BEING LUCKY
IN DOGS
by
Barbara "BJ"
Andrews,
Publisher
TheDogPlace
& Breeder/Owner/Handler
Akitas O'BJ
We
first met Luck back in the early 60s when our first Doberman litter was sired by a son of
the famous Ch. Warlock. We raised ten puppies and everyone said how
lucky we were.
We were even luckier when our first Rottie bitch finished her
champion title in only five shows and then, from just one litter, became the top dam
in 1968.
When in 1972, we got our first Akita, our luck got even
better but looking back, it is easy to see that our biggest
break was what I wish for every beginner - the world's greatest
mentors.
It
was through dogs that we met the most significant people in our
lives, developed an interest in nutrition, then medicine, and
ultimately in why and how Nature works. Was it luck that we met the most significant people in our lives,
at just the right moment? Or maybe it was just being lucky
enough to know we were so lucky to have their counsel?
It
was surely "luck" that we met Wayne and Dorothy Gooch, Skyraider Dobermans even
though at that time their own luck was in a terrible downturn. Wayne was a
recovering alcoholic who had just lost over a million dollars for the second
time. At one point, we took in 20 of
their 27 Dobermans. Caring for those dogs and the opportunity to love
Wayne and Dorothy was a turning point inan incredible stroke of luck.
Through Dorothy, I re-lived the moment when Ch. Skyraider's The Caravel went WB
at the Garden. That was back when even a class ribbon at Westminster was the height of
achievement. I relished the success of Ch. Skyraider's Top Flight as
I sat at Dorothy's feet with Topper's head in my lap. I was lucky enough to know
George Rood as a great dog man, not just as a "famous handler." I learned
about Peggy Adamson (Damasyn) and Tess Hensler (Artal), both of whom were
already legends. But most of all, I learned what made them and their dogs
legends in the Doberman world. As an aside, when my Widow-Maker went Best In
Show under Peggy Adamson, it wasn't luck. It was Fate.
Luckily, Dorothy had taught me how to "read" a pedigree. Wayne (former DPCA
Delegate to the AKC) taught Bill how to get a difficult bitch bred, and why
there are times when Luck looks out for breeders and getting her bred just shouldn't
happen. We had both grown up with dogs, hunted over them or behind them, but we
were so sooooo lucky to realize how little we really knew about dogs! I
shudder to think where our first Doberman litter would have led us had it not
been for Dorothy's wise and patient counsel.
There were other mentors. Most of them will never know how lucky I was to be
able to study and learn from them. Mike Billings fascinated me as a
handler and later, as a judge of unerring skill. My "other mother" was Lina Basquette and I took her lessons to heart. Just luck I guess.
No doubt about it, we were especially lucky to have the counsel of
people like all breed judges E.W. "Tip" Tipton and Heywood Hartley and to be able to
breed Akitas that caught the eye of Lou Harris, Ginny Hampton, Roy
Ayers, Doc Greathouse, and other judges of their stature at a time
when it was a "trash breed." We were lucky enough to win under
judges whose opinions changed that concept.
Did we carry a four leaf clover? No. I was lucky
enough to have a daddy who taught me that we make our own luck.
Luck is having opportunity and recognizing it as such.
Luck is keeping your mouth shut so that your ears work and your
brain can function. Luck is about applying the lessons you learned,
even when it would be more convenient to do otherwise.
You first get lucky by burning the midnight oil and phone lines, not
just asking to be asking, but to learn. Luck is
shipping a Rottie bitch from Florida to Washington state at a time
when very few people
flew! Her multi-champion litter wasn't a gamble, it was putting
into play that which we had learned about genetics.
A phone call to Sam Rivkin resulting in our first Akita was luck
but the really lucky part was realizing that she wasn't what we wanted to start breeding.
We finished her, sold her, and were lucky enough to find Bob Campbell. Luck drove our vehicles on all those
trips from Florida to Georgia and yep, sometimes we were lucky enough to pay the phone
bills.
Everyone encounters Opportunity and Obstacles. It may take a stroke of luck to
understand which is which. Sometimes they are the same thing. Good luck is
the ability to learn from the bad luck. But the greatest good fortune of
all is in knowing that not much in our lives is only happenstance.
The
incredible film work above was a surprise gift from Maurizio Moretto, Moretto
Film Company in Santiago, Chile, So. America. It was done before anyone
knew what "digital" was. We were so lucky that he called us.
Maurizio is a lucky breeder who overcame distance and language barriers to
achieve the highest levels of success for his Akitas ACE.
The
dogs in the composite are Ch. Okii Yubi's Sachmo Of Makoto, ROMXP, sire of 101
AKC Chs. (breeder Bob Campbell) Ch. O'BJ BigSon Of Sachmo, ROMPX, sire of 48 AKC
Chs. and Ch. The Widow-Maker O'BJ, ROMPX, sire of 76 AKC Chs. All three
were top winning show dogs, each sired
many ROM progeny and each sire produced foundation champions on four continents.
Luck. Fate. Destiny. Call it what you will but always
recognize, welcome, and respect it.
http://www.thedogplace.org/ShowDog/Lucky-Mentors_Andrews.asp
#10111106
reprinted from
SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE
