Linda Honey is the breeder behind Rockledge Irish Terriers. Read about the kennel’s beginnings, champions dogs, puppies, photos & more!
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Interview with Linda Honey, Breeder of Rockledge Irish Terriers, by Allan Reznik.
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Linda Honey: Growing up, we lived all over. My father was an engineer. We moved around a lot, but ended up spending a lot of time in High Bridge, New Jersey. Then my father took a job in New York City so we then moved to Packanack Lake, in Northern New Jersey. By then I was in grammar school and we stayed there through my junior year of high school. This is where I really grew up.
My father was transferred to Riverside, California, just before my senior year. I spent my senior year at Riverside High School. Not an easy move as I had been very involved in my New Jersey high school in numerous athletic activities, including being a cheerleader. It was difficult leaving all my high school friends and moving to a school where I did not know anyone. I think that gave me a good perspective on how important friends can be.
After high school, I went on to college at San Diego State University. After graduation, I stayed in San Diego and worked for Sears as a Management Trainee, an incredible job for a female. I was their first female Management Trainee. It was a great job!
I was then transferred to Los Angeles as a comparison shopper—not such a great job. As part of my shopping, I was shopping H&R Block when I decided to take their tax class at night. I fell in love with taxes and took a big drop in pay to work for H&R Block. I worked for them as a manager of three offices in Hollywood for about a year. Not being a great company to consider for a career, I left them.
After that I went to work for Computax, a computerized tax service. I worked there for a good 10 years where I acquired an incredible education in taxes. I started out implementing new states into the system. Although I was the analyst, I still had to learn how to read the programmer’s code. I was eventually put in charge of departments and then in charge of the out-of-state programs. It was an incredible learning experience.
Eventually, in 1986, I went out on my own and started my own income tax business. The best decision I ever made! I just retired two years ago after a wonderful 30-plus years of running my own business. I so enjoyed my job and developed incredible friendships with my clients.
Linda Honey: My family did not start out being a really doggy family. My parents bought an Irish Terrier, “Patsy,” from a pet shop before I was born. She had been abused and was a bit shy but was wonderful with her family of five. I am the youngest of three children and was always very involved with the dogs. Patsy had a long, happy life. When she was at least 16 years of age, my parents had to have her put down because of all her health issues. I was only about 12 or 13 at the time. I just remember my parents putting us all in the car and, as we were driving, they told us that Patsy had to be put down and that we were on our way to get our new Irish Terrier puppy.
The way my parents handled that is something I have always admired. We channeled all of our sad emotions into happy emotions for this wonderful new puppy, “Sherry.” She was delightful and we fully enjoyed our new little friend. This is where I remember that she eventually slept on my bed. We were still living in New Jersey, so when it got too cold at night she would scratch at the covers and I would lift them up so that she could sleep under the covers.
As Sherry grew up, my brother, Chat, asked if we could have puppies. My parents went along with that. I am not sure how they went about finding a stud but we ended up meeting Joyce Wilson and Nancy Parks. They had the stud dog and Sherry was bred to him. My brother was 17 at the time and he even built the wooden whelping box. He and my father were very handy. All the Rockledge puppies were born in this box. I still use it today, it is a treasure! It has had to be re-worked a bit, but it is still in working order.
We ended up keeping a puppy, Rockledge’s Rowdy Siobhan. She was our first show dog. This was the beginning of “Rockledge Irish Terriers.” We lived on Rockledge Terrace in Packanack Lake, New Jersey. My brother and I took turns showing her in Junior Showmanship. He really did most of the training. She was so well-trained that once stacked, she would not move. She was known to fall asleep in that show stance. I remember a judge not giving me an award because she was not animated enough like an Irish Terrier should be. She had actually fallen asleep and would not move.
When I was 16, I showed her in Junior Showmanship at Westminster. I did not win, but it was definitely an incredible experience, even though I probably did not realize what a big deal it was at the time. Apparently, I had the entry form with me and left before the required benched time was over, so my mother had a very unpleasant time getting Siobhan out of the Garden. We laughed about it often.
Linda Honey: My mother stayed close to Joyce Wilson and Martha Hall. Martha Hall was very famous with her Ahtram line. Ahtram is Martha spelled backwards. Martha had a very extensive kennel and was able to breed many famous Irish Terriers. Martha Hall would work with those who would listen to her, which my mother did. They became very good friends.
