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Heidi Rubin Cohen shares her Westminster journey, from first-time exhibitor to returning 25 years later as an owner-handler.
Heidi Rubin Cohen (Provided by Margaret Foxmoore, Dogs Outside the Ring.)
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Our family’s first Westminster was in 2001, exactly 25 years ago, with our very first dog who was also my husband’s very first pet. Back in the early 1990s I had a grad school classmate in New Jersey whose hope was to someday breed Welsh Springer Spaniels, the breed her husband had hunted over with his grandfather. After graduation, they moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and later acquired a Welshie female named Rose. When they brought her east to visit and compete at the Somerset Hills Kennel Club show, we tagged along to watch. On returning to the house, my husband said something amazing: “If Rose ever has puppies, we want one.” My jaw dropped, because he had never had so much as a goldfish growing up. Well, it was not a real issue, because Rose was not a champion yet. And that is where we left it.
Time passed and our phone rang. Rose had become a Champion and cleared her health tests. After more time, we learned they were searching for a stud dog. More time passed, and we got a third call: Rose had nine puppies; did we still want one? So that was how, in April 1997, a plane landed in Newark, New Jersey, with a crate bearing a Welshie puppy from Anchorage, Alaska! Sam-I-Am was sold to us on a limited registration, with the understanding that it would be changed to a full registration immediately if we decided to try dog shows.
Other than observing that one show, we knew nothing about the sport. A few weeks later, I let my fingers do the walking (remember paper phone books?) and learned that the Trenton Kennel Club held show handling classes nearby. I put my 4-month-old puppy into our sedan with a rolled leather buckle collar, a plain leather pet leash, and a pocketful of Milk-Bone dog biscuits. My new classmates loaned me a nylon collar and lead belonging to a Mastiff! We ran halfway around the ring before my baby puppy decided to lay down and take a nap on the mat while everyone shouted, “Show him the food!”
My husband saw what I was up to, and instantly wanted in on the action. The next thing I knew, we had submitted a full registration. He became Sam’s handler, with me as groomer and assistant. For the next 2-1/2 years, we went to all sorts of dog shows east of the Mississippi; Sam became the breed’s first Alaskan-born champion and we continued in the specials ring. (Later, I took up Agility with him, but that is another story for another day.)
At the end of 2000, we decided that we wanted to go to the “BIG” show, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. We had a champion but nowhere near the record that would score us an invitation, so we needed our entry to be accepted via lottery. At that time, computerized entries were far less common. I took a USPS overnight envelope home and decorated it to the hilt with colorful magic markers and glued-on photos of dogs, hoping to catch the attention of a mailroom clerk at MB-F’s headquarters. We made the cut!
The 2001 show was held entirely at Madison Square Garden. We were so excited to attend that we were in the first group of exhibitors loaded into the first freight elevator, as soon as the doors opened. At that hour, all of the rings in the arena were set up in their full glory, but there was absolutely no one on the green carpet. I was afraid that my husband’s shoes would slide, and so, I sent him into the arena to run back and forth in the aisles and see what would happen. We benched all day and I remember sitting on the edge of my seat at the front of the stadium seating, watching Sam and my husband go around while vendors circulated among the seating areas with champagne for sale. We did not win a ribbon, but we were hooked.
We continued in the sport with hard work, determination, careful puppy selection, and a fair amount of luck. My husband exclusively handled our dogs—all boys—until 2011, when a dog show injury stopped him from handling. Our next three Welshies, all directly related to Sam and to each other, each earned an invite to WKC. Sam’s great-grandnephew, Jack, the breed’s first GCHS, got his golden ticket in 2012. Jack’s GCHG son, Max, was invited in 2016. And Jack’s GCHG grandson, Delta, was invited in 2024, 2025, and now 2026. Through the 2025 show, our boys were professionally handled, first at The Garden when it was undergoing renovations, then at The Piers, then at the Tennis Center, and then back to Javits and MSG as of last year.
Remember I said that I was the person who drove Sam to his first handling class? I did not handle in any ring until Delta arrived in 2019 and I decided it was long past time for me to show my own dog. I completed Delta’s championship in 2020, and the two of us went on to earn his NOHS Bronze level and two invitations to the NOHS Finals before he set off on his professionally handled campaign.
For the 2026 show, Westminster’s 150th Anniversary, it only made sense to us that we should complete the circle and have me make my green carpet debut as Delta’s owner-handler, exactly 25 years after our family’s first trip to The Biggest Show. Fingers crossed!
P.S. Delta and I received the judge’s only Award of Merit!
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