Two of the country's oldest sporting events rely on animals, not humans, to influence the outcome of the competition.
Since 1875 the Kentucky Derby has brought the focus of sportsmen to Louisville. Winning the Run for the Roses is now one of sport's highest achievements and is a quest that has transcended the Bluegrass state's borders and drawn in every kind of person, from gamblers to royalty.
Two years after the first running of the Derby, a group of New Yorkers organized the Westminster Kennel Club and in turn, held its first dog show in the Big Apple. Now, 129 years later, the Westminster Kennel Club's Dog Show is the Kentucky Derby of dog breeding. And as with the Derby, dedicated Central Kentuckians have devoted years of passion and perseverance to developing the highly coveted best of their breeds.
Breeding top quality show dogs is not unlike breeding Thoroughbred horses. There are individuals in the dog world who have one dog and make it to Westminster; there are also people who through the years have bred hundreds of dogs and are still seeking that perfect specimen. Established breeders spend decades studying bloodlines, carefully choosing mates based on conformation or body style, and temperament. Dr. Sidney Remmele, a top breeder of Dalmations who lives in Lexington, has bred 10 generations of Dalmations in the same family line. Frank and Martha Dean, who have bred Irish Wolfhounds for four decades, still have descendants from a dog who won Best of Breed at Westminster in the 1990s.
Remmele and the Deans are among a handful of locally based breeders of dogs that regularly rank nationally near the top of their breed. Other Central Kentucky-based breeders have taken Australian Shepherds, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs, Irish Setters, and a Vizsla to Westminster in the last five years. Another local breeder, Jean Roche, is not as active in personally showing her Irish Setters, but their progeny are still regular visitors to the country's top show and the smaller shows along the way.
To explain the complex structure of the entire dog showing world in one article would be nearly impossible. Westminster is the dog show that has the most name recognition, the most television coverage, and a great deal of prestige. However, it is only a two-day show held once a year. To get to that show is a year-round endeavor that involves many stops along the way at much smaller venues in cities like Frankenmuth, Mich., or Ft. Mitchell, Ky. The journey starts as far back as making that initial breed choice and continues through the selection process of breeding the best dogs to the best dogs in hopes of getting that perfect dog on the perfect day in the show ring. Getting a dog to Westminster, or any top show, takes time, patience, devotion, and luck.
A Rare Breed
While Central Kentucky is a hub for horse breeding, no such thing exists for dog breeders. There is not one city with a significant concentration of kennels situated along one scenic road, such as we see along Paris Pike or Old Frankfort Pike with its horse farms. Dog breeders can do their work from anywhere. Since dogs have short gestation periods, ship easily, and can utilize in vitro insemination practices, there are not noted geographical concentrations of Golden Retrievers, for example, or Poodles. Good breeders make a name for themselves wherever they are located. "It's a very small world when you deal with good dogs," said Roche, who is based in Versailles.
Roche is one of the area's breeders who has the distinction of earning a Best of Breed title at Westminster. Her dog, Ch. Saxony's Printemps, was the top dog of her breed at the show that year. At the 2006 Westminster Kennel Club show the top Irish Setter was Ch. Jewelset's Up Up N Away, a dog sired by Roche's Ch. Saxony's Snow in August.
"I've been exceedingly lucky," she said. "I've bred six Best in Show dogs. I love Setters. We've had a lot of other breeds, but I always go back to the Irish Setters. They have a very good sense of humor, they're very forgiving, very loving dogs, but they need their space."
Knowing the right breed for your personality, whether you are a breeder with multiple dogs, or a family with one pet, is the key to success.
Kristin Kleeman, who is among the country's top breeders of Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs, did a lot of research before choosing the breed she would work with. Since electing to breed the dogs in the early 1990s, she has produced 77 champions in her kennel name, Derby.
"I wanted a dog I could show as a novice handler and possibly breed," she said. "I was mostly interested in obedience and conformation secondly." That has changed completely. Kleeman now focuses on conformation, or the type of showing that looks at the dog's health, temperment and body structure, the judging method utilized in the ring at Westminster, Eukanuba, and other American Kennel Club-sanctioned show events.
Nine "Swissies," as Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are nicknamed, are part of the Kleeman household. One that has left the fold, Ch. Red Fern's Beau Derby, earned the Best of Breed title at the 2006 Westminster and Eukanuba shows. His grandmother, Belline, lives with Kleeman in her doggy paradise that includes large fenced areas for the dogs to run and play together, and a basement-turned-kennel with cages, crates, and a specially outfitted dog wash.
Kleeman has personally cut back her traveling and showing schedule, instead trusting her dogs to professional handlers while she remains closer to her Georgetown home to focus on her sons Ryan, 13, and Jennings, 10. However, her Swissies still surround her and she is constantly working with them. Jennings has started showing dogs too, opting to work with his Pug, Punch, in Junior showman classes.
Kleeman is very careful in planning each of her matings, and equally careful in choosing where dogs she breeds end up.
"If you do this for the breed and the health and the temperament and to get good dogs, it's a love and a passion, it's not a moneymaker. I do a breeding for me, for those two individual dogs, to get another show dog. I do have a lot of people that want pets, and we do get pets. I have the potential owners fill out an application to see what they want, what their history of dog ownership is, what they can handle, how old their children are, how old they areÖMy goal is to place the right dog in the right home so everybody's happy and the dog lives its full life in its home."
