Clyde the Border Terrier is two points away from becoming Grand Champion. At the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 2021 in Ohio, which took place in June, he and his owner / dog handler Charlotte Wagner took home a merit award and placed in the top six. “If you have a really good dog, you have a champion,” said Wagner. “But if you have a dog that’s the crème de la crème and you say, God, people need to see that dog, Clyde is to me.”
Border Terriers were originally bred in England to follow foxes into their foxholes. “They are a wire-haired, long-legged terrier, which means they are tall,” explained Wagner. “They were designed to follow on horseback. And if the fox hunters go out and the dogs chase the fox, then your foxhound won’t fit in that hole. So what you’re doing is sending a border terrier to kill the fox. The breed standard defines them as ‘hard as nails’. “
Wagner explained that when judges judge Border Terriers, they look for a coarse coat that can withstand blackberries and thorns, elastic skin to shake off fox bites, and a rib cage that is small enough to fit in a foxhole. “Form is function”, says Wagner.
But just because Border Terriers are tough doesn’t mean they’re vicious. “Take a Jack Russell Terrier and everything that you hate and love about a Jack Russell Terrier at the same time. Now take out 50 percent of the asshole and “f-you” and replace it with a yellow lab. Now you have a border terrier. ”
Wagner, a longtime resident of Bean Hollow near Flint Hill, has loved dogs all her life. When she was a little girl, her neighbor Tony Trujillo gave her a book about it. “He had this whole library of dog books … I remember there was this one eyewitness dog book … I loved this book so much that I broke my back. I still have it today, ”she said. “I’ve learned dog breeds by heart. I wanted to know what different dogs can do, country of origin, size, temperament, alternative names for breeds, all these facts and pointers. “
At the age of 13, Wagner trained her first dog and never looked back. She now runs her own business training dogs for companionship, agility, and therapeutic services. And with an animal science background, Wagner is now getting into dog breeding. In a few weeks Clyde will be the proud father of a new litter.
“My goal is good breed preservation and preservation, which means … there may only be one or two puppies that are of the ideal standard. I think this is the biggest misinterpretation by show breeders – they produce excellent quality pets. If they’re lucky, there will be one or two worth moving forward in a breeding program. “
See Wagner and Clyde at the iconic Morris & Essex Kennel Club Dog Show in October 2021.
