671 – Beagles! Phenomenal Little Hounds for Families
Beagles! Phenomenal Little Hounds for Families
Lindsay Bryson showing her Beagle at Westminster Kennel Club.
Host Laura Reeves is joined by Beagle breeder Lindsay Bryson for a deep dive on Beagles as we ramp up the Love the Breeds specials again.
Lindsay started her Beagle journey with an obedience dog and shares why that challenge helped her understand the breed better.
“I decided to really jump into the dog world with the biggest challenge I could find,” Lindsay said. “He was not even supposed to be a show dog. I had no interest in doing conformation shows. I just wanted to do something with my dog and this woman that I got my first Beagle from, she was in obedience and I thought, well that sounds like fun.
“I took him to the pet store one day and the cashier there said, wow, you have a really beautiful Beagle, you should show him in conformation. And I thought, ohh, why not? We’ll give that a try too. Sure. So that is how I fell down the rabbit hole, for lack of a better term, of conformation dog shows.
“I teach my dogs a quiet command very, very early. You do actually, technically want a loud Beagle because if you’re out in the field, you essentially send your pack out and you don’t see them, you are focusing on hearing them. So if you have a quiet Beagle that doesn’t open up and bay when they catch the scent, you’re gonna lose it. It’s going to be gone. And many people know that Beagles, once they get going, they’re not necessarily going to come back. So you need to have a loud Beagle.
“If you’re going to be taking that into your home and living with it. obviously, you don’t want that. So one of the things that I teach my dogs very, very early is ‘quiet,’ knock it off, you know, keep your volume down. Because that is what’s going to work in neighborhoods and when you have people living around you versus out in the field or on acreage.
“Living with beagles is like having a permanent 2 year old. They are just forever toddlers. They’re constantly looking for things, they’re looking for stuff to get into. They’re looking for ways to occupy their mind. It is so important to keep a Beagle’s mind busy. Because as soon as they get bored, that’s when you start running into the problems that people talk about. Digging, barking, destructive behavior, separation anxiety.
Beagles love FASTCat
“If you have a tired Beagle, it is a happy Beagle. So I always encourage people to go out and do things with their dogs, take them hiking, take them running, you know, do performance work with them, even if it’s not obedience. I’ve started running my dogs in Fast Cat and they love it. They think that is the greatest thing because all they get to do is run for 100 yards and then they get cookies at the end. It’s like the perfect Beagle job.”
670 – Emergency Medicine Best Practices
Emergency Medicine Best Practices
Dr. Callie Harris at her “day job” in emergency medicine.
Dr. Callie Harris joins host Laura Reeves for a deep dive on emergency medicine, urgent care and which is right for you and your dog.
“I got bit by the emergency bug,” Dr. Callie said. “This is when the magic started to happen, where I recognize I was an adrenaline junkie. I loved working with really scary crazy cases and I also enjoyed being part of the entire team in my exam room. With very frantic scared pet parents, I knew that I could provide not only life saving techniques, but communication strategies to try to promote calm.
“This is what I tell that next generation of aspiring veterinary professionals, animal welfare professionals, anybody in the pet care industry, pets are attached to humans. They kind of have to be prepared to talk to other people because my patients, they don’t get in their own cars, they don’t drive to the practice, they don’t fill out their own history forms. Guess who has to do that? The pet parent. So it’s a whole thing.
“At the end of the day, I have seen any and everything. Emergency veterinarians, we’re definitely like the Cowboys of our profession or Cowgirls or cow people, where nothing phases us. We will eat while we’re looking at a really gross wound. We can just get through anything.
“The development of emergency facilities came about and so now you have practices that are just dedicated to seeing your non vaccines preventative Wellness types of appointments. We’re really seeing the sick patients but even then, ER’s became over inundated with cases, pet ownership skyrocketed.
“So over the past handful of years is really when we started to see the uptick in urgent cares in the vets space. And so an urgent care is going to provide that middleman if you will. So this is going to be the facility that’s going to still treat those ear infections, UTI’s, vomiting and diarrhea, coughing, you know, your standard, “my pet is sick on a weekend or after hours and I don’t know what to do.’
“The reason why you would bypass an urgent care is for those real critical scenarios such as my pet’s unable to breathe or my pet is bleeding out profusely, my pet got hit by a car, my pet has a really severe fracture. These are going to be the ones that I would urge pet parents to drive past the urgent care and go to an emergency.”