More than a "Hobby"
Although breeding and caring for dogs can be as time-consuming as a full-time job, it is not a moneymaking proposition. Even the top breed winners at Westminster earn only a ribbon; true, it's a pretty nice ribbon, but that's it. There is no cash award, and it can cost thousands of dollars just to enter and travel to the show, whether or not the dog performs well.
"It's not a cheap sport," said Remmele. "It's less than showing horses, but still expensive. There are people in the country that with handling fees and expenses and advertising, they'll drop $100,000 on a dog."
Breeding and owning multiple dogs is a much different hobby from something like knitting or fishing. It can't be done in snippets of one or two hours on weekends. This is a daily responsibility. It has unique payoffs as well, typically in the form of wagging tails and sloppy kisses.
Dogs have been a profession and a hobby for Remmele for more than 40 years. A veterinarian, Remmele never goes a day without dogs at home or in the office. He has owned, bred, and showed Dalmations since the 1960s, and at one point, had as many as 40 dogs at home. He's since scaled back considerably and has only three that live with him.
A native of Catlettsburg, Remmele was convinced by a veterinary school classmate to take his dog to a weekend show in Albany, Ga., in 1963. The nine-time college letterman loved competition in any form, so once in the ring with his dog, "the bug bit," he said.
Remmele had already fallen in love with Dalmations, due to his father's influence. In seventh grade Remmele received a "very, very good Dalmation bitch. It made me appreciative of good animal conformation and a good animal. I fell in love with the breed from then on."
Remmele said he has always been surrounded by dogs. His very first pet, a mixed breed named Bounce, attended school with him and had his own desk in the second-grade classroom. His first Dalmation was Kinjockity Lady R. (Lady) and the first Dalmation he showed was Garland's Pride, who went by "Tuck," because his owner was homesick for Kentucky.
After graduation, Remmele returned to Kentucky and started his veterinary practice. Now retired, he said about 10 percent of his practice was Dalmations because of his knowledge of the breed. This exposure to a wide variety of dogs within the same breed wasn't all good though.
"Dalmations should be a nice, laid back, but yet active dog when called upon," said Remmele. "Very loyal, very loving, and not the hyper dog that people breed in their back yards."
Remmele has been a regular visitor to Westminster, as have dogs bred in the name of his kennel, Tuckaway. His role wasn't only to serve as owner and breeder; Remmele has been an American Kennel club judge for 33 years. In 1985 he judged the Dalmation breed class at Westminster; he also judges Chow Chow and Keeshonds at various shows around the country.
Although he and his wife, Frances, have backed off their level of Dalmation breeding over the past few years, Remmele still spends one or two weekends per month judging other dogs.
Martha Dean is also a breeder and judge. With her husband, Frank, Martha owns and breeds Irish Wolfhounds and Norfolk Terriers.
When the Deans started breeding Wolfhounds in 1971, the breed was not as common or popular. "It took us a long time to get them because back then, you couldn't find them," said Martha Dean. "People wouldn't sell them to you. A woman in California finally sold us one and it came on the railway express."
Martha Dean said she has loved purebred dogs since she was a child. Growing up on Tates Creek Road, she said she tried to keep every purebred that wandered into the yard. When she and Frank were dating, she gave him an Irish Setter puppy, his first dog. Since then, Frank has been completely won over.
"We've had over 100 Irish Wolfhounds over the years," he said. "I think they're great."
One wall of the Deans' home office is wallpapered in a dog mural; the adjoining wall is full of framed awards earned by their Irish Wolfhounds, evidence of more than 40 years of breeding and showing. The Deans said at one point they were spending 30-35 weekends per year on the road with their dogs. They still have two vans equipped for traveling to shows; the size of the dogs they'll be showing determines which van they take on the road.
Martha is also a judge. She is qualified to judge all members of the hound group, three types of Terriers, Poodles, and Great Danes. "I like seeing the dogs, for one thing, and it's fun," she said. "If I was judging Wolfhounds, I would look at them as if 'let's see if I'd like to take this one home.' "
Fara Buschnell of Nicholasville isn't a judge yet, but she hopes to become one someday. In the meantime, Buschnell has her hands, house, and yard full of plenty of dogs to keep her occupied. Buschnell has dabbled in a number of breeds, but focuses on Bernese Mountain Dogs. She also owns Australian Shepherds, a Black Russian Terrier, and a Vizsla. Buschnell has visited Westminster with dogs she owned or bred four times, and has earned recognitions at the show three times for her dogs.
"It's a tough show," Buschnell said of Westminster. "It has to be a dog with a solid temperament that likes to show and can handle the closeness of the crowds. It's not a show you take a dog to just to participate. It's a stressful show for a dog, it's an expensive show to go to."
Whether or not breeders have a dog deeply involved in the show circuit, maintaining top quality dogs takes a lot of time. Buschnell estimated she spends up to eight hours a day-two to three before work and four to five hours in the evening-taking care of her 10-plus dogs. This includes everything from feeding to grooming, clipping nails, and making multiple trips to the veterinarian.
"All those dogs get bathed at least every two weeks, plus routine trimming and maintenance and nail care," she said. "My dogs are my family. They are the most important thing to me. I knew when I was really young that I couldn't have children, so I threw myself into other people's children and dogs.
"It's not for profit," she said. "There is no prize money; you get a ribbon. At Westminster you get a prettier ribbon. You do it because you enjoy it. It's fun to see something you created to go out there and do really well. When you've actually picked the father and bred it and raised the puppy and it gets to that level, it's like going to the Kentucky Derby, it's indescribable."