Becoming: When Opportunity Knocks...
BY JACQUELYN FOGEL continued
Apparently what appealed to Ben’s eye was exactly what was written in the standard – with the exception of size. I knew that my bloodline sometimes produced larger dogs, so I was not surprised to see a size varia- tion in the puppies. I liked the smaller dogs, and Ben like the larger dogs. We both loved pretty faces and great movement. I told Ben I wanted to buy one of the males after he decided which ones he wanted to keep. I ranked them according to my preferences, and he took them all back home to show to his wife who had just arrived from California, so she could help decide which ones to keep. Ben was as surprised as I was. He was absolutely sure I wouldn’t like any of his puppies because they weren’t perfect. Three weeks later we scheduled a meeting date at the airport again, since Ben’s wife was coming in for another visit. He would bring one of the two males I identified as lovely. The day before we met, I got another unexpected phone call from Ben. Could I please take one of the females because she was a trou- ble maker, and he couldn’t stop her from picking on one of the other girls, and she was smaller than he liked? Ben raises free-range bedlingtons, and this just wasn’t working for him. He would give me a commis- sion if I could find a buyer for her. I had not seen the girls, but based upon the boys, I was sure I could find a buyer for this puppy. Imagine my delight when I got this female home and realized she was even better than the boy I was keeping! Ben gave me what he thought was their pedigrees, but they didn’t look quite like I expected. The next morning I ordered AKC certified pedigrees for the sire and dam, and broke into laughter when I downloaded them. Ben had given me the pedigrees for the maternal granddam, and the paternal great grand sire. While both were interesting pedigrees with some very good dogs, neither of them had any of my own dogs or their predecessors in them. The complete pedigrees were a different story. There, in those pedigrees, 4 and 5 gen- erations back, were some of the finest bedlington ter- riers ever produced in this country – most of them that had lived to be well over 10 years of age. I got on the phone immediately with a breeder friend of mine who was at wit’s end because her bloodline was at its end, and she had been unable to breed what she needed to keep it going. She wanted to know if I had a puppy that might be able to carry her forward into the next level of her Mom’s old European-based bloodline. I sent her the pedigrees I had just ordered, and to her delight – there were dogs from her Mom’s bloodline in it. Yes, she would take the puppy girl! So here I am breeding dogs that are unidentifiable as anything special. The old dog from France is not an American champion, though we are starting to show
him, and I am pleased to report he already has 2 points and a RWD from Devon KC. He was shaved down completely when we brought him back in July, and his teeth are not in superb condition. We’re trying to grow more hair, but it appears that he is sometimes a self-groomer, so this has become a challenge. The puppy boy that I am keeping, and the girl that is going to my breeder friend have 3 generations of dogs with names that do not appear in anyone’s show pedigree, and are completely unrecognizable. But the dogs in the 4th, 5th and sixth generations include some of the most beautiful dogs I have ever known. And because this is an old pedigree, I know how long many of those dogs lived. One dog in Ben’s and my pedigree was identified early as affected, but actually turned out to be clear and lived to be 17 years old. Both Ben and I had linebred on that dog, whose name translates to “Pretty Face”. I cannot believe my great fortune to see that dog in pedigrees again. Opportunities can arise from the strangest of cir- cumstances. Five or ten years ago I would not have dreamed of seeing the pedigrees of these dogs again. I thought they were lost forever. The universe some- times works in strange ways, and I guess I am not yet destined to give up on bedlington terriers. The young breeders I am now mentoring are pretty happy these opportunities came while they are still learning the breed. And I am getting excited again, to pass along what has been passed to me from the great breeders of the past, through paths I could never have foreseen. Thank you, Ben and Chantal, for keeping our dreams alive even when you didn’t know that’s what you were doing. You have been good stewards, and I am eter- nally grateful. n Jackie Fogel got her first purebred basset in 1969, but her real education in the world of AKC dogs and shows started in 1979 when she moved to Wisconsin and whelped her first home-bred champion. In 1995 Jackie got a bedlington terrier from David Ramsey of the famous Willow Wind line. She has bred and shown numerous #1 bedlingtons, and continues to actively breed both bassets and bedlingtons. In 2007 Jackie began judging, and is approved to judge 6 breeds. She owns and manages Cedar Creek Pet Resort, and is active in the Kettle Moraine Kennel Club, Keep Your Pets, Inc., (a non-profit she founded), and the local Rotary club. Jackie writes for ShowSight Magazine, the basset column in the Gazette, and a pet column in a local magazine.
114 • S how S ight M agazine , F ebruary 2018
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