Longtime Westminster aficionados who have watched Patricia Craige Trotter move around the Garden floor in rhythm with her Norwegian Elkhounds for decades may wonder how the dogs are so consistent in their type and athletic ability. When questioned about this Pat attributes this consistency to concentrating on her bitch line throughout her more than sixty years in her breed.
Ch. Vin-Melca’s Nimbus working out on the beach in Carmel, CA, with owner Pat Trotter in preparation for his first of two Group wins at the Garden.
Ch. Vin-Melca’s Howdy Rowdy, sire of 166 champions, was Best of Breed and third in the Group Westminster Kennel Club in 1969.
Ch. Vin-Melca’s Homesteader, 1974 Westminster Hound Group Winner, pictured going Best in Show at the last Santa Barbara benched show later that year. English Judge Bobby James selected this Howdy Rowdy son in an entry of 4,000 dogs.
BY JENNIFER REED er belief in the value of strong bitches as the basis of a solid breeding program began as a child thanks to such forward-thinking mentors as Johnny Davis (Val-Eric Doberman Pinschers), Muriel Laubach (Dau-Han Cocker Spaniels) and Norman Austin (Baliwick Cocker Spaniels). Orthodox thinking at the time usually emphasized sires as the most important element in breeding outstanding animals, but Pat’s mentors prized exceptional dams. These early master breeder teachers found an avid student in the young girl who registered her first litter of Norwegian Elkhounds in 1951, for Pat never kept a male for the next 15 years. Much as she loved her original breed the Cocker Spaniel, when Pat acquired her first Elkhound puppy bitch from prominent bear-hunting stock, she became hooked on the Elkhound. For she and her new best friend soon tromped through the woods together and later ran mile after mile in the rural area of her home in her native Virginia. Here was a natural breed, hardy and energetic, that appealed to her own outdoors lifestyle, and in time the Elkhound started going to the dog shows with Pat’s adult friends and the Cocker Spaniels. According to Pat, understanding the value of the foundation bitch and her subsequent daughters (explained in detail in her book on breeding: Born To Win) is absolutely necessary for breeding success. Because mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed on as a unit, unlike chromosomal DNA, the strength of each bitch in succeeding generations should be emphasized. For although all progeny of a great producing bitch receive the imprint of her own mtDNA, only her daughters are able to pass this particular genetic package on to the next generation. Thus appreciating the value of the brood bitch in general and the foundation bitch in particular is a great asset to the breeder. Pat’s belief that superior brood bitches will in time produce exceptional sons came to fruition in the 1960’s when the breeding program produced three BIS winners in Ch. VinMelca’s Vickssen, Ch. Vin-Melca’s Howdy Rowdy and Ch. VinMelca’s Vagabond. The latter two were out of the same bitch,
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