Bo Bengtson Memorial

Bo Nils Bengtson (born June 22, 1944, in Sweden) was the son of Nils Ola Bengtson, a civil engineer, and his wife Karin (born Bellander), a nurse. Bo was born while the family lived in Midskogsforsen in the county of Jämtland, but a move south to Stockholm was soon necessitated as his father became involved in developing the metro system there. Bo finished school with the baccalaureate in 1963 and got a Fil. Kand. degree at the University of Stockholm in 1968, majoring in English and Drama.

Bo's two main interests were writing and dogs. He was fortunate in being able to combine the two his whole life. With his younger sister Inga he bought an Afghan Hound puppy in 1959, spent the school holidays in 1961 working at an Afghan kennel in England and had his experiences published in Sweden. In 1961 he also single-handedly imported his first Whippet (soon to be followed by several others) from the famous Laguna kennel, where he later spent two summers in the '60s, also in England. That Whippet, shown by 18-year-old Bo, won Best in Show at the 1963 International show in Stockholm, the most important dog event in Sweden.

At that time Bo started to work for the Swedish Kennel Club magazine, Hundsport; soon he would also work for a national daily newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, and his first dog book, “Familjehunden (The Family Dog)” was published in 1966. His column on pets (not just dogs) was so widely read that it was “bought” by a big afternoon tabloid, Expressen. The editors concocted a plan for readers to talk to the writer, with the result that the phone lines were besieged and temporarily shut down, and with that Bo developed a lasting aversion to telephones!

During the summer of 1967 Bo travelled around North America by Greyhound bus from Nova Scotia to Ensenada. Most of the traveling was non-doggy, but he was shown around the New York offices of the American Kennel Club, visited Annie Clark, the Forsythes and both the Stoney Meadows and Pennyworth Whippet kennels. From June until Christmas, Bo worked at the Srinagar kennels in California, then a large operation with some 100 Salukis and the odd Afghan, Deerhound and Italian Greyhound. He credits the owner, Dr. Winafred Lucas, with instilling in him a strong, lasting love for California.

Back in Sweden, the first Afghan Hound had become a champion and produced two champion sons, one of them owned by Inga. However, in 1970 Inga was killed in a traffic accident, which necessitated putting down her Afghan. Bo moved to a small cottage with a barn outside Stockholm where he lived alone for almost 10 years, bred Whippets (and a couple of Greyhound litters), including some influential champions, attended dog shows, went to England regularly, imported a few more Whippets, and started to judge both in Sweden and overseas. He kept himself and the dogs alive by short-term work — most memorably as a prison guard, a teacher, an extra in movies, a fashion model (!) and a pig-keeper at a big farm; he also worked in a churchyard, which involved some grave-digging, and by his writing, including a book on Sighthounds and an encyclopedia of dog breeds. (Not satisfied with the latter, he sold all rights to the publisher for very little money; it was later translated into many different languages and sold more than 500,000 copies.) He also got a job offer from the American glossy magazine Kennel Review but was not ready to leave Sweden yet. However, in 1977 Bo judged the American Whippet Club specialty, which was then held with Santa Barbara Kennel Club, a wonderful experience that made him seriously consider moving to a warmer climate.

Bo in Sweden 1978.

Around 1978 Bo accepted an offer to become editor for the monthly dog newspaper Hunden in Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. It provided some experience in how to produce a printed newspaper, but didn't last long: After only a couple of years Bo moved to Australia — also appealing and much easier to get into for a foreign immigrant than the U.S. — and started working on their National Dog newspaper. He lived in Sydney for a little more than a year, but the memory of California was too strong, and in January 1981 he moved there. He stayed in America thereafter and even became a U.S. citizen.

A major reason for moving was Paul Lepiane and his offer to make Bo a partner in his small but rapidly growing publishing company, Showdog Publications. This began a both professional and personal relationship that lasted for more than 40 years. Paul had started The Afghan Hound Review in 1974 and made it one of the first really successful breed magazines, a 200-plus-page bi-monthly that met with huge international approval, but he needed help to develop his other magazine, Poodle Variety. Bo was at various times editor for both. In 1984 he also started a third magazine, Sighthound Review, which met with instant success and was soon considered a classic.

