Showsight Spring Edition, February/March 2021

CAROL DEAN, DeLaPASSION POODLES

I begged, I wheedled and, finally, got her to agree to at least consider it. She agreed to look at her, found her just as appealing as we did, and agreed to let us use him. Her first litter by Bennie produced three champions, two of which have had significant impact in my breeding program. Through Chelsay, I connected with Mark and Christine Waldrop. That con- nection, combined with Nancy’s longtime association with Ianthe Bloomquist’s Bali- wick Toy Poodles, allowed me access to another strong family of Toys. Combining the qualities of the Foxmore family with qualities of the Baliwick/Apogee Toys has given me a type that I’m happy with and a direction to head toward in the future. The DeLaPassion Poodles are widely known, highly successful and well respected. What breeding philosophies do you adhere to? My breeding philosophy is strongly rooted in my foundation of working with Dassin Farm. I’m a strong linebreeder. I believe that when you outcross, it needs to be to a family equally as strong, with the attributes you seek. I think you work to improve one thing at a time, not to try to reach multiple goals in one litter. How many dogs do you currently house? Tell us about your facilities and how the dogs are maintained. I currently house more stud dogs than brood bitches. I’m fortunate, in the grooming shop, that I have many clients who enjoy a retired show dog as a compan- ion. The stud dogs make excellent pets and my clients have little problem housebreak- ing them and allowing me access to them. I’m less eager to place a bitch that must be bred. In breeding Toys, things can and do go wrong. I’m not really prepared to expect a family to deal with that possibility. I don’t feel Toys make great kennel dogs, so all my dogs are house dogs. If they go to my handler, I prefer that they go as young as between five and six months before they become true house pets. Who were/are some of your most signifi- cant Poodles, both in the whelping box and the show ring? My most significant Standards were my foundation bitch, Ch. Dassin Daybreak, and her grandsons, Ch. Dassin Despierita and Ch. Dassin Banderas DeLaPassion. Another favorite Standard was Steven and Joanne Kirk’s Miki Moto son, Ch. DeLa- Passion Easy Come Easy Go. “Ben” was a multiple Group and Specialty winner. InToys, we would have nothing without Dezi as our foundation. Her granddaugh- ter, Ch. DeLaPassion Madame X ByRe- Quest, significantly affected our program.

GCh. DeLaPassion ByReQuest Peter Pan

No “Toy heads” or “Toy temperaments” are acceptable to me. The biggest compli- ment I get is when people remark that our Toys “look like little Standards” because this is my interpretation of the breed stan- dard. My first improvement came with adding the impressive Foxmore dog, Ch. Foxmore Xclamation Mark, owned and bred by Janet Reed and Patti Jason. He immediately raised the bar for me, pro- ducing better coats and temperaments than the generation before. He was the sire of my top-producing Ch. DeLaPas- sion Madame X ByReQuest who produced eight champions for Wendy and me. I would be remiss in not including the impact that Chelsay Paul Grubb has had both in my life and in my success in the ring. Her mother was a grooming client, and Chelsay began to visit and play with the Standard puppies as a young child. She would then visit, lead break puppies, and eventually began to attend dog shows with us. Fast forward to her adult life, marriage to Nick, and a successful handling career. I was instantly drawn to a young special that she was showing, owned by Mark and Christine Waldrop. Ch. Debrocks Avra had that charisma and presence that just “wowed” me. I went home, looked up her pedigree, and began to research her sire, Ch. Apogee Baliwick Bountiful. Fortunately, his breeder and owner was Nancy Hafner. Nancy had always been very encouraging to me as a Standard breeder, and had been willing to answer any questions I had as I was learning about the Toys. We had par- ticipated in her judges education seminars for several years. At the last one that we’d attended, she had brought a dog that both Wendy and I found really appealing. When I called and asked her about him—happy coincidence—he was Avra’s father! (Nancy is a strong line breeder herself.) She wasn’t really enthusiastic about letting him be used on “Mimsy,” who was an outcross; breeding her to “Bennie” would be another outcross.

we worked together, producing more than 60 champion Standards while still using the Dassin prefix. After Buddy’s death, the dynamic changed for all of us. Michael no longer enjoyed the shows and opted to end his involvement. Joseph no longer wanted to share the kennel name and, at that time, the DeLaPassion Poodles began. Over the next few years, I continued to breed the Standards and finished 15 more, but their size and the sheer volume of work was starting to wear on me. In addition, trying to manage the health issues in the variety made it increasingly stressful to breed them and to sell them to companion homes. The Toys at that point fell into my lap. Dr. Barbara Allan of Bagatelle Poodles was both a client of Buddy and Joseph, and a personal friend of mine. She suf- fered a serious stroke at the time and had to move into assisted living where she was only allowed to have one pet. Her friends rallied around and each took one or two of her dogs. I took a 13-year-old brown bitch, figuring she could live out her life with us, and a young champion bitch whose litter I had recently had to whelp, as Barbara was growing less able to do so. Ch. Primrose Desiree O’Bagatelle, “Dezi,” quickly won me over to a variety I honestly had never had much interest in. With the knowledge I had gained from working with the Stan- dards, and Dezi as a foundation bitch, the DeLaPassion Toys were off to a good start. I, admittedly, dabbled at first, not really sure in which direction I wanted to go. It was also at this time that I devel- oped a friendship and partnership with Wendy Penn of ByReQuest Poodles. She joined me in our Toy Poodle undertak- ing, for better and for worse! In my sec- ond and third generations, I began to see what appealed to me. I feel strongly that our breed should be “three variet- ies, with one standard.” To me, there is no cutting slack because they are Toys.

48 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, SPRING EDITION