A Surprise at Progressive
By Amy Fernandez
Everybody’s got a bucket list of fabulous things they dream of doing someday. However, you don’t wake up one day and suddenly find yourself buzzing around Maui or checking out the nice view from the top of Kilimanjaro. Those are big time, long range dreams that take time and effort, but once in a while fate lends a hand. That’s how it went down for Jason Hoke on Friday when judging Best In Show at Progressive Dog Club got crossed off of his bucket list.
The slated BIS judge, Norm Patton, was another casualty of Thursday’s storm-related airport mayhem. However, BIS wasn’t until 3:45 pm and throughout the day Friday there was hope that he would make it in time. By 3:44 that clearly wasn’t happening. That’s about the time Hoke was wrapping up Poodles and Pekingese. The BIS assignment was a nice surprise.
It was probably a bit of shocker, too. Hoke has been judging since 2010 and is currently approved for several Hound, Sporting, and Non-Sporting breeds along with the Toy Group. This was his second assignment at Progressive and he’s well aware of the show’s special significance. Hoke said, “It was a real honor to be asked to judge BIS especially because of the quality in this year’s entry. So many beautiful dogs didn’t make the cut. It’s among the most impressive lineups I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been coming to this show. The Havanese entry was consistent throughout, just beautiful. In Poodles, I had given groups to all three of my open dogs. One came from Korea, one from Japan, and one from China. It was great to see so many really nice foreign dogs in competition this year.”
Hoke will also be on hand announcing results for Westminster breed judging on Tuesday. It’s live but we know he can roll with unexpected surprises.
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