2001

Before Jan. 1, 2001 ever arrived it was clear that DR was going to continue to grow at warp speed. The February/March issue, now appropriately called The Annual, came in at over 400 pages. As Bo said in Opening Space in that issue, “I have no idea why we thought we could complete over 400 pages — twice as many as normal — in the same time and with the same staff as usual, but somehow we did.” And it was a keeper. For the first and only time, the DR front cover featured a black and white photograph with a silver foil-stamped masthead. Peter Atkinson had captured the beautiful German Shorthaired Pointer bitch, Ch. Khrispat’s Megan A Point, in the field, staring at his camera, and the shot became one of the most memorable of all DR covers.  ‘Megan’ was, of course, shown by Peter’s other half, Valerie Nunes, owned by Carol Oakes and bred by Khris Smith-Bonner and Pat Smith. 

Along with DR’s regular columnists this issue included contributions by Canada’s Richard Meen, Tom Coen from the Sheltie World Conference in Great Britain, the Joan Ludwig interview by Sue LeMieux, the Top Dogs for the year 2000, and a discussion of the newly-created AKC Registered Handlers Program, with input from professionals Corky Vroom, Jane Flowers and Wood Wornall. The centerpiece was perhaps the marvelous interview with Bob and Jane Forsyth, which Bo Bengtson conducted at the Morris & Essex shows in October. The issue also included an amazing 14 professional handler sections featuring the dogs each had shown the year before and those they would show in 2001, with a marvelous variety of exceptional talent represented by handlers Clint Livingston, Tray Pittman and Paul Flores, Bill and Taffe McFadden, Scott Sommer, Carlos Puig, Chris Manelopoulos and Rachel Corbin, Mark and Lisa Bettis, Doug Holloway, Barbara Humphries, Jody Paquette, Allison Alexander, Wendy Kellerman, Peter Atkinson and Valerie Nunes and Don and Pat Rodgers. Each of the handlers also answered a few compelling questions for the issue. Sari Brewster Tietjen also joined the illustrious corp of DR writers for the year 2001.

Among its other offerings, the April Breeders issue featured a discussion of stud dog management by some of the sport’s most experienced breeders, and Bo Bengtson interviewed breeder/owner-handler Karen Black, who had phenomenal success as an owner-handler the previous several years with the Saluki bitch, ‘Treasure.’  The May issue was a combination of good news and bad — Dorothy Macdonald chose 2000’s Top Dog of all breeds, ‘J.R.’ the Bichon, as Best in Show at the Garden with Scott Sommer on the lead, but DR also reported on the cancellation of Crufts due to the foot and mouth epidemic that swept Great Britain. Not that it had never been discussed before, but Tatler’s column in that issue was entitled, “The Quest for #1: The Numbers Are Killing Us.” Too many dog shows, too much travel and the welfare of the dogs involved was a subject that to this day is still of great concern.

Canadian spitfire Dawne Deeley joined the DR team with the August issue to become the monthly correspondent for western Canada, and eventually for many foreign shows around the world. Simon Parsons reported that Crufts had indeed been held, albeit in May instead of March, and that the breeder-owner-handled Basenji, Ch. Jethard Cidevant, was Best in Show under judge Anne Arch. Also reported was the loss of judge Barbara Heller in an accident in June. Kent Delaney sent a heartwarming letter thanking everyone for their cards, letters and prayers following his heart attack and subsequent surgery in April, and reporting that his “heart ha(d) been mended.”

For the September issue DR included the very first feature devoted specifically to the Owner-Handler, and it was a runaway success, with 98 pages of editorial and ads highlighting the sport’s core group. 

‘Mick’ the Kerry graced the October cover, and Cindy Chandler hit a double-header, first with her report on the plans in the works for an AKC/Eukanuba dog show, and then with her interview with Terrier icon George Ward. Appropriately, the Airedale Breed Feature in that issue was well-supported, with 30 full pages about the breed.

