BREEDER INTERVIEW—MARK & BONNIE GOODWEIN, KOPPERTONE VIZSLAS
Vizslas and adopted our first show dog. Bonnie’s mom told us not to come back with a male as she did not want a dog lift- ing his leg in her house, and since I wanted to impress my future mother-in-law, I chose an 8-week-old male puppy, BIS, NBISS, 6XBISS CH Russet Leather Proud Warrior, “Cody,” who for years she called her “grand-dog,” even carrying around photos to show to her friends. Since Bon- nie and I had never shown a dog before, the Wanjons showed Cody. At his first specialty at seven months, Cody went Best Opposite in Sweepstakes. We were excited but didn’t really understand yet what this meant. Cody, in the regular classes, won his 6-9 Puppy Class, went Winners Dog, Best of Winners and ultimately BEST of BREED, with three different handlers. I think we were hooked from that point. We also won the big raffle prize at the show, a new Vari Kennel crate. Cody won the Pedigree Award in 1989 and 1990 for being the No. 1 conformation Vizsla in the country. He finished his championship by going Winners Dog at the 1986 National, the weekend we got married. Our dog show family continues to grow, not just those adopting puppies but people around the world who share a common interest. Who were your mentors in the sport? When we decided that we were inter- ested in breeding, we spent a lot of time (pre-Internet) doing research on finding a bitch or bitches that we would be able to call “our foundation.” We turned to Mar- ion Coffman of Cariad Vizslas (Ocala, Florida) and the author of Versatile Vizslas . We were very fortunate to start with two wonderful girls, CH Cariad’s Koppertone First Edition and CH Cariad’s Cricket’nak Hivak. Our thoughts were to take the best dogs from the East Coast and breed to the best dogs on the West Coast, thus
GCH Koppertone’s Classical Minuet (Minnie)
creating a look and style that would ulti- mately become “Koppertone Vizslas.” We also want to recognize Shelley and Larry Coburn (Golden Empire) and Bev and Ed Wanjon (Russet Leather) for their guid- ance and friendship through the years. For our Wirehaired Vizsla mentor, we look to Zsófia Miczek for guidance. Her Zöldmáli Kennel is world-renowned. Even from Hungary, she finds a way to give guidance and make sure that her dogs are given an opportunity to prove their natural abilities. Early in dogs, someone challenged me by saying I would never be able to show my own dog. Well, challenge accepted! After sitting ringside and watching some very talented professional handlers show dogs in California, I decided it was time to take up the challenge. Cindy Lane Smith, who was showing our special at the time, influ- enced me the most. She had such a rapport with the dogs, as well as with her clients. She always told it straight up. In fact, I will never forget a specialty in Arizona, where I was moved to the front of a big Winners Bitch class and proceeded to melt down and ultimately get RWB. Cindy came up to me after we walked out of the ring and gave me a slap on the back of the head, NCIS Gibbs style. She said, “Relax, have fun! You will learn from your mistakes.” Over the years, Peter Gaeta and Pam Lam- bie helped refine my skills and encouraged me to compete. All of their help has assist- ed me in achieving a National Best in Spe- cialty win, multiple Group wins, multiple NOHS BIS wins, and a Sporting Dog BIS. Some of the dogs we have bred and/or shown over the years have been wonder- ful mentors. CH Koppertone’s Magyar Buszke CD, NBISS CH Koppertone’s Cariad Tivadar (Teddy), 2XBIS GCH Koppertone’s Classical Minuet (Minnie), GCH Zoldmali Csongor SH (Izzy), and GCHS Renaissance Tambopata The Lion- hearted ROM (Tambo) have all played a role in instilling in us that you play hard, have fun and, win or lose, there will always
be unconditional love and respect. We can learn from our four-legged family mem- bers and pass this message on to future generations of breeders and mentors. We are very proud to have had the opportunity to be mentors ourselves on co-ventures with other respected breeders. It is extremely satisfying to see some of our dogs become foundation stock for other highly respected kennels. The Koppertone Vizslas and Wirehaired Vizslas are widely known, highly successful and well respected. What breeding philoso- phies do you adhere to? Our goal is to improve the breeds and to produce puppies that are sound in temperament, health, and show abilities in the field, with correct conformation. As breeders, we continue to strive for the perfect Vizsla and Wirehaired Vizsla, and hope that each puppy is better than its par- ents. Our Vizslas and Wirehaired Vizslas are bred to be companions first, with the expectations that they are sound and meet the standard. We strive to produce versa- tile dogs that can compete in all arenas. As the Breed Referral and Breed Edu- cation representatives for the Vizsla Club of America and Wirehaired Vizsla Club of America in the Southern California area, we spend a lot of time meeting with people to inform them of the nuances of our won- derful breeds. We are constantly expanding our own knowledge of dogs by consult- ing our mentors, Marion Coffman (Car- iad Vizslas) and Zófia Miczek (Zöldmáli
Cricket and Buszke
GCH Zoldmali Csongor SH (Izzy)
110 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JANUARY 2022
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