The Gossip Column: January 16, 2026
On the heels of the holiday celebrations with Christmas bells, fireworks, noise makers, more bells have started to chime with the marriage of TRISTEN LAWRENCE to JOHN MILLER. Friends and family gathered on the Caribbean island of Turks and Caicos to witness the destination wedding that brings together well-known pure bred dog families of PATRICE & JEFF LAWRENCE and LISA & HARRY MILLER. Proving that they have more than Great Danes in common. All of us at DOG NEWS send our very best wishes to MR. & MRS. JOHN MILLER for a long and happy marriage. I was disappointed not to attend. It’s always rewarding when your peers recognize your good work, so is the case for professional handler and all around good guy DOUG BELTER who was voted as the handler of the year by the members of the American Kennel Club’s Registered Handlers Program. Well done, DOUG. Last Friday, on January 9th the American Kennel Club finally sent out the final statistics for the calendar year 2025. Filling in the two missing pieces of the seven top dogs in each group. When waxing the poetic about your dog to find that ROVER understands every thing you tell him, there is now proof that dogs and learn and build a vocabulary of that of a toddler. With repetitive requests of a particular toy who you ask by name he responds with fetching the correct toy. They observed that Herding breeds were very receptive to this teaching. Among those that are mentioned are the Miniature Australian Shepherd and Border Collie. This according to DR. SHANY DROR, a researcher at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, who conducted the study at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary. All of us at DOG NEWS were saddened to hear hear that longtime poodle fancier and travel agent to the stars JEFFREY SLATKIN has passed away. Together with his handlers JOSEPH VERGNETTI and the late BUD DICKEY they showed many top winning Poodles and the standout Ch. Dassin Some Buddy. Celebrating Birthdays…the one and only JEAN HETHERINGTON joined by another icon PAT TROTTER, NANCY MARTIN, AMY GREEN, PEGGY HELMING, BILL SAHLOFF, DARYL MARTIN, PENNY DUGAN, MICHAEL WORK, MANDY CARLSON, KAREN BRUNEI, SARAH LAWRENCE, LINDA HOF, JESSICA PLOURDE, CHUCK KROTHE, JOANNE MITTLEMAN, MARCELO VERAS, RHANDA GLENN, SHARON NEWCOMB, SUSAN GILES and PHIL BRIASCO.