The deadline for the December issue was Oct. 1, so along with the rest of America our minds were filled with the tragedy of Sept. 11 as that issue went into production, and both editorial and ads touched on the dog community’s response, the impact of the tragedy on the sport and all of our lives, and all of our thoughts and wishes for those closest to the horrible event. That issue also included an article by Patience Renzulli, also sent to AKC Board members and to the Chairman of the recently established Special Committee for High Volume Kennels, which questioned AKC’s position in regard to these high volume kennels, as well as its relationship with the Hunte Corporation. The widening controversy connected to these matters erupted when many in the sport learned that AKC President Al Cheaure and VP Bob Slay were on the schedule at “The Biggest Breeder Event Ever Held,” the 2nd Annual Fall Breeder Festival held by the Hunte Corporation in Goodman, Mo., in  September. Hunte Corporation owner Andrew Hunte had proudly proclaimed in an article in the Aug, 4, 2001 Neosho, Mo. Daily News that his corporation was “the world’s largest supplier to pet stores;” the company claimed to have sold 65,000 puppies in 2001 and projected sales of 85,000 in 2002. After a huge outcry from those in the sport, questioning AKC’s seeming connection with the facility, AKC postponed their presentations. The subject of the Kennel Club’s relationship with high volume breeders would remain active for some time to come.

2002

The January 2002 issue of Dogs in Review reported the tragic deaths of Flavio and Danielle Werneck in late November, in an auto accident near Sao Paulo, Brazil. The issue also included, as always, Annie On…, Rick Beauchamp, Sari Tietjen, Earl Takahashi with more great grooming tips, Deb Eldredge, Simon Parsons on Britain, Paula Heikkinen-Lehkonen reporting on Australia, Cuba and Germany and Clive Davies reporting from Canada. Sue LeMieux provided a kennel visit with Meredith Johnson-Snyder and the Rattlebridge Cavaliers, and the Sporting Feature included a fascinating interview that Bo, Paul and myself conducted in New York the previous February with three shining stars of the sporting dog world, Don Sturz, Michael Faulkner and Paula Nykiel.

The February/March Annual issue was another record-breaker for the magazine, when it came in at 544 pages. It was chock-full of great editorial material and beautiful ads, including 20 beautiful handler sections from the sport’s best and brightest professionals. Bo Bengtson and Cindy Chandler reported on the first AKC/Eukanuba Classic, where Dorothy Nickles awarded Best in Show to Scott Sommer and ‘J.R.’

This issue also marked the fifth anniversary of DR, and Sue LeMieux, now a fixture in the magazine with her kennel visits and conversations with significant dog people, provided a candid interview with DR publishers Bo Bengtson and Paul Lepiane. They reiterated the fact that DR was created to provide a source of news and information, and also a forum, for “people who are seriously involved in breeding, showing or judging purebred dogs.” Bo and Paul once again expressed gratitude to the people who came on board and supported the magazine with advertising and subscriptions early on, as they “were crucial in getting this publication off the ground.” When asked about how the DR of 2002 compared with their original version of the magazine, it was no surprise when Paul said, “You wouldn’t recognize it at all!” While the magazine had continued to focus on the core group of serious dog people, DR’s readers and advertisers had made it clear that they preferred better paper and more color, and Bo and Paul had realized that the magazine just couldn’t be taken as seriously without lots of ads and a certain amount of gloss and color. And given what they asked for, the magazine was flourishing. One statement Paul made that was the key to the path the magazine would take in the next few years was in response to a question about how the idea was conceived to start Dogs in Review: “We already had an office and a staff in place, although if we had known how this thing would grow I am not sure if we would have walked into this so easily.” Not that they weren’t pleased with the success of the magazine; on the contrary, they were delighted that the sport had so embraced DR. The question in the back of all of our minds was simply how long it would be before the magazine simply outgrew the capabilities of our small and dedicated staff. As Bo said, “Everyone works really hard and is really loyal — I think it helps that we all believe in what we are doing.”

