Article by Tracey Fudge, Holton-Arms School
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2014 Net Assets. The author again participated in the 2017 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show with her three-year-old Flat-Coat, Tango.
I have always been a dog person, and I started watching live broadcasts of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at an early age. On the second Monday and Tuesday of each February, I’m swept up by majesty and pageantry at Madison Square Garden—the gold and purple, the green rings, the crush of people. The dogs.
In 2001, when I was thinking about getting my first dog, I saw a Flat Coated Retriever at Westminster. A versatile and intelligent hunting retriever, this breed was something different from the typical Golden and Labrador Retrievers. When a colleague mentioned a puppy that was available, I said yes.
Besides being family companions, Flat-Coats are working dogs—they need a job.
Little did I know where Logan would lead. There is a strong Flat Coated Retriever community, and I started meeting people and getting involved. A common saying about Flat-Coats is that you can’t have just one, and before long I had three more: Logan, plus Kiowa, Tango and Quinn.
Besides being family companions, Flat-Coats are working dogs—they need a job. We started field training (hunting simulations that test a dog’s retrieving ability); agility training (where dogs follow hand, voice and body signals to navigate a course of obstacles and jumps); obedience training (exercises that require control, precision and teamwork); and finally conformation showing, or breed showing. I began to wonder if I could eventually show my own dog at Westminster.
Needless to say, when you want to show a dog at the top U.S. show, you want a dog that exhibits “breed type”—the standard for what a dog is supposed to look like. But I also wanted the breed’s best working and performance qualities. So I began to do first-hand research, visiting Holland, Sweden and England, in addition to various parts of the U.S. and Canada, to look at dogs and pedigrees.
A line I liked a lot was from Sweden. I fell in love with a dog named Flippa—her progeny are beautiful dogs, with a long pedigree of working and showing. From Flippa’s litter, I chose an eight-week-old puppy named Ranger based on the criteria used to evaluate puppies bred for performance, including structure, “birdiness” (eagerness/interest in birds) and personality.
At the time, Westminster rules required every dog to be a champion. Ranger and I started showing once he was fully grown, and he achieved his championship at just under two years.
In November 2012, I began the process of entering Ranger in the 2013 Westminster show. In the middle of December, we got the good news, and two months later we packed the car and drove to New York City.
During the day, we stayed in our prescribed “bench area,” but when show time came Ranger performed well. We were in the ring for about an hour, evaluated constantly on movement and silhouette, and had our individual exam with the judge. And no, Ranger didn’t win a ribbon, but he was in the final line-up consideration. We returned to Westminster this February, with the same results.
So what does any of this have to do with my job as a school business officer? In my 13 years training dogs, I’ve learned a lot of what I need to know about working in a school.
For instance: Communication is key, and not always easy. Always have someone assigned to clean-up. Change requires patience and clear direction. Finally, it’s all about the food!
