September 7, 2005
Canine contest victories rare feat
Jon Burritt and dog take home ribbons at rare breed show
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Starting from scratch, Jon Burritt, 17, brought home a fistful of ribbons from his first dog show.
Competing August 27 in the Michigan Classic American Rare Breed Association show in Kalamazoo, Burritt and his Portuguese Podengo, Geoffrey, learned as they went through the paces of doggie competition. Burritt started preparing for the show about a month ago, an extension of the basic training he had been giving his one-year-old dog since he got him in January.
The judges at this small show were very helpful, giving Burritt tips on walking, how to hold the leash and displaying the dog. He wound up with four Best of Breed ribbons, four Best of Class ribbons and one Best of Show award for Geoffrey.
"They would give me pointers and tell me, 'You really did a good job on this or maybe you need to get this equipment for that,'" said Burritt, a homeschool senior who deliberately chose a smaller show for his and Geoffrey's debut. "I learned the most from the judges, from their comments."
Burritt noted that Geoffrey won Best of Breed in the competition because he was the only one of his kind competing. The Portuguese Podengo is a rare breed and Geoffrey was only the 50th one to arrive in the United States.
Burritt and his family had previously raised and bred Bichon Frises. After the male of their breeding pair died unexpectedly last year, a friend in Florida, where the family winters, introduced him to the Podenga. One look and he knew this was his next dog.
"I love the look of the breed and the personality of the breed, it kind of went from there," he said.
The rarity of Geoffrey's look makes him an instant conversation piece.
"It's hard to walk down the street or at the show without people asking about him," Burritt said. "Right now in his breed, there's three sizes and three styles. Of his size and style, there's maybe 68 in the US right now. Funny thing is he had two sisters and they're both here in Michigan."
The Internet facilitated Geoffrey's arrival as Burritt connected with a Podenga breeder in Portugal and corresponded with her via email. A Yahoo language translator allowed them to communicate, even though neither spoke the other's language.
"The emails would come out jumbled because the translator didn't always work perfectly," he said of the process where he typed his message in English, pressed send and a program translated it into Portuguese on the other end.
Geoffrey became available suddenly last winter, an older dog at six months whose prior plans for adoption suddenly fell through. This meant that instead of a usual two-year wait for a Podenga puppy, Burritt was able to purchase the dog within a month of finding the breeder.
After Burritt wired money to Portugal, Geoffrey began a two-day airplane trip from Lisbon to Orlando that included stops plus an overnight stay at a doggie hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. While the trip was traumatic for the animal, Burritt said that it might have helped Geoffrey bond quickly and thoroughly with his new owner.
"These are one-dog dogs, they love one person," he noted. "In three days he'd already bonded with me."
Burritt is still working with Geoffrey to overcome some fright and habits of fear biting that might stem from the trip. He has focused on socializing Geoffrey with other dogs to over come those issues and was pleased by his pet's conduct in the ring last month.
"When I was in the ring, he was within a foot of other dogs and he behaved like I'd never seen him," said Burritt, who plans to attend Northwestern Michigan College next fall and later transfer to a university. "He didn't snap at other dogs, lash out at other dogs - he behaved like he had done this for years."