"AT DINNER WITH RICHARD HELLMAN"

interview by Pamela Renai della Rena

PRdR: Richard, we’ll get to the compliments for your great win at the World Show later, but first please tell me why we see you with Australian Shepherds instead of Akitas these days.

RH: Pamela, you know I still love my Akitas, and my great champion Seihoh is still alive and healthy at 13 and a half years. But I wanted a house dog, one that could follow me everywhere and sleep at my feet, not that Akitas are not adapted to that. But Aussies are everything Akitas are not: smaller, more affectionate, more obedient and willing to please and so easy to keep with other dogs (if you want an Akita in the house, he has to be alone), and after I had my first one I knew I’d found a breed that was made for me

 

PRdR: So how did you and Propwash Syzygy, hereinafter known as

 "Gander", get together?

RH: In a very strange way, really. I was at Westminster in 1999, and Laura Kirk, the breeder of my third Aussie, who knew that I was looking for a very special dog to lease and campaign from the United States, introduced me to Mrs. Leslie Frank of Propwash. Mrs Frank was exceedingly kind to me, and spoke to me for a while even though everything is very frenzied at the Garden and people only want to find their old friends and not waste time with strangers.
It took me months to get up the courage to approach her again. She barely knew me, and she is very careful about where she sends her dogs; even though I was recommended, I wasn’t sure she’d give one to a person she’d barely met. But I saw a red merle bitch of hers win BOS to my BOB at the World Show in Helsinki, and knew that my new winner had to come from her kennel. Only later I discovered that that bitch was litter sister to Gander!
PRdR: So what did you do?
RH: Well, I did something really crazy. I knew all about Gander, knew he was the dog I wanted, so I looked up his data on a web site and entered him in Milan in late January I still didn’t even know if she would let me have him---it had been 11 months since we met and we had had no contact in the meantime. But I sent off the entry, took a deep breath, and picked up the phone. We must have some magical feeling for each other, because we concluded the deal in 15 minutes on the phone, and a week later I was at the airport in Boston to pick him up!

He immediately won my heart and became my second skin: under me desk, at the foot of the bed. Of course he was a wonderful show dog and a fantastic representative of the breed. In the 2 years he was with me he was defeated only once for the breed, and won titles and Groups in 5 European countries. He had 2 Bests in Show in Spain under Norman Huidobro (E) and Flora MacKenzie (Can), and in Italy he was the number one Herding Dog, and 10th in all breeds.Unfortunately, by February of 2002 it was time for him to go home to America; he’d only been given to me for one year, and 2 had already passed.
PRdR. How could you bear to let him go, Richard?
RH: It wasn’t easy I delivered him to his breeder at Westminster with tears in my eyes and the hope that I might have him back some day.

PRdR: Obviously you did, since he was in Dortmund. How did you arrange that?

RH: In the same precarious and improvised way I got him the first time. It was difficult to know what to do about my Aussies in Germany; those that were born with naturally long or natural bobtails were permitted, as well as those whose tails had been docked before the cut-off date(pun intended!!!) established by German law, but no others.
   Ch Propwash Ponder, who won the breed at the World Show

 in Amsterdam wasn’t eligible, and neither was Propwash Spectacular Bid, who won over an entry of 108 Aussies and took the Group in Paris at the European Show.I thought I was going to have to go without an Aussie, Gander was the right age and I entered him "just in case", but he was in America, and so still was the promising puppy "Bobo", born with a naturally docked tail, who Leslie was keeping for me to come get later on.I talked to Leslie about it, but I no longer had time to get over and back, and she was terribly busy. With her husband, she investigated every possible way of brining the dogs over and getting back in 24 hours, but it just wasn’t possible. Much as we wanted Propwash Farm to be represented at the World Show, there seemed to be no way to do it; neither of us was happy with the idea of sending them unaccompanied.But the evening before I was due to leave for Dortmund with the other dogs I was handling there, I got a call from Leslie: she and her husband had decided to take the chance and ship the two from Boston to Milan! I immediately asked a friend in Milan to pick him up for me and deliver him to me at an Autostrada rest stop.
PRdR: Wow! How exciting! Tell me, did he remember you?
RH: My heart was beating twice as fast as usual when we met my friend and the dogs after midnight on Tuesday. I’m sure I was happier than he was at the moment, since he had been through the plane trip and a ride with someone he didn’t even know. The puppy was a bit bewildered too, but by the time Dortmund was over it was just like---old times.
PRdR: Except, of course, that you came home not only with Gander and Bobo, but with the biggest win there is in the FCI World!
RH: Yes, and believe me, I never expected it. Christopher Habig had a mostly "tailed" entry of 86. Those of us with naturally docked tails had our certificates in our pockets (I must add, though, that once the entries were accepted, the VDH used an honor system completely, as far as I know. We were never asked for our documentation.).So Bobo started his career with the Junior championship, and Gander won the breed for the 3rd time at a World Show. The applause from ringside was heartening, and I was so glad for his breeders, Leslie and Geert, who had gone to all that trouble to get him to me.Winning the Herding Group was a dream, and I’m still not sure I’m not dreaming that we really won Best in Show. But I do have Gulliermo’s pictures to prove it! And the other wonderful part of it all is that Gander will now stay with me for a while again; I have my buddy back in the house.

 

PRdR: Thank you, Richard. Now drink that champagne before it gets warm!

        Pamela Renai della Rena             

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