The Big E – Enduring Mentorships

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140 – July, 2022

By Elaine Lessig

Once upon a time, very long ago, my husband, Marvin, and I purchased a precious, female, tricolor Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. Sophie came into our lives after the loss of our beloved fourteen-and-a-half year-old All-American dog, Pokey. Sophie joined our family at the same time as our son, an only child, was on the cusp of leaving home to attend college. Who knew that the puppy we bought to cherish and nurture would change my life forever?

Our Pokey had one very infuriating habit. Tuesdays and Fridays were trash days in our South Jersey neighborhood. Despite our efforts to deter her, Pokey would often manage to get out a door, slip under the fence–or find any other way she could–to tour the delicacies in the neighborhood trash cans. Her continual pursuit of all the imagined treasures she believed to be contained in those cans often lead to trouble. Off I would race in a desperate search to find her before she got too far. It was with those memories in mind that I determined Sophie would NEVER do that. Obedience lessons would be my salvation. She would obey my command and come when called.

Those obedience lessons led to more formal classes, then to obedience matches, and then, tah dah, to sanctioned obedience trials. We competed at AKC and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club, USA (the breed’s registry prior to AKC recognition in 1996) events with a modicum of success: a CD and CGC titles. When I was at those trials, I began to watch the conformation ring, too. Soon, I was sitting around the ring watching with intense interest. “Well,” I thought, “I can do that.” Naturally, the search began for another Cavalier puppy. I wanted to succeed in the conformation ring as much as I had in the obedience competition with Sophie.

Click here to read the complete article
140 – July, 2022

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