Still Winners: Westminster Champions in Retirement
The annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show crowns one overall winner after two days of intense competition among over 3,000 dogs. Winning Best in Show is the pinnacle of a show dog’s career, and most are retired after a hectic round of media appearances and photo ops. But there is certainly life after Westminster, as we discovered when we interviewed the owners of some recent champions.
Terry Patton speaks emotionally about her her late Springer Spaniel James, (Ch. Felicity's Diamond Jim) who won at Westminster in 2007. She calls him “an old soul,” who could be “exquisitely charming,” but who, most importantly, was a natural healer. “He just instinctively knew who needed to be cared for,” she says. He began work as a therapy dog even before starting his show career. And this was the life he returned to, visiting at hospitals and nursing homes. “It wasn’t just the show ring he excelled in; it was being with a group of people who needed his tlc,” say Patton, shown here with James.
Another important role for champion dogs is passing on their DNA. Last year’s winner, wire-haired fox terrier Sky, (Ch. AfterAll Painting the Sky) recently had her first litter of puppies. Co-owner Torie Steele still remembers the post-show whirlwind, and says Sky is a good mother, but misses the limelight. “She’s like a little prima donna that needs the attention; when she’s not getting the attention, she sort of mopes around and pouts.
“There are quite a few dogs who like the pace of going all the time,” comments David Fitzpatrick, who handled the 2012 winner, Pekingese Palacegarden Malachy, to his Best in Show win. Malachy, however, isn’t one of them. “Even though he enjoyed the dog shows he’s really content to stay home; he likes running around in the yard, keeping an eye on all the other dogs; I don’t think he really misses it.”
Malachy, too, has been kept busy passing on his good qualities to several new generations. Fitzpatrick is pleased to see that his champion’s good looks are showing up in his children and grandchildren, but “most of all he seems to throw that marvelous temperament; you know, they have no fear, they are just very confident, very wise little dogs.”
Perhaps the luckiest former champion is Scottish Deerhound Hickory, (Foxcliffe Hickory Wind) the 2011 winner. She returned home to the Blue Hill Mountains of Virginia, where she enjoys a brisk walk (or run, if there are squirrels) each day with her owner Cecilia Dove. “Their favorite thing is being home with their companions,” says Dove. “Deerhounds really enjoy being in family groups.” Hickory “very much wanted to get out of the limelight.” But still apparently, has a strong sense of entitlement: “she demands to be petted for at least an hour every evening.”
Dogs don’t measure time the way we do, so for these former winners, 15 seconds of fame is just part of a continuum, and they are legacy unto themselves.
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