We moved to Riverside, California, in 1961. My father was already out there, so my mother drove us out from New Jersey; my mother, two children, and two Irish Terriers. I remember driving through Yosemite in our Ford Thunderbird convertible. When we drove near some bears, the dogs started barking at them. My mother had us hold them down on the floor of the car to keep them quiet. She was so afraid the bears would attack the car with the barking dogs.
By the time we got to Riverside, my mother had become very close to Martha Hall. They concluded that we should start over with the breeding program. Because Martha had an extensive kennel, she sent my mother good breeding stock, not necessarily show dogs. She sent out Ch. Ahtram Bonus, the son of Martha’s famous Ch. Ahtram Legacy. His ears had not been glued, but he had an incredible pedigree.
Another was Kilvara O’Cally of Rockledge, sired by Jeremiah J O’Callaghan out of Rockledge’s Goss, bred by Leonard J. Goss. These dogs were the beginning of the Rockledge line. My mother had three male Irish Terriers in her house at one time. We have never had a kennel and our dogs have always been house dogs, so it was very difficult to juggle the dogs. I do remember growing up reading pedigrees at the kitchen table. I was always very involved with the dogs, even when I was away at college.
At this time, my mother got with Ric Chashoudian who showed Ch. Rockledge’s Goss. Both Wood Wornall and Chris Wornall were working for Ric at the time and they were not yet married. Goss had one ear that was not quite right and was never able to do much in the Group ring. That gave me the drive to learn how to glue ears properly to make sure the ears were correct. When I got my first dog, I drove to May Pridum’s house in the Valley every weekend where she trained me on how to glue ears. She was a wonderful teacher. From then on, I glued all the ears of the Rockledge dogs.
In 1972, my mother bred Goss to Kilvara O’Cally. There was a puppy that I had to have, so I bought my first house. I named her Rockledge’s Siobhan O’Goss. She was my foundation bitch. I took Ahtram Bonus to my house with Siobhan, which helped to ease the chaos at my parents’ house. Ric Chashoudian saw Siobhan and wanted to take her back to Montgomery. I thought she would be going as a class dog, so, of course, I said yes.
Ric finished her rather quickly, so she ended up going to Montgomery as a special. I was sure I was throwing $200 right out the window. She ended up going Best of Opposite Sex four days in a row. This is when my mother and I realized that our breeding program was going well. Before that, we did not think we would be able to compete with the East Coast dogs.
In California, my mother became extremely good friends with Jeanene MacDonald. She bought her first Irish Terrier from my mother and joined us in our passion for the breed. Jeanene’s kennel name was Mullaghboy. Jeanene was an incredible student of the Irish Terrier standard. The three of us talked dogs and pedigrees on a constant basis. Many late nights were spent on the phone, talking dogs. We all considered Rockledge and Mullaghboy part of the same line. I have such great memories of those days. We all learned so much from each other. Joyce Wilson was also a part of these learning sessions. She lived on the East Coast, but she would spend a couple of weeks every year visiting us in California. We all bred dogs together.
I bred my first litter in 1975. We ended up with a singleton puppy, which is always difficult. They do much better when they have littermates to play with daily. “Murgatroyd” went to a friend of ours who was willing to show. This was right at the time when Woody had left Ric Chashoudian to go out on his own. Murgatroyd was not the easiest to show, so my mother and I decided to go with Woody as our handler. This was the beginning of a long and rewarding team, working with the Wornalls.
Woody always went over every litter. He and Chris, his wife, were incredible at evaluating puppies. I can’t tell you how much I learned from these evaluations. My mother, Jeanene, and I would always try to be present for the evaluations of each of our litters. Woody was always brutally honest, which was invaluable to all of us learning more about what direction we needed to go to breed better dogs. I give Woody a lot of credit for the success we have achieved. Of course, we do get credit for listening. People who can’t listen can’t learn. I will never stop learning because you can never know enough. I have seen so many new people get into the breed and suddenly they know more than the rest of us. They don’t last a long time.
I was with Woody until he retired and his daughter, Jenny, took over the business. She did a beautiful job of grooming and showing the dogs, but she chose to stop showing dogs and we both decided that I should change to Gabriel Rangel as my handler. Gabriel is such a class act! He and his wife, Ivonne, are probably two of the kindest people I have met and they are so kind with the dogs. My current dog just worships Gabriel. He is one of the few handlers who can get into the dog’s head. Gabriel is a remarkable dog handler. I am so pleased to be with him now. And, I have learned even more with Gabriel. We have had the opportunity to mentor prospective judges and it has been so informative.