Listen to the full episode to hear Dr. Callie’s adventure with Moon Pie the goat and more.
669 – How to Climb the Mountain to Owner Handled Success
How to Climb the Mountain to Owner Handled Success
Antoinelle Vulpis joins host Laura Reeves to discuss how she climbed to the pinnacle of owner handled success, winning Best in Show at Montgomery Kennel Club with her Skye Terrier.
Vulpis discussed the beginning of this journey in an episode with Laura five years ago. Today’s conversation brings the story full circle.
“After our big win at Kennel Club of Philadelphia, I was thinking, we got some awesome momentum,” Vulpis said. “We got two more best in show after I spoke with you. I was like, this is incredible. And then the pandemic hit, so all that momentum and excitement just went away for me. For everyone, you know, it was just kind of a weird time. And then when we were lucky enough to have shows again, trying to pick that back up and make people believe again is kind of tough. So it was a little of a unique experience in that.
“Then (I) realiz(ed) that I have these goals in mind, just these little things that I want to check off my checklist. I want to show him at my national. As a veteran. That was a goal of mine and that’s what our whole plan was to do. And then I went to Canada too. I was like, let me get his Canadian Championship. Go to Canada with my girlfriends, have a girls weekend and try to get a title. So yeah, I literally only showed him in June (2024) to finish his Canadian title and then Montgomery.
…if the judge can’t see it, it doesn’t matter…
“(In Best in Show) we’re showing to Lydia Coleman Hutchinson, the legend. I’ve shown to her several times throughout my dog’s career, maybe half a dozen times. But just to be in the ring and like to put my dog on the table as you know, a 7 1/2 year old dog, like just knowing that she’s seen him as a puppy, it was very emotional for me and I just kept on being like ‘Don’t cry. Don’t cry.’
“It’s just such a full circle moment. And I felt so fortunate to just be in her ring again at this stage because this is going to be my last time showing him at the National.
“(On his down and back) I took a knee, man. I mean, it was my Hail Mary. It was the last move, the last card that I had in my deck. So I just got down and just tried to manipulate the lead a little bit and to get him to react to me. And just to see like, ohh, mom is eye level, that kind of thing. And so if you get that, you can get the ears to react a little bit and just let him show off that beautiful top line and his long neck. So you just want him to just for a brief second show off these qualities that we know he has. But you know the answer right? I know my dog has it, but if the judge can’t see it, it doesn’t matter.”
To hear all of Vulpis’ tips and tricks, listen in to the podcast today…
668 – Pro Tips on Raising Orphaned Puppies
Pro Tips on Raising Orphaned Puppies
Dr. Marty Greer joins host Laura Reeves to discuss how to raise orphaned puppies. How to help dams not reject their puppies, increase milk production and deal with mastitis are all covered.
Pro tip number one is avoid having orphaned puppies, Greer notes. Increasing the dam’s calcium intake, using Adaptil collars and saving placental fluid after a Csection are on Greer’s list of ways to encourage the dam’s maternal instinct to kick in.
Pro tip number two is helping dams increase their milk production.
“I don’t know what there is magical about a Bratwurst, if it’s the fat, if it’s the salt, and I’m sure there’s other things as well, but that’s what I’ve had great success with. It helps them to eat better. It helps them to lactate better. The things that people use on the human side for lactation nurses are oatmeal and vegetables like sweet potatoes. So those are some things that you can do and they’ll eat those sometimes when they won’t eat their regular dog food.
“But whatever you have to do to get them to eat, jump through hoops to make it happen. Because if she is eating and drinking, then you don’t have to feed the puppies nearly as much. So you feed the machine that feeds the puppies.
“Now the other things that help. Are fenugreek and that is in the Oxy Mama product that Revival has for improving lactation. And then Reglan which is metoclopramide, a prescription drug that you can get from your veterinary clinic. And one of the side effects is that it improves lactation.
“So fenugreek and reglan make milk and oxytocin lets the milk be released from the glands so they work complementary to each other neither one replaces the other.”
Pro tip number three regards mastitis.
“I don’t wean puppies unless the bitch is really, really sick or there’s a giant necrotic opening in a gland. I will typically let the bitch still nurse her puppies because the amount of antibiotic coming through the milk is infinitesimally small.
“First of all, let’s talk about preventing mastitis. That means bathe her with a Chlorhexidine shampoo 3 or 4 days before she has puppies. So she goes into this clean. Don’t let her go out in the mud or herd your sheep into the trailer when she’s got newborns. And put her on a probiotic because that’s going to all reduce the risk of her developing mastitis.
