IN RECOGNITION OF GREAT CONTRIBUTIONS A MOMENT TO TREASURE DEDICATED BREEDERS/EXHIBITORS HONORED BY THEIR PEERS
There is perhaps no greater honor than to be lauded by the people with whom you’ve worked, against whom you’ve competed and won and lost. At the PALM BEACH COUNTY DOG FANCIERS ASSOCIATION shows we were treated to just such an event, and it wasn’t only the Golden Retriever people who were ex- cited and inspired by this generous act. Spearheaded by Connie Miller, on the right, a group of Golden fanciers got together to commission and present a portrait of their friends Jerry & Pam’s most famous homebred. CH TOASTY’S TREASURE ISLAND HOF. In her presentation speech, Connie shared these thoughts: “I just want to say a couple of things here before we give this to Pam and Jerry. “In today's world being a breeder that sticks to their guns is harder than ever. They have to hold their breed, in this case Golden Retrievers, close to their heart and remember every single time they breed that the original purpose of those dogs must not be laid aside or replaced by desire to win or produce a big winner. It was this kind of dedication to the golden retriever that produced "Treasure," the top winning Golden in our breed's history. Today we honor her memory , and your dedica- tion to preserving goldens as they should be. And we all thank you for sharing her with the world.” Bred and owned by Jerry & Pam Oxenberg, TREASURE, handled by Clint Livingston, was the Number One Golden for the two years she was shown, with 32 BIS, and she was the first Golden in history to be the #1 Sporting Dog in the country. She also won Best of Breed at Westminster three years in a row, and won the Golden Retriever Club of America Top Twenty the two times she was nominated. Lest we only concentrate on her, we should remember that Jerry & Pam have bred 150 champions, including CH TOASTY’S MERCEDES BENZ, who was also #1 Golden and won the GRCA National in 1986...handled by none other than Connie Gerstner Miller. We thank these fine people for their dedication to their breed and our sport.
Photo by the Executive Editor
Portrait by Katie Roper
190 • S how S ight M agazine , A pril 2018
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