When I graduated from my masters of electrical engineering degree, I’d decided to buy a dog and went through several dog books and fell in love with the looks of a red & white cocker spaniel. The dog in the pictures had nice long hair. After calling for months on every single add on puppies for sale on the news paper in Puerto Rico, and only getting answers that the puppies were either black or ASCOBs, I gave up on finding my so much wanted red & white cocker and decided to get the closest to a R/W. I bought my first cocker, a mismarked ASCOB bitch, in the summer of 1994. She was 6 weeks when I bought her. As she kept getting older I got frustrated since her hair would not grow long. When she was about 5 months, I went to an agricultural fair and there they had a fun match. The ladies showing their dogs had two black and white adult cocker bitches both of them with really nice and long hair. They told me there would be a real dog show at a University basketball court in San Juan. So, I went to my first dog show and saw red & white show cockers for the first time in November 1994. The show was a 3 hour drive from the town I was teaching (At the time, I was teaching two basic Electrical Engineering classes at the University of Puerto Rico). At those shows, I met Joan Amelunxen (AAndant cockers). She was showing several of her red & whites which were grand kids of Ch. Ward’s Winterset and Ch. My-Cyn’s Camelot. They had finished their AKC championship with handlers in the US and they were recently shipped back to the island. Joan was showing them at those shows for their PuertoRican championship. It turned out that Joan Amelunxen lived in the same town as I was teaching in Mayaguez. I had fallen in love with her dogs and started visiting her to see the dogs and learn more about show cockers. She used to tell me so many stories about Cynthia Anderson, Ruth Benhoff, Lloyd Alton and Bill Gorodner, Flavio Werneck, Linda Pitts, Ed McCauley (who handled her dogs through Latin American for some time), Ch. Ging’s Alydar, the Rexpointe line, Ch. Scioto Buff’s Sinbad, Domino, Macho Man, Winterfrost. She gave me an ASC video where Brooklyn Dodger was shown by Jeff Wright on the 6-9 class and winning winner’s dog. She also suggested I went to upcoming shows and to start learning how to handle cockers. So I started showing cockers in 1995 at International shows in Puerto Rico. I bought two male Red/White cockers from Joanie. One of them has been with me through many years and is still my house dog, Jasper.

I met Bill and Cindy Mixon on a business trip to Oregon in 1996 looking to find out about shows in the area that I could attend and watch was been shown here. I contacted them again when I permanently moved to Oregon 1998. Bill and Cindy were very supportive of me and my dogs while I started showing them in the area. They introduced me to Lorinda Goudy, Sharon Gerling and other wonderful cocker people from the Northwest. I stopped showing cockers from 1999 through 2002 while I took a marriage, work and maternity leave. I always kept in contact with the good friends I’d made through the dog show world during the time that I stopped showing.

In 2003, I finally decided I’d been away from the show cocker world too long and asked for Sharon Gerling to put me on her waiting list for a tri-color puppy bitch. In August of that year, she had the perfect puppy bitch for me. After we got home, this tri-color girl, who I called Trinity, started very shy. A few days later she was the master of the house. She had two reserve to majors from the 6-9 class including her first singles. She got her first major under Patricia Trotter, who simply loved her. Mrs. Trotter even complemented on my handling (which I thanked her and felt flattered, but I knew I still had lots to learn). She was pointed out the first week in April 2004 and waited 2 ½ months for that last major. She finished late in June 2004. It was so amazing the feeling of handling my own dog through her championship and finally getting that last major. What a thrill! And most of her points I put on her pregnant with my daughter!! I was 6 months pregnant running around on the ring for that last major.

I was asked to allow Trinity to be seen, so she started a spot campaign with Debbie Swier on the Fall of 2004. Later in 2005, she went on to on a full year campaign with Marie Santos which ended up being very successful. She earned back-to-back Best in Show that year and was the #2 parti cocker and #1 parti bitch on the nation that year based on the all-breed statistics. What an honor to have been selected and trusted by Sharon Gerling to own such an outstanding bitch!

I’ve bred only one litter through my years involved in cockers and that litter is out of Trinity which gave one show prospect, Conquest’s Legend of the West, who was the 2007 ASC Cocker summer National Best in Futurity Winner. In 2007, I've had the pleasure of being at the other end of Trinity's lead for a few shows before she is fully retired. We've had lots of fun and success together in the ring this year.

I’m a member of the American Spaniel Club and of the Fort Vancouver Cocker Spaniel Fanciers.