Editorial: May 2, 2025

The Road Less Traveled
This weekend, as the road leads us to the Trenton Kennel Club’s venue, my mind is traveling on the road less traveled these days to Tinicum Park and the Bucks County Kennel Club dog show. It was one of those unique bygone shows that managed to attract breeders, exhibitors and bold-face names from around the country. Early morning would find an assembled group of judges, officials, American Kennel Club brass and a handful of wannabes hoping to rub elbow with those better known. As that crowd stood outside the officials tent, meeting and greeting, Dr. Deubler would still be seeing to every detail, as the show was about to begin. She had her fair share of helpers, like Helma Weeks, Stanley Broadbent, Marjorie and Dan Shoemaker, longtime member all-breed judge Virginia Hampton — a status she was proud to tell people — and last but not least the long-gone and never forgotten Foley Boys.

It was one of the great dog-show weekends that started with being house guests of Marjorie and Jim McTernan and/or the Countess Ercilia LeNy and her then companion handler Gunther Behr. If you were staying with Ercilia and Gunther, other houseguests always included Vera and Walter Fletcher. Walter was the dog columnist for The New York Times. A nice man who wrote not only about dog-show results but also profiles about well-known dog fanciers in his weekday column.  He was quite popular, as you could imagine, because who didn't want a profile about themselves and their dogs in The New York Times? One name that always comes to mind when thinking of Bucks was the nicest gentleman in the sport, Ed McGough.

Getting to the show took some concentration, as crossing the extremely narrow Frenchtown bridge was trying at best, and then there was the drive down River Road, which had enough twists and turns to dizzy the best of us. But once you got the park, all that disappeared in a picture-perfect backdrop set behind the rows of tenting. Of course it was an honor to judge Bucks, a sought-after assignment because of the show’s reputation, which drew the top dogs from across the country. One year Best in Show judge Bill Kendrick, who was relaxing in the hospitality motorhome that Doc (Dr. Deubler) had planted in the middle of the show, was waiting for the groups to be judged. On completion of the group judging, Mr. Kendrick refused to exit and judge Best in Show. Why? He didn't like any of the group winners. It did have Doc on tenterhooks for someone so organized to have this occur. Of course, with some coaxing by several friends, he finally appeared and chose his winner. Whether the weather cooperated or not, the beauty of Bucks County — the venue and the gathering of old friends who only got together a few weekends out of the year — brings back fond memories of a past not be repeated. But we still look forward to Bucks and Trenton, and look forward to attending this weekend.