Granby Family Looking Forward to Dog Day at Westminster

The Longley family is putting their money on Wonka in the 136th Westminster Dog Show, hoping the 4-year-old Tibetan spaniel will prove to be their “Golden Ticket.”

freshman Colleen Longley is going to be the handler for Wonka in the non-sporting group of the 136th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Feb. 13.

It is the second appearance by Wonka, who took home the non-sporting group’s Award of Merit - essentially second place in the group - from last year’s show. The Longley family is hoping that a change in handlers - Chrys Longley, Colleen’s mother, served as Wonka’s handler in 2011 – will give them the edge they need to help make Wonka, who goes by the show name Grand Champion Lagniappe s I’ve Got a Golden Ticket, Best in Show this year.

While Wonka is more attached to Chrys - the Longleys bred and raised Wonka themselves - she said that at just 14-years-old, Colleen is the better handler of the two.

“There’s an art to showing dogs. I can learn it, but [Colleen] is a natural,” Chrys Longley said, noting that Colleen has been handling dogs in the ring since she was just 5-years-old. “Between the leash and the dog and her hand, she knows exactly what the dog’s next move is going to be.”

Chrys Longley said her first experience, with the family’s first Tibetan spaniel, was an interesting one. She was thrown into the ring and thought to herself, ‘I can do this.’ When she put the dog on the table, however, Longley recalls how she proceeded to stretch it like a German shepherd and causing the judges to pause in their assessments.

“To this day, the judge does not let me forget it. He’s actually one of our best judges and he loves our dog, but he loves [Colleen]. When he sees me showing, he says give it to the kid, she does a better job than you. I had the dogs stretched so far, he was almost laying down on the table,” she said. “Every thing you do, the judge is watching,” Colleen said. “How you put your hands, how you move your dog onto a table.”

In addition to stacking Wonka, Colleen Longley will be charged with showing off her dog’s gait for the judge.

The entire process is something that Colleen, who has handled at hundreds of dog shows, loves to do.

“Part of the fun is knowing you have a good dog and everyone is watching you,” Colleen said. “I love dogs It’s fun to win, but it’s just fun to compete. I want a career when I get older, but I don’t want to give up dog showing.”

Unlike other dog owners, the Longley’s refuse to spend money to garner added attention to Wonka, a practice used by some of the other show enthusiasts. Instead, they want Wonka to be seen for the beautiful spaniel he is.

Chrys said that she knows of one person who spent $250,000 taking out ads in specialty magazines to promote her dog for Westminster last year. That woman didn’t win the competition, despite her efforts, and such tales of excess are commonplace.

“I think the politicking gets to be annoying after a while,” Chrys said. “We find sometimes judges owe people something. The dog has won certain award because the judge owes the breeder.”

Still, despite the monetary disadvantages, there is one more thing working in Wonka’s favor – there are just 14 Tibetan spaniels entered at Westminster this year, down from 24 a year ago.

Never in their wildest imaginations did the Longleys believe that they would end up in America’s premier dog show when they first entered the ring 12 years ago.

“We never thought we’d get this far,” said Chrys, noting that the family owns 10 adult dogs and just welcomed five puppies into the world a few weeks ago.

To be in such rarefied air has its perks. Last year, Chrys got a makeover courtesy of the Rachel Ray Show, appearing just one day after Wonka was shown. She also appeared on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams for exclaiming that “It’s like winning the Academy Award” when the judge called her and Wonka out for the Award of Merit.

“It was unbelievable,” Chrys said. “I couldn’t breath. When the judge pointed at me, I was like, ‘Really? Me? Him? Us? And the dog knew. They know. As soon as they get pulled out of the line, they just know.”

It’s that level of cognizance that the dog has that leads Chrys to try and dispel the notion that the dogs are there against their wills.

“That’s just so not true,” Chrys said. “When we take Wonka out for a show, Chatter [another Tibetan spaniel the Longley’s own and show] howls in the kennel and screams. She won’t talk to Colleen for days. They know…you can see the look in their eyes in the ring and they’re not on. We see people do that to dogs, we don’t. We would never force a dog to do this.”

And if the Longley’s have proved anything, it’s that not everyone who participates in showing dogs is as eccentric as the protagonists in the classic comedy movie “Best in Show.”

Not that the culture isn’t steeped in its fair share of, ahem, different people.

“We have one woman wears panty hose with trolls, except she looks like a human one, with the same color orange hair,” Chrys said. “There’s definitely some eccentricity.”

There’s also the woman who fashioned a suit out of Scooby Doo flannel pajamas, and the bearded gentleman who showed a Cairn terrier - the same as Toto - dressed like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.

But there are also a number of celebrities too, like Bill Cosby, Patty Hearst and Jane Bright from the television show Survivor, who was billed as a goat farmer, but is also one of the top breeders of Shelties in the country.

Despite the high-profile arena, Colleen, who showed Chatter in the juniors group last year at Westminster, said that she is looking forward to the experience this year.

“I’m not really nervous because I’ve been there before,” Colleen said. “It’s just fun, mostly.”

Wonka has the enviable problem of being a little skinny, so he’s been happily eating away, getting bathed and generally fawned over for the last month or so. It’s all part of the training.

The family’s favorite part of the show isn’t the awards, the attention or even showing their prized pets off. Instead, they are just happy to be doing something as a family.

“One of the things I love is we spend time together every week,” Chrys said. “And in this day of electronics, families don’t do things together any more. They’re in the same space, but they’re not accomplishing a task together.”

For more information on the Longley's breeding Lagniappe Tibetan spaniels, visit www.lagniappetibbies.com or visit their Facebook page.