“Times Past,” AKC Gazette : This 1952 photo by Joan Ludwig features Alma Starbuck and one of her famed Irish Wolfhounds of Ambleside. In this passage from her book “The Complete Irish Wolfhound,” Mrs. Starbuck sets aside breed-specific concerns to discuss the age-old breeder’s quandary, type versus soundness: “Basically, the show ring seeks type, first […]

Adapted from a story originally published in the June 2011 AKC Gazette:After nearly a half-century in Borzoi, the best advice I can offer is to proceed slowly. When you begin to breed dogs, your first show dog will represent the ideal in your mind. That dog morphs in memory to near perfection in the years […]

When pursuing success in breeding dogs, there is no substitute for hard work, and there is nothing more necessary in that endeavor than establishing a great female line. “Great bitches come from other great bitches” was the advice of my mentor, Alma J. Starbuck. And she knew of what she spoke, having produced one famous […]

Originally published in the AKC Gazette Almost all the spaniels and setters were developed in the British Isles—but of the AKC pointing breeds, only the Pointer has its roots in England. The rest come from all over Europe. European breeds are less specialized than those of the British Isles. None of the retrievers—developed as the […]

On Wednesday, September 10, Elizabeth II surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria to become the longest-reigning monarch in British history—and that’s a ton of history! The 89-year-old Elizabeth set the record at 5:30 p.m. (BST) by having reigned for 23,226 days, 16 hours, and approximately 30 minutes. Around here, Elizabeth is best known as a true-blue […]

This is an excerpt from Bo Bengtson’s 1994 AKC Gazette profile of photographer Joan Ludwig, who reigned for a half century as the acknowledged West Coast master of canine photography: If it’s true that a picture is worth more than a thousand words, then Joan Ludwig has spoken more to the dog fancy than almost […]

In every breed there are one or more individual dogs who have made their mark on the breed's history not only through a successful show career, but also through the influence of outstanding breed type carrying on in that dog's descendants. These are in many cases dogs whom Anne Rogers Clark referred to as "templates" […]

In 2000, director and actor Christopher Guest released a movie that would later become a comedy classic about the quirkiness of the dog fancy. "Best in Show," filmed in the format of a “mockumentary,” featured five breeder/handler teams as they campaigned their dogs to compete in “The Mayflower Dog Show,” a riff on the annual […]

Not a lot has changed regarding the fear and myths surrounding canine epilepsy since the first person observed seizing dogs when animal/human cohabitation started. Throughout history, thousands of people suffering from epilepsy have been killed because they were thought to be possessed by the devil. Sadly, despite all the scientific improvement and understanding of this […]

There is probably nothing more alarming than seeing your dog have a seizure. Legs flailing in the air, lips tightened in a sardonic grin, and the neck arched like it might break — it illustrates the horror the dog is going through. But that classic convulsion is only one of many variations of seizures in […]