The year 2002 progressed in an upward arc for DR. The “Tatler” column was retired that year, but the rest of DR’s valued contributors remained solid.  The May issue reported on Westminster, where Kaz Hosaka took the top prize with the Ron and Barbara Scott-owned Miniature Poodle bitch Ch. Surrey Spice Girl, with critiques from the Group and Best in Show judges. From Crufts came the report and photos recording the Best in Show win by the Standard Poodle, Ch. Topscore Contradiction, with Reserve Best in Show going to the Pekingese, Ch. Yakee A Dangerous Liaison. Pamela Cross Stern was the judge for the final. In June DR reported that at National Terrier, the British equivalent to our Montgomery County, the American-bred Airedale, Eng. Am. Intl. Ch. Greenfield Captain Fantastic, had been awarded Best in Show. ‘Captain’ was bred by Andrew Green and owned by the very successful Jokyl kennel of Olive Jackson and Mary Swash.

In June, the featured breed was Tibetan Terriers. Gretchen Bernardi, secretary of the High Volume Breeders Committee, brought forth some interesting questions facing the committee in an article in DR, and in July she addressed several points that had been raised in letters and emails the committee received from members of the fancy, and presented the consensus statement created by the committee. In July DR reported the death of one of the leading figures of the dog show world in the 20th century, Maxwell Riddle, at age 95. Also in that issue, Patti Strand, AKC Board Public Relations and Public Affairs Committee Chairman, discussed the national image campaign to be launched in September by AKC. The Kennel Club plans included the creation of new public relations materials and products, more educational and promotional materials to member clubs, the now-familiar DogNY campaign as a tribute to search and rescue dogs, and the ACE (Awards for Canine Excellence) program which would recognize special and heroic purebred dogs.

As part of the Hound Group feature in the July issue, the Rhodesian Ridgeback Feature was a great success. Linda More reported on the very successful AKC Advanced Sighthound Institute held near Atlanta earlier in the year. Following the initial Sporting Institute held in 1998, AKC and the Dog Judges Association of America conducted an Advanced Herding Institute in 1999, followed by a repeat of Sporting in October 2000. The first Advanced Institute for the Working breeds was held in Massachusetts in November 2001, in which judges watched sledding and carting demonstrations as well as a water rescue Newfoundland, followed by the second Herding Institute in early 2002. The first Sighthound program was as successful as its predecessors for the other Groups, and a Scent Hound Institute was scheduled for October 2002.

In September, along with the Owner-Handler feature, DR presented its first official Canadian Feature, with 27 pages of articles and ads for and about the Canadian dog show scene. That feature would increase in popularity as each year passed, and the Owner-Handler feature continued to be popular, with a full 66 pages in the 2002 issue devoted to the opinions and views of Owner-Handlers and their advertisements with their dogs. Also in September DR covered the AKC announcement of a new annual award for Breeder of the Year, whose nominees would be chosen by a committee comprised of AKC staff and Board members. DR’s coverage of the 2002 World Show in Amsterdam, by Bo Bengtson, revealed that the Crufts Best in Show winner, the Standard Poodle Intl. Ch. Topscore Contradiction, was again victorious, this time over an entry of 14,500 from 53 countries.

The October issue of DR included an article that would become among those about which the magazine most often gets correspondence after publication. The first in Kerrin Winter-Churchill’s “Great Ones” series appeared in that issue chronicling the story of the great Boxer, Ch. Dorian von Marienhof of Mazelaine. Later Great Ones stories would capture huge segments of the history of our sport when Kerrin researched and wrote about the likes of the Smooth Fox Terrier Ch. Nornay Saddler, the Cocker Ch. My Own Brucie, the German Shepherd Ch. Covy-Tucker Hills Manhattan and other legendary dogs. In November Dr. Jacky Hungerland joined DR as a regular columnist, along with Karen Steinrock, who covered subjects very basic and essential to owning purebred dogs.

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