Check out this week’s weather forecast! Unpredictably Predictable

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By now, most of you have seen or heard about the horrific photographs and videos of the Border Collies abused by owner Paige O’Donnell in Florida.  Many who knew this lady have expressed their disbelief about the condition these dogs were in, and the conditions of the home where they were kept inside with their breeder.  During better days, this individual was a respected exhibitor, breeder, and fancier. Many have a hard time understanding how this happened and the deplorable conditions where the dogs were kept.  There are those that voice outrage about the conditions, and the misery these poor dogs endured.  I think we all agree that our dogs depend on us to care for them.  They depend on us to ask for help if circumstances change so drastically that we are unable to give them the love, care and support they deserve.

In this case, something went horribly wrong, and despite neighbors reaching out to authorities for help, and numerous visits by animal control, it took years–and a search warrant–in order to discover the actual conditions inside this home.  Fortunately, the dogs have been safely removed and, as of Sunday, all the dogs have been medically groomed since coats their coats were so severely matted and coated in fecal matter.

Humane Society staff and volunteers describe how the dogs are responding positively to the care they are being given, and how their personalities changed immediately when they were cleaned up.  To the staff and volunteers of the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast, THANK YOU for your kindness, patience, compassion and efforts to prepare these dogs for the next chapter of their lives.  The Humane Society can use our help in the form of monetary donations http://hstc1.org/Emergency-Medical-Fund.

It is my hope that as a community we learn from this situation.  This was a person who, at one time, loved her dogs.  This was not a puppy mill or a backyard breeding operation, or a dog fighting ring.  This was one of our own.  We may never know how or why this happened, but we CAN try to avoid situations like this in the future by asking questions like:

• Who is missing?
• Who haven’t we seen at a show lately?  Who stopped posting on social media?  Who stopped answering the phone?  Who suddenly appears to have too many dogs and seems overwhelmed?  Who keeps saying they are fine when our gut tells us they are not?

Here is what you can do:

• Call them.
• Knock on their door.
• Offer to take a couple of dogs for a while.
• Say, “I have not seen you for a while, and I have been worried about you.  What do you need?  How can I help?”
• Don’t let the next person disappear.

All dogs deserve safety, care, clean surroundings, good food, and loving homes.  The person deserves appropriate intervention, boundaries, treatment, and support so the cycle does not begin again.

Protect the animals fiercely while recognizing the person who failed them might also be suffering. However, this does not absolve them of guilt for their actions.

Save the dogs.  Protect them.  Advocate for them.  Hold people legally accountable for their negligence.  Whenever possible, leave a bit of room for humanity as well.

Heads up to all fanciers!  Please note that the 2027 Kentuckiana Cluster in Louisville will be held a week earlier this year due to venue availability.  Mark your calendars for March 11-14 so you don’t miss one of the largest clusters in the country!

The American Kennel Club has announced the opening of nominations for the 2026 Eddy Award, which recognizes breed Parent Clubs that provide outstanding education resources about their breed.  For more information, contact Guy Fisher at AKC Club Development.

I was saddened to hear that as of January 1, 2027, photographer Rhonda Cassidy will no longer be traveling to shows.  However, she would love to have you drop by her place for a photo shoot!  Best wishes to Rhonda and Mike for a glorious retirement where they’ll be spending more time with family while enjoying their grandkids and some deserved R&R!

Happy Anniversary to Edwin and Kelly Shupp.  Cheers to many more great adventures!

Fanciers celebrating birthdays this week include Andrea McIlwaine, Alicia Morrison Jones, Marina Rose, Nicole Munneke, Janice Hayes, Tatum Bartlett, Carolyn Scheible, Sam Mammano, Megan Cloudman, Dana Cline, Shota Mai Hirai, Larry Fenner, Bonnie Linnell Clarke, David Miller, Christi Chism, and David Johnson.

Life is short, my friends.  Always choose happiness.  Do not look back with regrets.  Look forward with hope and courage, love in your heart, and peace in your mind.

Be safe out there my friends, and remember, tomorrow is never promised.  Give your dogs an extra hug, and tell your loved ones you love them.  If your travels bring you to Santa Barbara this week, I look forward to seeing you!  Until next time…

By Anna Szabó

Summer is in full swing and we are now halfway in the show season. The present leaders in Europe have some serious math to do as the race for Top Dog is about to get double hot. Whilst some countries don’t officially keep records of halfway leaders, or their records are rather hard to find, some others quite enjoy analyzing what the first half of the show season has been like. Also, a select few don’t actually choose their top dog through a point system; so, it can be quite a chaotic task to establish who each country’s FCI world challengers are.

