Kathy in her favorite place-the recliner, with a lapful of Springers.
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Kathy's passion for the sport evolved early in her life. She was very lucky that in her small town, she had a successful breeder of Shetland Sheepdogs just up the road who was more than willing to mentor her in all aspects of the sport. Starting in obedience at a very young age, Kathy added the first Golden Retriever to her tolerant parent's household in 1964. With the support and involvement of her mother, Ellen Reiss, she embarked on a limited breeding program in Goldens, and she finished her first homebred, owner handled Champion in 1971. In 1972 the first Springer was added and as the years went by the focus became more and more on that breed, although together with her mother Kathy bred a number of Golden champions. She also bred and owned Champion Flat-Coated Retrievers and Bouvier des Flandres, and owned a top winning multi BIS Afghan Hound.
Kathy has been active in English Springer Spaniels now for fifty years, producing 81 AKC Champions which include Best In Show, Group, Specialty and Parent Club award winning dogs. She has actively worked in the Parent Club of the breed, serving seven years on the Board, writing the AKC Gazette column on Springers for five years, and chairing the committee that produced the most recent revision to the AKC breed standard. She began her judging career in 1999 and some of the highlights of her AKC judging career include the Puget Sound ESSA Specialty, the GRCA Western Regional Specialty, the ESSA of NSW Specialty show in Sydney, Australia, the 2003 ESSFTA National Specialty and the 2018 ESSCC National Specialty. In February of 2006 Kathy judged at the Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden in NYC and was thrilled when her Best of Breed Golden went on to win the Sporting Group. She has also judged in China, Japan and the Philippines.
Kathy has also worked hard to give back to the sport in the area of education and has created and presented programs on many different breeds, including a number that are in use by Parent Clubs for their National judges education presentations. She is also one of the co-creators and presenters of the extremely popular four day Workshop "Sporting Dog Excellence, An Intimate Look at the Spaniels and Retrievers". For several years she was a regular monthly columnist for the outstanding all breed publication DOGS IN REVIEW.
Kathy's daughter Melanie joined her in the Ocoee breeding program as a full partner in the year 2000. Together they have had many successes and they continue to strive to produce the best representatives of the breed possible.
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