A dog (breeder's) life - Saturday, October 31, 2009 | Fostoria Review Times

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

A dog (breeder's) life

By MARIAH MERCER

FEATURES WRITER

If you step inside Rhonda Musgrave's rural New Riegel home, you're bound to hear a bark or two. Or two dozen. At the moment she has 12 cocker spaniels and a litter on the way.

"It's gonna be a busy Christmas," said Musgrave, owner of Riegelz Cockers. Peeking out from a back room is Riegelz Invasion of Love -- Vada for short. A three-year-old silver buff colored cocker, the new mama comes from a pedigreed background and is one of the results of 25 years of breeding.

It took more than 20 years to breed a show-worthy dog. She began with a cocker spaniel from her aunt.

"It wasn't a show-quality dog, just a pet. And it took off from there. ... I always knew I wanted to breed," said Musgrave. She began looking for cocker spaniels to breed with and began matching her dogs with other breeders' in hopes of getting show-worthy results. It took 15 years before she was ready to try her hand at an actual show.

"I'd been going to dog shows for 15 years, watching, seeing what they do, afraid to take that first step. It's very scary at first," said Musgrave.

But her persistence and her courage paid off. Over the last few years, Musgrave has bred herself a championship reputation.

Now, tucked away on a country road in Seneca County, she has a steady stream of champions. This year alone, she's taken two champion dogs to show and one more, Riegelz Greased Lightning, is just two points away from championship status.

In order to be declared a champion dog, the animal has to earn 15 points at sanctioned dog shows. Points are awarded for being selected as the best dog at a show.

"You just kind of make your presence known in the show world. It's like a different world and you have to go all the time and you don't win for a long time," said Musgrave.

Competitors arrive hours before the contest to groom the dog, getting them bathed and dried and combed and brushed and primped and preened until they shine.

When each dog's turn comes, they take their turn before the judge, who then examines the dog thoroughly to decide which dogs match the ideals of the breed. Each breed has its own combination of skeleton, muscle structure, body shape and coat type specified by the American Kennel Club. The descriptions can include the head shape, eye color, ear shape and size, height and weight, coat texture and more.

The cocker spaniel was originally bred as a hunting dog to help hunters find, flush and retrieve game birds. It's the smallest member of the sporting group of dogs.

The American Spaniel Club describes the standard as a sturdy, compact body and a cleanly chiseled and refined head. The requirements get very specific -- 15 inches at the withers for a male and 14 inches for a female and varying more than half an inch gets a dog disqualified. Some are more subjective -- the expression should be "intelligent, alert, soft and appealing."

Cocker spaniels also have three different color types -- black, ASCOB (any solid color other than black) and parti-color variety (two or more solid, well broken colors, one of which must be white). There's a winner in each of these types of breeds.

Each show can features dozens of breeds and each breed is separated into classes by gender and by age. There are also classes for American-bred dogs, bred-by-exhibitor dogs and an all open (all other adult) dogs. The best of each class then competes for best dog.

"It took me years to learn all this stuff. At first, I was like 'someone just tell me when to go into the ring'!" Musgrave kidded.

Musgrave entered her first show about four years ago and now travels to Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and beyond to compete. She said she learned by watching and trying it herself. She works with Kathy Korab of Pennsylvania, a professional dog handler who presents dogs for judging at dog shows. Korab has one of Musgrave's dogs now and is getting it ready for competition, but Musgrave also shows her dogs herself.

"I go and take another dog because I learn so much from her. It's a continual learning experience. ... Thank god for Kathy, she's been so patient with me. You don't find a lot of handlers who will bend over backwards and let you tag along and learn from them like this. She's been so good to me," said Musgrave.

She now trains and grooms and shows her own dogs. Her champions are dogs she's purchased and Musgrave said she's still working to breed her own champion.

The dogs also get judged based on their temperament and, not surprisingly, things don't always go according to plan.

"If your dog just runs around the rings, like mine did this past weekend and hopped and skipped and jumped and decided he'd won the day before and the next day decided to have a party instead. He just decided to be a fruit loop on Sunday. ... Everybody has a bad day. Even the big professional handlers. Dogs are going to poop in the ring. Just clean it up. It's going to happen, they're dogs. You train 'em the best you can but unfortunately, it happens," laughed Musgrave.

For more information on her dogs and show results, visit www.riegelzcockers.com.

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