Looking Back With Lee – Remembering Denny Kodner
112 – The Annual, 2010-11
By Lee Canalizo
Best In Show - Minneapolis Kennel Club Am. Ch. Elanwood’s Might Makes Right Judge Mrs. Denny Kodner ·?Handled By Mr. Stan Flowers
Just as I sat down to write this month’s column word reached me that Denise (Denny) Kodner had died. To many reading this it will give a tug at the heart because Denny was one of “us”.
I knew of Denny long before I ever met her as she was a legend in the German Shepherd breed as a great handler and a successful breeder.” She and her husband Les reared their family (David and Peter) in the mid-west and no matter where she went she carried a strong and true Midwest demeanor. In dogs she didn’t shoot from the hip on anything. She told it like it was and never gave it a second thought if she believed in what needed to be said.
How vividly I remember her giving a handler a major win in Shepherds where the major was in the sex he was showing and everyone in the ring asked the guy to back off and let the bitch go BOW to cross over for the major. Well… next thing I notice is Denny chastising the guy from the center of the ring yelling… “Hey You! Stack that dog like you did when you won the points…. I’m not going to stand here and let you make either one of us look like a fool.” She knew he was the best dog and promptly gave him the breed. The ringside howled!
I was told this straightforwardness served her well as a keen businesswoman in the days when only the men wore the pants in the contracting industry. I got to know Denny over the years and everything I heard about her was true. After you broke the tough shell she built around herself, you were somewhat surprised by her true inner being. She was a loving and caring mother and a devoted spouse to Les. I judged with Denny before, during and after the trials and tribulations of Les’s illness and she was always quick to call and check on how I was doing when faced with the same scenario as Jim started to fail. Jim liked her because she had a real sporting side and they could chat about golf all the time. I, of course, liked to hear her Shepherd stories and her reminiscing of our mutual friends in the breed.
Denny Kodner showing one of her GSD’s
Like most knowledgeable Shepherd breeder/judges, Denny was able to apply her ability to recognize correct movement in almost any breed. She had a strong following from the big movement breeds and always drew good entries from those in the know. She progressed to an all breed judge and was highly regarded in the role.
Denny also liked to push the envelope when she could. She made them look twice when she showed an unusual color in the Shepherd ring… I never saw the dog in person but I was told it was a Blue and Tan… and that had to be one hell of a dog for her to buck the trend and finish the dog. I recall she might also have been the first to give an uncropped Boxer a Best In Show long before it was politically correct.
How could we forget when Denny walked out on to the floor to judge the Group at Westminster in a pants and sweater ensemble… one could hear the collective gasps in the stands. I can’t speak for all my lady friends, but as the hullabaloo died down you might have heard an inner “You Go Girl” float across that rarified green carpet. That was Denny… bold and beautiful if you knew what you were looking at.
She never lost her self-esteem and long before many thought she should have, she quietly left the judging ranks to contribute in many other ways. She wrote a children’s book with all it precedes donated to charity. She was often tapped by the AKC for her insight on matters of importance and she left us having done it “her way” which too many of us was the “right way”.
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on Jul 10 2011. Filed under Remembering Our Past?.
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