United Kingdom

2026 has been a rather turbulent year for the Royal Kennel Club. There was a string of regrettable resignations from key positions, the public press more punishing than ever, the Royal Windsor Dog Show cancelled due to heat, and Gavin Robertson of Soletrader fame as newly elected RKC chairman to hopefully lead to organization out of the current negative spiral it’s been in for the last few years.

The country’s current–and quite possibly unbeatable–top Utility and Top Dog All Breeds with an incredible seven consecutive Best in Shows at general Championship Shows in the UK is the Toy Poodle female, BIS Ch Ch Dream High Kai Kennel Afterglow Adrenaline, owned by Jason Lynn and Tom Isherwood, and presented by Tom. Little ‘Asia’ defeated some 50,000+ dogs at those seven shows alone. She was bred by Kai Wang in China. We are excited to see what the future holds for her.

The halfway leaders of the rest of the six groups are:

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204 – August, 2026

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Did you correctly answer this week’s #ThrowbackThursday?

Answer: English Springer Spaniel, CH Chinoe’s Applause with Handler Clint Harris,  Judge Mrs. Robert Ward and Cincinnati Kennel Club President Bud Schulte.

Don’t forget! Do you have a fun photo that you would like to share for #ThrowbackThursday? Email Liz Powell at showresults@caninechronicle.com with your photos!

By Amy Fernandez

Neighbor-vs.-neighbor altercations are a classic source of legal nightmares. Driveway access, backyard parties, trees, garbage cans… the list is endless. However, one particular issue tends to ignite truly vicious fights. You know where this is going. Yes, dogs are the source of countless ugly neighbor-vs.-neighbor disputes. We had a headline example of that here on Long Island a few years ago. The defendant in this case—which went all the way up the legal food chain—is Peter Galantino, a rather prominent Rockville Centre resident. He also owned a Goldendoodle. His neighbors, James and Elizabeth Joyce, also own dogs, including a four-pound Yorkshire Terrier named Mocha.

So, here’s the basic story of what went down in Rockville Centre that fateful afternoon of March 14, 2020. It began when Mr. Galantino permitted his dog to relieve itself on another resident’s front lawn and then began to casually stroll away. Mrs. Joyce, who was also out with her Yorkie and her German Shepherd at the time, brought this oversight to Mr. Galantino’s attention. The simple thing would have been to clean up after his dog, something that is legally required in New York. Instead, it quickly spiraled into a nasty fight, which culminated in Mr. Galantino kicking the Joyces’ Yorkie seven feet into the air. The dog landed on the pavement headfirst. At that point, law enforcement arrived, and the situation escalated from personal to criminal.

New York has an extensive list of animal cruelty offenses on the books. They range from misdemeanors to Class A felonies. The problem is not a lack of legal deterrents or remedies; it’s a matter of enforcement. Police typically do not respond to incidents involving pets. They also tend to discourage victims from filing official reports after the fact. All that makes prosecution very difficult. Most likely, Mrs. Joyce’s status as a retired NYPD K9 trainer made a difference in this case.

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190 – August, 2026

The West Oahu club has received a notice from their venue advising them that, because of the weather, they will not be able to hold the show at the school this weekend.

Due to this storm and for the safety concerns for everyone involved, the shows this weekend have been cancelled.

The show committee feels badly about this decision, but must take into account the safety of all exhibitors.

By Amy Fernandez

In a sense, every dog has always been a Working breed. Every one of them performed a specific job. In the 19th century, that broad job description was abandoned in favor of increasingly precise purebred classifications. Today, Working breeds have become highly specialized and compartmentalized into very specific roles. That can lead us to overlook the fact that canine utility was the spark that drove the entire evolutionary process–and that extended far beyond the wolf-to-dog transformation. It is debatable whether our species would have survived or thrived to populate so many parts of the world without canine assistance.

A couple of papers recently published in the journal, Nature, have brought this idea into sharper focus. Although conducted by different teams, both studies arrived at similar conclusions, providing the first definitive genetic evidence of when the human/canine partnership commenced. Their findings kick the domestication timeline back several thousand years earlier than previously believed.

There’s never been any shortage of canid fossils to study. The problem has been trying to distinguish the dogs from their wolf ancestors. Skull shape and jaw size have been the primary indicators until now. Obviously, that method was less than reliable when examining ancient fragments of bone. More importantly, domestication occurs as an incremental process. Physically, there was very little physical difference between wolves, early domestic dogs, and all those hybrid types in between.

DNA technology has been a game changer for making those judgment calls. For the first time, it has become possible to identify that critical genetic tipping point in the fossil record. The underlying research in these studies was based on a combination of bioarcheology and DNA sequencing. This approach was utilized by two separate but parallel research teams. Their methodology was somewhat different. The surprising part is that they arrived at the same startling results.

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162 – August, 2026