“If she ends up with mastitis, make sure she gets enough fluids. She needs to be on an appropriate antibiotic and I put them on pain medication to bring down the fever, to reduce the inflammation and that again is safe for the bitch to take and still have the puppies nurse. There’s not enough that gets into the milk, but it’s going to hurt the puppies.
“It’s not just milk, it’s maternal skills as well. She’s licking the puppies, she’s stimulating the puppies, she’s treating the puppies the way puppies need to be treated. No amount of human hand-raising can substitute for that. I know we do our best but it’s still always best for a bitch to be with her puppies than it is to be separated if there’s any possibility of making that happen.”
667 — 2025 Kick Off and Looking for Potential
2025 Kick Off and Looking for Potential
As 2024 draws to a close, we’re left, as usual, staring into the abyss of a new year… upheaval nationally, internationally and even in our tadpole pond of purebred dogs has left all of us off balance at some level.
Poised precariously here on my rickety soap box, I hope you’ll join me on a journey of retrospection, through a few glimmers of hope and on to a couple new year’s resolutions.
Eight years ago this month, the first Pure Dog Talk episodes dropped just in time for the AKC National Championship shows. I racked up 10s of thousands of steps dropping flyers on every grooming table, interviewing treasures of our sport and gathering support for this novel way of sharing 20th century knowledge in a 21st century way.
Pure Dog Talk was the very first podcast dedicated to purebred dogs. Today we have a couple million downloads and have reached nearly 400 thousand listeners globally. Several major corporate sponsors and a couple hundred Patrons keep the lights on and the mp3s rolling so that YOU can stay on top of news, interviews, reviews, events and ideas.
We’ve shown up in the AKC Gazette (shoutout and thanks to the Gazette crew!) I just found myself quoted in a TikTok posted to a Reddit “millennials” thread fgs… I love hearing from all of you all the time. About how Pure Dog Talk “saved your life” or made it better or saved your dog’s life. PS We’ve added a page to the website where you can upload your stories complete with photos! Check it out on the Testimonials tab at pure dog talk dot com.
If you’d be so kind, indulge me while I take this opportunity for some shameless promotion. If you find Pure Dog Talk has helped you or someone you know, please consider joining our paid Patrons. This funding covers only overhead – website, audio editing and more – not me personally. When I launched the Patrons in 2018, I was paying for the podcast out of my pocket and eating a lot of peanut butter sandwiches.
A lot has changed since then (although, I still eat a lot of pb&j). The crowdsourced funds from Patrons of the show have enabled the growth and professionalization of the website, continued the outstanding production values of the pod and made us able to keep growing this resource to reach new audiences.
Your Patrons membership adds value to the pod by initiating you into a devoted community of purebred dog enthusiasts including judges, handlers, owner handlers, newbies and master breeders. Patrons only After Dark gatherings each month let us hash out problems, share ideas, stand in community with one another and gain knowledge.
Visit https://puredogtalk.com/patron/ and select your Patron Package. You can join us for as little as $10/month or save 10% with an annual Patron membership. Come on over and join the best community in dogs.
Aaaaaand, Starting Jan. 3, our new Patrons Only pod, Unleashed, delivers “let your hair down” episodes on all the hot takes in purebred dogs. Mailbag topics, commentary and insight with your favorite guests. In our first episode of the new show, Amanda Kelly joins me with thoughts on “How Not to be a D*ck at the Dog Show”…. Patrons, BOLO an email with access deets!~
And, speaking of new stuff…..
We’re SUPER excited to announce that, after EIGHT years in the podcast universe, Pure Dog Talk is spinning off a new pod for you, your puppy buyers, and your sister-in-law’s cousin’s boyfriend.
Marty and I bring our own special brand of pet knowledge to the larger pet-loving public in The Marty & Laura Show, launching Jan. 1, 2025.
We are thrilled to share these unique, fun, fact-based conversations about pet health. From pro tips on selecting your new dog to what your cat’s cough means and what you should do about it, we’ll meet you wherever you are (in the car, on the treadmill, walking the dog) and bring you a good laugh, a great story and a bright idea every week.
Now that you’re all caught up on the Pure Dog Talk news, let’s get planning for the incoming year. Many, if not most of you, are driving right now, on your way to Palm Springs or Chicago, St. Paul or West Springfield or some other dog event entirely.
