The Search for a New Dog

Continued (Back). While our new friend showed his dog, we walked over to the obedience ring. There we found an eskie finishing up Utility B.

Afterwards, we met her and learned that she was ten years old. That is old to be competing in obedience! She finished UDs in both UKC and AKC competition. She had also done agility and was a therapy dog.

Her owner spoke very highly of the man with the puppies. Had one of his dogs, as a matter of fact.

The president of the sponsoring club spoke highly of him, too. She said she founded her own dogs on his dogs, and vouched for them.

We spent a delightful half-hour patting the dogs who were waiting for their turns in the ring. At some shows, with professional handlers and a lot of last-minute poofing and positioning of tails, you might not be welcome to ruffle the coat of a dog about to go in the ring. But this was the UKC, and these were eskie people, so instead it was a happy fur-fest. Dogs and people alike were excited and very friendly.

Dog Show

The dog world is a small world. When our new breeder gave us his card, Craig fished in his wallet looking for his own card and and instead produced a picture of Wily that he still carries around.

The man wanted to know where we got her. He was curious about her, recognizing her type at once. The dog pound, we confessed. Believe me, most breeders would have lost interest on the spot. But not this man.

We explained how big she was, and how the Samoyed people often thought she was a little sam. No, he said slowly, beginning to reminisce. And then he told us a story.

He's been around a long time. And a long time ago he went to a UKC show down in San Antonio. It was all UKC then; the AKC didn't recognize eskies until about 12 years ago.

Well anyway, a breeder nobody knew was there with some good big dogs. Caused a bit of a ripple.

They had good pedigrees, too, he said, and he and a couple of other breeders decided they'd go out to her place and maybe even get one of those dogs. People who like standard eskies, especially back in those days, like good size and a lot of bone.

Well they got out there, he said, and looked at the puppies and looked at the pedigree. And he said, "I knew the dog that was supposed to be the male, and there was no way these were his puppies."

Fact is, you see, the breeder tells the registering organization who the father is. Of course, she can lie.

"Then," he said, "I saw some other dogs over in another part of the place she wasn't showing us. And I thought, what are those dogs?"

They were samoyeds.

Craig and I gaped, because we had once, a long time ago, heard this story about the black-listed backyard breeder with the mysterious big white dogs from South Texas. People who saw those dogs thought about them when they saw Wily.

This man was surprised, too, when we said we already knew the story. Then he told us who the breeders were that went with him that day. And of course, we knew them. They were the ones who had told us about it.

Oh yes, he said, they formed the first AKC eskie club and held the first AKC national breed speciality - and he had been the judge.

The obedience judge.

And again our jaws dropped. "Well," we said, "You placed Wily first in novice class that day!"

So we think we might drive up to Oklahoma in a couple of weeks and take a look at these females. It actually sounded (after all this) like he might give us the pup he planned on keeping. Both sire and dam are AKC champions and UKC grand champions, as are the grandparents, except for one grandfather, who seems to have pre-dated AKC recognition.

We'll talk it over on our walk today. And we might take one more look at the pound. You never know. Still carrying a torch for an over-sized blackmarket ghost dog. Next.

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