Showsight - May 2018

ShowSight Interviews: Cindy Cooke, Anstamm Scottish Terriers

BY ALLAN REZNIK continued

daughter of my own. Their response was, “Don’t get your hopes up.”

O’Neal, who now uses it on her Belfire Norwich Terriers.)

geneticist who was advising our parent club on how to reduce the incidences of CA until a DNA test became avail- able, we posted Chevy’s name on a reg- istry of known carriers and removed him from our breeding program. Just that fast, we were essentially out of the stud dog game because people were too frightened to use Chevy’s sons and grandsons. There were even breeders who wouldn’t let us breed Sadie’s sisters to their dogs. At the same time we were dealing with this new genetic issue, the Scot- tish Terrier breed was facing an even worse problem. Our numbers were plummeting. Since the 1970s, the number of Scottish Terriers registered with the AKC had plummeted from more than 10,000 dogs a year to about 1,300—a 90% drop. If we were going to keep going, we had to make some changes. We could no longer depend on nearby or even US-located breeders to have outcross sires available with the specific traits and overall quality we needed. I can also no longer linebreed as much as we did before because we no longer have as many out-crossed bitches—those wonderful second-pick girls—that we had in the past to keep a healthy level of genetic diversity. The first major outcross I did was to a young stud dog belonging to Deborah Brookes, Ch. Deblin’s Just Talkin’. He produced a number of

4. Who were your mentors in the sport? How did your partnership with “Buffy” begin? I called Buffy on the phone and told her who I was and said that I wanted to buy a brindle, show-quality Happy Venture daughter. Buffy was lovely on the phone, but the conversation was mostly me babbling and her politely try- ing to say that she didn’t have anything for me. “That’s OK. I can’t pay $1,000 right now anyway, so I’ll send you $100 a month.” She was still saying, “I don’t think so,” when I hung up. I sent her a check and a chatty let- ter each month until in February of 1978, she asked if I could meet her in Kansas City at the Heart of America Scottie specialty. Wearing a plaid pant suit (sadly, there are pictures of me in that ghastly outfit), I met Buffy and my first Anstamm Scottish Terrier, Anstamm Happy Adventuress. “Fanny” won the Sweeps and Buffy and I talked all day. The next day, she asked me if I had a kennel name. “Oh yes,” I told her. “Well,” she said, “my husband and I had no children and I’ve been looking for someone I could teach to eventually take over the ‘Anstamm’ name. Would you be interested in that?” I agreed on the spot. (I subsequently offered my original kennel name to my friend, Polly

5. The Anstamm Scottish Terriers are known and admired around the world. What breeding philosophies do you adhere to? Anstamm was that rare kennel based on stud dogs instead of brood bitches. Buffy offered her clients access to her winning and top-producing sires in return for a stud fee or a second-pick puppy. Many, particularly new breed- ers, were happy to give her a second- pick puppy because they knew that she would finish the dog if it was worthy. Those second-pick puppies consistently provided enough genetic diversity that we could safely do half- brother/half-sister or grandparent/ grandchild breedings. Changing times, however, forced us to make some drastic changes. In 2000, a new genetic disorder, cerebel- lar abiotrophy (CA), was discovered in Scottish Terriers. Just about the time that “Sadie” (Ch. Roundtown Mercedes of Maryscot) was starting her rise to the top, her sire, Ch. Anstamm Like A Rock (“Chevy”), produced a puppy affected with CA. At that time, our stud force included Chevy (much in demand because of Sadie’s success), and three of his sons, who had all finished with important specialty wins. Following the recommendation of Dr. Jerold Bell, the

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Bronze GCH Anstamm Tansy Takes Off.

176 • S how S ight M agazine , M ay 2018

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