In just over a month we’ll all be converging on Manhattan and Madison Square Garden for the triumphant return of Westminster Kennel Club to the City (and ps benching!). Reminder! Join us Wednesday, January 8, 5pm pacific for our LIVE@5 podcast with Dr. Don giving us all the final to dos and 411s for the show.
Before you know it, the time will come to decide on Louisville or Crufts (or both if you’re slightly crazy). The spring nationals will kick off and then the summer death march circuits and before you know it, it’s back to school, fall national season and the AKC National Championship again… The way dog people organize our lives leaves those outside the tribe baffled and somewhat horrified.
How many of us have planned weddings, honeymoons and family vacations around the show or event calendar? Raise your hand. Come on, you know you have… I did, more than once! Have I ever told you the story of getting married on a Saturday and leaving Sunday with my client and my step-mother for the Clumber national? I mean, that’s professional level crazy right there… ;-/ (I might add that is now an EX husband… huh, go figure….)
One thing I’m going to offer as a suggestion as we all get ready to hop back on the crazy train…. Life is short, super expensive and often incredibly frustrating all by itself. Adding a hobby like ours to it can exaggerate how short, expensive and frustrating it is.
When, not if, you find yourself starting to snap – at friends or dogs or family – it’s probably a good time to take a little break. Maybe go play a different sport for a couple months. Maybe breed a litter and stay home huffing puppy breath for a while. Maybe just curl up with the dogs and loved ones and binge netflix for a weekend… I promise, life will not come to a screeching halt and your mental health will improve exponentially.
My second tidbit of advice is: money doesn’t grow on trees. Spend it wisely. Most of all, spend it on a good dog. If you are new to the sport and having a hard time in your search for just such a rare gem, you’ve come to the right place!
Giving you the tools, knowledge and community to succeed is literally why Pure Dog Talk exists.
My final nugget of insight for today is this. Be happy. Like literally, there’s a song about it and everything. Be happy with your dog. be happy for other people. be happy you enjoy the freedom, financial security and physical well being to participate in dog sports. Being mad about losing a 10 cent ribbon is the firstest of the first world problems I can imagine. We are literally not curing cancer or solving world peace here folks.
It’s been a few years since I trotted out the Pure Dog Talk 12-step program to a happier you in the dog world, so I’ll include a link to the full episode in the show notes. But a brief recap will not go amiss this year.
These steps apply to our dog world specifically, but can be generalized to daily life without much trouble in three simple rules. Just be nice. Get off your bleeping phone. Learn new things.
The 12 steps include a recommendation for each month of the year like offering congratulations and meaning it, watching and learning about other breeds, helping and volunteering, making new friends and more. Take a listen. This plan is proven to bring enhanced enjoyment, satisfaction, curiosity, knowledge, camaraderie and success to anyone’s dog show calendar.
In closing, I love this quote from Ellen Goodman
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives … not looking for flaws but for potential.”
Just like judging the whole dog instead of fault judging, consider making 2025 the year you find the beauty in yourself, and in everyone else’s dog…..
Peace …
665 – Research Shows How Dogs are Affected by Human Emotion
Research Shows How Dogs are Affected by Human Emotion
Author Jennifer Holland with her dog.
Author Jennifer Holland joins host Laura Reeves to discuss her new book “Dog Smart: Life-Changing Lessons in Canine Intelligence.” This cutting-edge science narrative, chock-full of heartwarming case studies, is one woman’s quest to learn the true meaning of dog intelligence and how they are affected by human emotion.
Holland interviews trainers and handlers of various working dogs doing their jobs. She was led by a seeing eye dog through the streets of Manhattan and took a sleeve hit in a protection dog training demo.
“I have some video of it,” Holland said, “and my head just sort of flops around like a rag doll. And the dog did not want to let go. It took a little while to actually pry him off of me and I got a good bruise.
“But again, what I was trying to think about was how you train this animal that, here we’ve, you know, raised them to be sweet and loving animals. I was told training them to bite a person is a really hard thing to do because they don’t necessarily want to do that.
“And so it has to be a game. It has to be a game for them. The sleeve is a sleeve. It’s not a person and then to be able to train them to stop if they’re in mid bite. And here they’re getting that thrill and you have to tell them no, the bad guy has waved the white flag. It was remarkable to me that dog can stop and have that self control.”
Laura commented that the part of the book that really jumped out at her was research showing that puppies who were given unhappy or negative sweat smell grew up to be unhappy negative puppies. And the ones that were given a happy sweat smell grew into well-adjusted, happy dogs.
