Mount Bachelor Kennel Club - Bend Bulletin Article

BEND BULLETIN ARTICLE

Dogs in the Mix
Mount Bachelor Kennel Club members are sometimes eccentric, but often normal
by Jim Witty of The Bend Bulletin,
Article published: April 08, 2006.

Remember the movie “Best in Show” with its eccentric cast of sometimes lovable, sometimes irksome, mostly humorous dog show characters brought together for a national competition sponsored by the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club? It's not exactly like that in real life. But then again, “A lot of it was very true,” laughs Lori Nickeson, a Central Oregon dog trainer and longtime member of the Mount Bachelor Kennel Club, founded in the 1960s.
And why not? Purebred dogs have always been a colorful lot. Think Spuds McKenzie, that jaunty bleach-white bull terrier with the piercing, deep set eyes high up on each side of his football of a snout. Or the poodle, all poofy pom poms, precise coif and haughty aristocracy. Or the Boston terrier, a hyperthyroid lion who would swim in a shih tzu's clothing.
Their enthusiastic owners would just naturally follow suit. Wouldn't they? Not necessarily. Take Nickeson. She looks nothing at all like the German shepherds she raises. As far as I can tell from speaking with her over the years, she doesn't act like them either. Janice Allen? She has long hair, but the resemblance between her and Indy, her 4-year-old English sheep dog, stops right there. And no one I've ever known looked like a soft-coated Wheaten terrier. Or carried themselves like one. The members of the Mount Bachelor Kennel Club want you to know that they're simply a group of like-minded people bound by the love of dogs and responsible dog ownership. Some are brash, others quiet. Several enjoy the high-energy athleticism of agility trials, still others appreciate the regimented satisfaction of a well-wrought obedience competition. Some are probably snobs, whatever that word means to you.

Most are not. The American Kennel Club, of which the Mount Bachelor Kennel Club is a part, recognizes only purebred dogs for its numerous national competitions. Each breed is expected to conform as closely to an ideal standard as possible. Those standards include size, proportion and substance as well as characteristics of the head, neck, body, forequarters, hindquarters, coat, color, gait and temperament.
Snobbery? Could be, Nickeson allows. But, she explains, many club members have mixed-breed dogs lapping water right alongside their pedigreed pets. It's just that with purebred dogs, you know what you're getting. ”As opposed to the (mixed breed) puppy you think will be small and ends up twice the size,” she says. “Mixed breeds are a mixture of the standards. It's rewarding to have dogs that look like they're supposed to and act like they're supposed to.” All this fine attention to detail can be a bit of a mystery to the uninitiated, but Nickeson contends dogs in general are better for the trouble. “I think it's improving the breeds,” Nickeson says. The old-fashioned German shepherd, for example, used to be squared off, blocky. “Now they have a more flowing line, better movement,” Nickeson adds. She could tick through the alphabet of breeds and note improvements and evolutions for each if she wanted, but it's time to put Shadow through her paces.

Nickeson and Shadow, her 9-year-old shepherd who's won a wall full of ribbons and titles over the years, from obedience to agility, work together like a well-oiled machine.
Responding to simple hand gestures from Nickeson, Shadow runs, stops on a dime, pivots and sits. Without hesitation. Then Nickeson chooses a “scent article,” one of a dozen or so small items that look like dumbbells, and rubs her palm over one end. Allen then gathers them up and scatters them on the floor across the room. “Find mine,” Nickeson says and Shadow does. In seconds flat. “It's kind of like having a kid,” Nickeson says, Shadow watching her every move. “You're excited in their successes. And you've played a good part in their successes. There's immense satisfaction. I never say I did this or I did that. It's always we.
”The purebred dogs of the Mount Bachelor Kennel Club carry their heads high in the show ring but act a lot like the family mutt during their leisure hours. “They're pets,” says Nickeson. “They live in the home, sleep on the bed. I think they probably have a fuller life than the ordinary family dog. They have a goal and you spend more time with them.”
“They are certainly our lovable pets,” says Allen. “But their lives are much fuller. There's a lot of involvement. They want a job.” Indy, Allen's sheepdog, has a few. Perhaps the most rewarding for dog and handler is their volunteer work, reading with children at Buckingham and Elk Meadow elementary schools. “They go outside or in the library and the kids read out loud,” says Allen. “They're stumbling their way and they have a hold of Indy, reading to the dog. They're reading to the dog. I'm just her
transportation.”
Calm, furry, lovable Indy is also one of about 20 dogs who spend a lot of time at St. Charles Medical Center visiting with patients, brightening their day. “You can just see the joy,” says Allen. “It's a stress reliever. It gets their attention off of their problems, even for a moment.”
Members of the club also spend time working with the Humane Society to encourage responsible dog ownership, keep a section of the road to Mount Bachelor tidy and conduct an annual eye clinic for dogs, according to Nickeson. And the club matched members' private donations and donated $2,800 to help in the Hurricane Katrina rescue effort.
The Mount Bachelor Kennel Club has hosted an AKC All Breed Dog Show for more than 25 years. This year's free event at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center June 30 through July 2, will feature more than 1,000 contestants competing in obedience, rally and agility, according to club spokeswoman Sherry Binger. The event draws competitors from several states. The other big push for the club each year is the All Breed Agility Trials, set for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at the Crook County
Fairgrounds. ”It's a hobby and a lifestyle,” says Nickeson. Chat with a member and the word camaraderie comes up a lot. That and satisfaction. “Dogs are an extension of our egos,” Nickeson says,”and they teach us how to be humble, how to win and how to lose graciously. It's not all gravy. There's a little gruel in there, too.”
But all the training time and vet bills are worth it when the judge, stiff-backed and prim, steps in front of you and your canine compadre, and delivers this personal message. Best in show.