Fri, 11/21/2025 - 11:23am
The Gossip Column: November 21, 2025
By
Eugene Z. Zaphiris
One of the most anticipated announcements that is made by the AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB is the seven 2025 BREEDER OF THE YEAR GROUP NOMINEES. Each nominee represents one breeder from each of the seven variety groups. Some nominees have longtime co-breeders that share in the nomination. Each year there are stellar nominees, with this year’s nominees no exception, each of them worthy of being titled Breeder of the Year. Being nominated to represent your group by the American Kennel Club is such high recognition that they all should share that title, without an ultimate winner. This year’s nominees include: representing the Sporting Group, the WINGFIELD ’N CHEBACO ENGLISH SETTER KENNELS of DON & PAT COLLER, EILEEN HACKETT and the late KATE HANLON who very sadly passed away a few months ago. Representing the Hound Group the ABBAIO IBIZAN HOUND KENNELS of SARAH MURPHY, representing the Working Group is the ONAK ALASKAN MALAMUTE KENNELS of WENDY, RANDY and JENNIFER CORR, representing the Terrier Group the LONGVUE AIREDALE TERRIER KENNELS of TODD & APRIL CLYDE, representing the Toy Group is the Yorkshire Terrier and Silky Terrier LAMPLIGHTER KENNELS of BARBARA BEISSEL, representing the Non-Sporting Group is the TA SEN LHASA APSO KENNELS of SUSAN GILES and rounding out the nominees representing the Herding Group is the KENSIL SHETLAND SHEEPDOG KENNELS of SYLVIA & DAVID CALDERWOOD. The BREEDER OF THE YEAR will be presented Saturday evening at the AKC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP DOG SHOW. A canine portrait of the one of the Breeder of the Years’s dogs will be commissioned to commemorate the win and their names added to the perpetual trophy. A very interesting article by our DOG NEWS Veterinarian DR. MERRY FITZGERALD concerning the preparing of home made diets for your dog in this week's issue. The recently released book MY LIFE IN THE SPORT OF PURE BRED DOGS by DIANE YOUNG MCCORMACK is now available on Amazon and Kindle. The AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB is stepping up its campaign to get more dogs registered and that includes all the puppies born into a litter. Addressing the declining litter registrations and individual registrations has brought on an AKC BREEDERS TOOL KIT that offers among other things registration discounts and tag lines like “AKC REGISTRATION IS MORE THAN PAPERWORK” and “WHEN YOU KNOW YOU KNOW.” I can’t imagine why anyone who goes through all the trouble, pain, pleasure and expense and wouldn’t register the litter they bred and then not individually register each and every puppy. All of us at DOG NEWS mourn the sudden loss of KARL STEARNS. He was a Cairn Terrier breeder and judge along with his wife HELENE. KARL was a well-known writer and his writings appeared many times in the pages of DOG NEWS. We send our deepest condolences to HELENE and family.
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Fri, 11/21/2025 - 11:23am