“(Dogs) are just so affected by us in that way,” Holland added. “Just the importance of our level of stress or for them the feeling that we’re feeling good is important to how they respond and how they behave. It just shows that incredible kind of co-evolution that’s happened and that bond that we have that really I think makes (dogs) particularly special.”
664 – No Ghoulish Green Monsters Here
No Ghoulish Green Monsters Here
Author Dawn Secord joins host Laura Reeves to discuss the release of her new book “No Ghoulish Green Monsters Here.”
Secord describes a lifetime in dogs, her time with Irish Setters and her childhood starting with Milk Bone snacks.
“Combining my love of art and writing and looking back on being a child with so many kids not acclimated with dogs and not realizing what a wonderful opportunity it is to find companionship,” Secord said. “Find security and to use words to make the kids feel safe. And so in 1984 it was laid on my heart when I got my first Irish Setter that I was going to do a book about an Irish setter for children and share my love of my dogs.
“I want to give parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and nieces, whomever, a book to sit down and talk about dogs and talk about their fears. This first book has messages about facing fears because everybody’s afraid of something. And I wanted kids to know it’s OK to be afraid and talk about it. Don’t be afraid by yourself.
“The book comes with a free download that’s on my website. So if they want to make it into an educational tool, it’s got a glossary and it talks about Irish Setters. I even made maps for kids to learn how to read a map and some pictures and coloring book pages for the little ones, some things to research for the older ones. So I really wanted parents or adults, whoever they are, they have an opportunity to turn the book into an educational opportunity if they desired.
“I really want to promote that having a purebred dog is cool. So that’s one thing. For the writing, I feel that it’s timeless and I want to make an impact.”
663 – Show Safe Team Wants to Make a Difference
Show Safe Team Wants to Make a Difference
Board members of the Show Safe organization join host Laura Reeves to discuss the grassroots development of an organization that supports a safe dog event environment.
“I think there were several of us that felt, you know, we’re just frustrated because you wanna do something, you know, everyone wants to do something to make a difference,” said Show Safe Secretary Lindsay Fetters. “I think it was very easy to throw blame and throw the responsibility on other parties. And you know, something needs to happen, but it’s somebody else’s problem.
“I think we all can agree that we really wanted to focus on education. We wanted to promote recognizing issues. We wanted to be able to respond to issues. We wanted to be able to restore things once we knew there was an issue.
“We all put our egos aside. And, you know, we come from such a variety of backgrounds. You know, you have all ages, you have all interests, you have all levels of involvement in our sport, and so we were able to really look at what strengths does everyone bring to the table and kind of align that with what we need to get done and kind of run with it. And that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
“It’s about boots on the ground,” said Show Safe Executive Director Diane Moore. “It’s about raising the money and the awareness and the energy to actually accomplish something. Like Lindsey said, everybody wants to do something. They want to make the world a better place. But to take that into tangible steps, this board has done a phenomenal job. So we essentially have 4 initiatives and those four initiatives, the first one is education.
“It’s also going to be outreach and workshops. It’s going to be education for clubs, for juniors, for people who report on the sport or on abuse and neglect, just all of those things where we can educate and just say, hey, look, these are these dynamics and this is how you recognize it. You know, our tagline is recognized, respond and restore.”
The team also has created a toll-free number (1-888-474-9723) to call for immediate response staffed with someone who is trained to listen and trained to “say what’s going on, what’s your concern and to assess what you need to create safety.”
“Our aftercare program is really about, OK, so something has happened, something has happened to you and you are part of the dog show community and you need some support,” Moore added. “So it’s not right now, it’s not immediate response. It’s not like you’re unsafe right now. It’s historical mostly but it’s impactful, it’s impacting you, it’s still with you and so we’re going to be there to say ‘OK, what resources do you need?’ How do we help navigate this resource world and ultimately be able to assist you in paying for … mental health resources and survival resources and how do we bring that to you in a way that is you are in control.”
“I’m second generation, so I grew up in this sport,” said Show Safe Director Jason Hoke. “Many of us have grown up with our parents and even our grandparents taking us to the dog show, leaving us in x-pens alone. We grew up feeling like everybody in this sport is our family and that everything is safe and in the majority of it, it really is. But what we want to do is be able to teach people things that can protect and educate other parents, other youth other elders to recognize where shortcomings are in dog shows in show locations, in areas within the show.”
