Sean C. Morgan
Two Sweet Home dogs will compete among the best purebred dogs in the nation in Orlando, Fla., next weekend.
German shorthaired pointers Destiny and Cash will travel to Orlando with owners Kirsten and Paul Fulk and handlers Cheyenne Schlecht and Kory Wykoff to the American Kennel Club’s Eukanuba National Championship, which offers the largest prize money dog show in the world, with cash and prizes awarded totaling more than $225,000. Participation in the prestigious competition is by invitation only.
The Fulkses operate Field of Dreams, a boarding kennel, training and breeding facility, at 29180 Highway 20, just west of the Narrows. Kirsten Fulk’s dogs qualified to enter by attaining grand champion designation. Cash completed his title all from the veteran class. This will be the third consecutive year that Destiny has earned an invitation to this event.
Cash is 11 1/2 years old. Destiny, 4, is his granddaughter.
Their breed standard is “bold,” Fulk said, which means “rude” or more politely, “overly friendly.”
“They don’t have a mean bone in their body,” Fulk said. “They love people. They love kids.”
To get an invite, a dog must finish in the top 25 in breed in the nation during events each year.
Dogs also may be invited when they earn the grand champion title during the qualification period.
Dog competitions are ongoing events in which dogs accrue points to gain titles, Fulk said. Young dogs start in shows against other non-champion dogs. The winners start gaining championship points.
The grand champion title was introduced in 2010, Fulk said. That’s a competition among champions. Cash finished as a grand champion in the 10 and older veteran category.
Destiny finished number eight in the nation in 2009 and received an invite for two years.
“We basically started doing it with our first dog,” Fulk said. They got Baron, another shorthair, and started showing him at the urging of the breeder. He did all right, but he wasn’t among the best.
Fulk bought Cash at eight weeks, she said.
“He’s been an incredible dog. He was the first one we started getting into the shows. He’s the first one that did really, really well.”
If Cash were shown just a few more times this year, he would have qualified for the Eukanuba by making the top 25, Fulk said.
Fulk bred Destiny and has since bred her back to Cash, giving her a litter of show quality dogs, two of which she is keeping.
Both dogs are working dogs, Fulk said. Her husband uses them to hunt quail, pheasant and other game birds.
“Dog shows are a breeder showcase,” Fulk said. “They show that our dogs are worthy of breeding.”
Going to the shows demonstrates this, she said. Dogs that excel in this case, are dogs that are “confirmationally correct” and built to hunt. Those that are not correctly built will break toes and joints or have other problems.
She often hears from prospective buyers that they don’t want show dogs, but it’s the show dogs that are best equipped to hunt.
“It’s just a really fun hobby,” Fulk said. “It’s kind of like watching your kid in a school play. It’s definitely a sport. They call it the sport of purebred dogs.”
While she has done some of it, Fulk relies on professional handlers to show her dogs. Fulk trains them for the field, while the handlers train them for the ring.
“They know how to do it,” Fulk said. “Let the people who know how do what they do.”
Schlecht and Wykoff, who work for Randy Schepper out of Southwest Washington, are experienced showing the two dogs. They showed them last weekend in Clark County, Wash.
Schlecht, 19, has handled Cash almost all his life, and she took Destiny to the Eukanuba National Championship two times.
Schlecht recently returned from Australia where she handled dogs at the largest dog show in Tasmania. She has been working with dogs her whole life, she said. She started showing dogs at age 5 and competing at AKC shows at age 9. She has showed at the Eukenuba show four or five years in a row.
She showed Destiny over the weekend in the German shorthair specialty at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Washington.
Destiny was best in the specialty show Saturday, Schlecht’s first best in specialty and Destiny’s third. She also won the breed and best sporting dog awards. She was second in her sporting group on Sunday.
Cash was best opposite sex and select dog. Their daughter, Beyonce, 8 months, was winner’s bitch and was best of all non-champion females entered, earning her first points toward champion.
“They’re just structurally really sound, and they also hunt,” Schlecht said. They’re doing what they’re judged to do.
Wykoff, 22, showed Cash over the weekend. This will be his fourth time showing at Eukanuba. He has been showing dogs for more than six years after starting in 4H. Schlecht helped him get a job with Schepper. Wykoff also breeds Australian Shepherds and English cocker spaniels.
He’s looking forward to the Florida show, he said. “It’s neat to have a family pair go to this show. I think it’s anyone’s game at this point, at this show. Both Cheyenne and I are feeling kind of well coming off this weekend.”
It’s a good streak, and it should get them a good shot going into the national competition, Wykoff said.
Fulk got her first dog, Baron, in 1994 after she suffered a sprained ankle, she said. She told her husband she wanted a dog, which would help force her to walk while she was in therapy. He told her the dog needed to be useful.
They started looking at different breeds, Fulk said. She remembered that a friend in high school had a German shorthair, and she liked the dog. They also considered an English setter, but settled on the shorthair.
“He wasn’t the best of the best, but he was a great starter dog,” Fulk said.
The Fulks have been breeding dogs for 17 years and raised 11 litters, Fulk said. They currently have 12 German shorthairs and one German wire-haired pointer. All of them hunt.
The Fulks moved to Sweet Home from Veneta in 2001. Kirsten Fulk was an accountant with Eugene Chemical in Harrisburg. She retired from there in 2002. Paul Fulk was a cabinet maker at Country Coach. He had also worked in various construction positions.
They chose to live in Linn County because the regulations on dog ownership are much less onerous than in Lane County, Kirsten Fulk said. Here, they can have up to 20 dogs, as long as they’re working dogs.
The Fulks opened Field of Dreams, which offers kennel services as well as field and obedience training for dogs in private lessons.
They also run the Gun Dog Expo, held in Albany earlier this year. It will be held in Portland next summer. And Field of Dreams hosts the Oregon Bird Dog Challenge regularly from March through September at their site east of Sweet Home off Highway 20.
“We wanted to do the dogs full time, and we couldn’t go anywhere anyway,” Fulk said, so they opened the kennel. “I love the training part, and I have a kennel I totally trust to put the dogs in.”
The National Championship will be televised on the ABC television network on Feb. 4.