Bo Bengtson and Bo Derek presenting BIS trophies at SBKC 1985. Judge Hans Lehtinen and handler Luc Boileau with the winning Pekingese Ch. St. Aubrey Bees Wing of Elsdon.

In the early 1980s Bo judged dog shows in South America, Australia, Japan, Europe and Scandinavia, later also in China and Russia. He judged twice at Crufts in England, twice at Westminster in New York, and big national-specialty shows for a number of breeds. At one point he estimated traveling the equivalent of three times around the globe in a year! Bo preferred to judge his own favorite Sighthound breeds and, when asked to judge the so-called Royal Show in Melbourne in the '80s, caused a minor international incident by refusing to judge breeds he had been assigned but did not feel he was qualified for — and, crucially, had not agreed to judge.

One reason Bo travelled less was that in 1997, together with Paul, he founded the all-breed magazine Dogs in Review. At the time there was a strong need for a monthly dog publication in the U.S. with quality editorials. Many fanciers realized this immediately, but big success did not come until the magazine became glossy and colorful around 2000: some issues had more than 500 pages. Dogs in Review was even available in chain bookstores, an unusual distinction for a dog-sport publication. For a long time Bo and Paul produced two or three magazines per month with a miniscule staff. (Francine Reisman worked for Showdog Publications for about 30 years.) Eventually most of the magazines were sold off, although Bo remained editor for a new owner of Dogs in Review until 2017. (It is no longer published.) Paul sold his last breed magazine, Poodle Variety, in 2019 after having published it continuously for 42 years! Bo bought back rights to Sighthound Review in early 2014 but ceased publication to retire in 2022, focusing for the last couple of years on its most popular breed and re-naming the magazine Whippet Review. He ended what he had started almost 40 years earlier with a 200-page Whippet Review International Annual (2022) and a 250-page Sighthound Review International Annual (2023).

There have also been a couple of influential dog books. In the 1970s Bo was asked to write a Whippet book, and the result was published in the U.K. in 1985 to general acclaim. (One of his favorite memories is walking into a bookstore in London and seeing his book on the shelf!) A second, expanded edition was published in California in 1994 and a third in 2010, titled “The Whippet: An Authoritative Look at the Breed's Past, Present and Future.” The 650-page “Best in Show: The World of Show Dogs and Dog Shows” had already been published in 2008. It was a multi-year project, contained everything Bo knew about the sport worldwide and had approximately 750 illustrations. Both were met with rapturous reviews; the BIS book won a Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association, and the Whippet book sold out. An updated 530-page edition of the latter was published in April 2024.

Finally, since 1961 Bo always owned a couple of Whippets. He did not have a kennel (but a kennel name: Bohem) and over the years bred approximately 45 litters, owning, co-owning or breeding around 150 champions, sometimes co-breeding with other fanciers. He was involved in founding the Swedish Whippet Club and was its first chairman, and later became an active member and officer of the American Whippet Club, which voted to give him the Certificate of Achievement in 1997 and later also its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bo with Annie Clark.

WKC Afghans 1982. Left, Ch. Kabik’s The Challenger with Chris Terrell (BOB) and Australian/Am. Ch. Jacosta Balenciaga with Glorvina Schartz (BOS).

Westminster Kennel Club Afghan Hound BOB 2009, Ch. Polo’s The Aviator.

SBKC Saluki 1979. BOB at the American Saluki Association, Ch. Shams Il J’Balie.

Skokloster (Sweden) Borzoi BIS 1986.

Sweden Peke Specialty 1981.

WKC Italian Greyhound breed winner 1982.

Ravenna Borzoi BOB handled by Dr. Richard Meen 1982.

KR Tournament of Champions Best Breeders Group 1987.

BIS Australian Sighthound Association 1993, Afghan Hound Ch. Aboukir High Priority.

1995 Afghan Hound World Congress (San Diego) Top Twenty Winner Ch. Applause Majic Show. Bo with fellow judges Frank Sabella (US), Pauline Hewitt (Australia) and Andrew Brace (UK).

SBKC Breeders Showcase 2010.

Sweden Flatcoat BIS 1991, Ch. Almanza Larry O’Grady.

One of Bo’s last judging assignments at Lake Garda, Italy, 2022 at The Whippet World Congress and Italian Sighthound Specialty, with fellow judges Iva Kimmelman (US), Thomas Munch (Germany) and Ann Beckett-Bradshaw (UK).