662 – Anxious Behaviors Linked to Gut Dysfunction in Dogs
Anxious Behaviors Linked to Gut Dysfunction in Dogs
Dr. Jason Gagne, board certified veterinary nutritionist, joins host Laura Reeves for a deep dive into dog food feeding trials, anxious behaviors linked to gut dysfunction and more.
“It’s one thing to open up the AAFCO book,” Gagne said. “The Association of American Feed Control Officials who set this model bill, as it’s termed and says you need this much zinc, you need this much selenium and so forth. Then pet food company XYZ, whoever that may be, goes ahead and puts that much in or hopefully a little bit more to meet those requirements.
“It’s another thing to actually be the company (Purina) that does these feeding trials. Again, as I mentioned before, we’re obtaining these ingredients, we’re formulating our diets. We have very tight control over our ingredients specifications and have very high standards for who our suppliers are. But it’s another thing to then take that diet that you make and feed it out to a colony of dogs and we do do that and we’re proud of that.
“The purpose of doing that and having that colony is to feed these diets. Because when we do that, we can measure the digestibility of our diets. We can assess the fecal quality and the fecal score, which I think is important to a lot of breeders and sporting enthusiasts. And we can even assess the performance on the diet.
“It’s not just important to meet the AAFCO requirements, but it’s more important really to optimize those recommendations for the betterment of the dog, right? We put those diets out there on the market after we’ve assessed, hey, we put this in the diet, we want to make sure it’s actually in the diet. We can analyze the diet itself, but then again, we’re analyzing what’s going in and coming out of the dog as well.
“This microbiome, what else is it doing? It’s actually been linked to behavioral issues as well when it goes out of whack, that dysbiosis as you mentioned earlier.
“We actually did do a study with dogs displaying anxious behaviors, and paired it with physiologic as well, so salivary, cortisol and we also had Holter monitors on them for heart rate. We were able to show that when the dogs were being supplemented with the bl999, they (had) a decrease in barking, jumping, spinning and pacing, which was anxious behaviors that they were displaying, versus when they were on the placebo.”
661 – GRRRL Power Team Carries Forward Longo Great Dane Legacy
GRRRL Power Team Carries Forward Longo Great Dane Legacy
Carol Grossman became synonymous with black Great Danes and the Longo dogs.
Host Laura Reeves is joined by Carol Grossman, Jackie Van Delft and Tristen Lawrence with a tribute to Tootie Longo, who passed away in May of this year, and the Longo Great Dane legacy.
Grossman, the “Queen of Great Danes,” piloted dogs for Longo for decades, including legendary greats like the second Black in Breed history to win an All Breed Best In Show, BIS BISS Ch. Longo’s Chief Joseph. She shares her memory of Tootie Longo this way:
“As much of an icon as she was, she never really thought of herself as an icon, whereas Joey (Vergnetti) and Peter (Green) were icons. She didn’t realize they felt that way about her. That was Tootie. She just was not assertive about who she was. And she didn’t realize, I think, until the end, how famous she really was, that she carried a legacy of dogs through the years. She knew she had beautiful dogs and she knew she had a great line and she knew that she was lucky in picking dogs, but she never really realized what an icon she was.”
Van Delft is the more recent member of the group, a Great Dane enthusiast who had wanted a Dane since childhood. She sought out Tootie Longo to acquire a dog, and wound up as a “member of the family.”
Jynx with (from left to right) Tristen Lawrence, Jackie Van Delft and Tootie Longo.
“Tootie pretty much took us under her wing,” Van Delft said. “We became really good friends… I got my first Longo puppy and he was amazing. He was my heart dog. But we would go to the Longos every weekend to twice a month. We were very lucky we only lived 45 minutes away from them. So we spent a lot of time and we got to go to all the shows together. And, you know, she just became a part of the family or I became part of hers, you know, and it’s just that was it. She wasn’t getting rid of me.”
Grossman and Van Delft were instrumental in selecting Lawrence, a third generation Great Dane exhibitor, to campaign Jynx, one of the last of Tootie’s dogs, to 36 specialty wins.
“I’m a Great Dane handler my whole life,” Lawrence said. “My parents and both of their parents on both sides were very active in the breed as breeders as well as handlers. So there’s never been a time that I didn’t do this. I remember Tootie Longo as long as I’ve been alive. And so growing up, knowing the power and what she built in our sport, it was incredible and for her to come to me and say ‘we want you to show our dog,’ I can’t describe how proud I was, how incredible that was to me.”