ShowSight January 2019

JUNIORS SPOTLIGHT: AVA MARIE CAUDELL BY SABRA WEEKS A t seven years of age, Ava was at the park in Conway with her grandma and she saw a 4-H group practic-

puppy available. Trudy instantly thought of Ava and connected Brad and Ava’s mom, Rhonda. Ava started show- ing Rita, the Toy Manchester she got from Brad and quickly qualified for the AKC National Championships for 2017. I met Ava and Rhonda at the Canton, Arkansas shows in 2017 in the spring and stayed in contact with them fol- lowing Ava’s success. I had a litter of Standard Manchesters in August of 2017 and offered the pick of the litter to Ava and Rhonda. Ava picked up Fonzie as a puppy (now GCH Raintree’s Black Leather Jacket at ROF) in November of 2017 and Ava quickly turned him into a show dog. At the shows in Louisville, Kentucky she finished his champion- ship in four days with four majors. Ava also got her first group one with Fonz under judge Joe Walton in May of 2018. She also took a huge group 2 under judge Peggy Beisel-McIlwaine at the Houston World Series of Dog Shows in July of 2018. Quickly Ava showed Fonz

to the #3 All breed Standard Manches- ter Terrier in 2018. All while he was less than a year old. Ava won her sec- ond group 1 with Fonzie under Judge Linda Reese in November of 2018. At the 2018 Manchester Terrier National both Rita (CH Doubletree’s Ava’s Mango Margo Rita) were in the Manchester Terrier of the Year Competition. Ava has trained Fonzie and Rita by herself, and with taking handling lessons from Trudy. She also qualified this year for the AKC National Championships in Juniors in Orlando and made the first cut. Ava is now eleven years old and has accomplished all of this in three years of showing dogs. Fonzie came into Ava’s life in Novem- ber of 2017. In December of 2017, Ava’s uncle Jamie died unexpectedly. He was like a second father to Ava. Hav- ing Fonzie and going to shows with him this last year helped hold the fam- ily together and gave them something to look forward to during such a tough

ing. She checked it out and decided it was something she would like to do. The 4-H Group told her she couldn’t participate because she had be nine, but she could come watch. Once a week her and grandma would go watch them practice with the dogs. She did this for about a year. The 4-H instruc- tor told her that she could participate in the next fair but she wasn’t eligible to win anything because she wasn’t nine. A local dog show person saw her and told her to take lessons. She did, and she learned fast. Ava started showing dogs in 2015 at the age of eight. She connected with Trudy Golden-Akers at a dog show and started showing one of her retired champion Chinese Cresteds, Sable, in juniors. Brad Jenkins contacted Trudy and let her know that he had a

162 • S HOW S IGHT M AGAZINE , J ANUARY 2019

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