Calliope, ECM, was a Capricorn daughter. She was Winners Bitch from the puppy class at the National, BOS at another, and then got an Award of Merit from the Veterans class at a third, after three litters. She was bred to her father for my only inbred litter. From that came Ch. Edgewood Fan-Tan who was BOB at two Nationals and BOS at two Nationals.
After retiring from handling, I only occasionally exhibit at all-breed shows, but there have been wonder- ful owners who have participated with some of my dogs. Some of those dogs are pictured within this interview.
Please comment positively on your breed’s present con- dition and what trends might bear watching.
English Cocker exhibitors do an excellent job of trimming and presenting their dogs. If anyone needs help, there is always someone to show them how it’s done. A very disturbing trend in the breed is the very wide division between what wins at the all-breed shows and what wins at specialties. Numerically, this is not a big-entry breed at the all-breed shows. The vast majority
GCHG Edgewood Casino Celebrity, the Breed’s First Gold Grand Champion, Westminster BOB Winner