Page 23 - ShowSight Presents The Golden Retriever
P. 23
TWO OLD FOSSILS WALK INTO A BAR
After the Big Golden Retriever Specialty...
Aers and Connie Gerstner Miller of Mala- gold Golden Retrievers.
Marcia Schlehr: I haven’t been to very many shows the past few years. But it looks like the trend toward exotic groom- ing and “presentation” has really taken over, and “show” has become way more important than “dog”. Do you think that folks have forgotten the “basics” of the Golden Retriever breed? Or have they just never learned?
Connie Gerstner Miller: I think “never learned” is the more appropriate description. We have lost so many of the staunch supporters of the Golden Retriev- er breed, such as Rachel Page Elliott or Quentin LaHam. I sometimes wonder how the education on structure and breed type is ever being passed down, if at all. I feel very fortunate to have had such wonderful mentors. Ludell Beckwith was really hard on me, but in a good way, as she made me “think before doing”. Then I had Pagey and Betty Gay too. Addition- ally, we all talked “dogs” at the shows back then. We discussed breed history, the breed standard and the state of our breed at the time. We learned so much from each other.
MS: That sort of conversation was a great part of showing! I still believe that the first paragraph of the breed standard really says what the Golden Retriever is to be, and the rest of the Standard is an expla- nation of just how this is to be fulfilled.
By Marcia Schlehr & Connie Gerstner Miller
conversation between two long time Golden Retriever breeders, educators and friends — Marcia Schlehr of Kyrie Golden Retriev-
“Diel” - He is Am./Can. CH. Gayhaven Lldiel Am./Can. CDX OS Am. WC, pictured winning Best of Breed at the Candien National Sportsman Show in March, 1962, at two years of age.
“Levi” - He is CH. Malagold Augusta’s Genuine Article UD, MH, WCX, DDHF, VCX, High in Trial Winner. This picture is of Levi getting an Judge’s Award of Merit at the GRCA National in 2011 - Levi was 8 years old at the time.