In 2003, Jeanne Smolley called me because she was looking for an Irish Terrier. She had been quite a breeder of Norwegian Elkhounds and wanted to downsize. I did not have any puppies at the time but a good friend of hers in Arizona had a litter, so she got one from her. She lives just 15 minutes from here. I glued her dog’s ears and when I told her I was going out to Woody’s, she asked if she could tag along.
I was so excited to have her join me and came to find out that she is quite the dog aficionado. After losing my mother and Jeanene, I really missed having someone to talk dogs with. She is still a great friend and we continue to go to dog shows together. I have learned a lot from her and it is so nice to have someone to talk pedigrees and breeding with.
In 2013, while we were at the Montgomery weekend, we met Eduardo Fugiwara and Sean Mansfield. They asked if we would be their mentors and, of course, we said yes. I am always pleased to mentor others if they choose to listen. They were very serious about learning more about the breed from the ground up.
They came out to California in 2014 for the Great Western Terrier shows. They came for a good week and stayed at my house after the shows. We spent hours at my dining room table studying pedigrees. They are incredible students and were quick studies. We have become very dear friends. We are now working together, sharing dogs and frozen semen. I am very proud of them and their breeding program. They are breeding beautiful Irish Terriers. They will be carrying on the Rockledge name with my blessing.
Linda Honey: We have always used linebreeding, which means the pedigree is of utmost importance. As previously mentioned, I grew up reading pedigrees, analyzing and planning how the pedigrees of different dogs would work together.
I hear a lot of people talking about how they linebreed, but they are really paying more attention to phenotype as opposed to pedigrees. Phenotype is breeding to another dog in hopes of replicating a desired characteristic. In my opinion, that is just taking a chance on what you might get. There needs to be a plan and a reason for each and every breeding. Because neither my mother nor I have ever had a kennel, all of our dogs have been house dogs. We have never had the ability to just experiment. All of our breedings have been carefully planned. I have spent hours planning breedings. It is good to plan a few generations ahead if at all possible.
The importance of the brood bitch cannot be over-emphasized! They mean everything. I have been very blessed to have had some wonderful bitches that have produced lovely puppies. You can have the best stud ever, but without a good bitch you are not likely to get what you want.
You can’t keep linebreeding without “going out” now and then. I have been blessed by knowing Gertrud and Thomas Hagstrom from Sweden. They breed beautiful Irish Terriers. Their foundation dog was a descendant of our famous Mick Michael. In 2005, they sent their dog “Edwin” (Ch Merrymac X-tra Special Edition) out to me to use for breeding. That was a spectacular outcross. My mother always said that once you do an outcross, you have to come back hard into your line. I have adhered to that philosophy and it has worked well for me. Even though I have tried to stay away from having puppies during tax season, I felt obligated to breed him to “Meg” when she came into season.
The puppies were born in December, so I ended up taking them into the office every day so that they would be well-socialized. It was well worth it.
One of the most difficult things to do is to see the faults in your own dogs. It has taken a lot of time, but I think I have become my own worst critic. Of course, Woody did this for me at the beginning and taught me how important it is to find your own dog’s faults so that you can work toward correcting them.
One of the most difficult things to do is to see the faults in your own dogs. It has taken a lot of time, but I think I have become my own worst critic.
Linda Honey: Neither my mother nor I have ever had a kennel, so all of our dogs are house dogs. In my house, once they are old enough and can be trusted in the house, they sleep on my bed. I do have a nice large yard and they have their own dog door. I also have a good-sized puppy pen on the side of the house. It is basically a cage where the chain link goes into the ground, and it has a top. We have coyotes in the area, so the puppies are completely protected.
The older dogs are fine because the coyotes don’t go after dogs of their own size. I have always worked long hours during tax season, so they are pretty independent. They have always had access to the house and bed when I was away at work. I have also had at least two dogs, so they have company. I’ve always said that it’s their house and they let me sleep there! I just retired a couple of years ago, so I no longer work the long hours. I think they enjoy having me around more.
Having three dogs is something I don’t mind, but more than that gets to be too much. With Irish Terriers, you cannot have more than one male, so I usually have two breedable bitches and a dog. Currently, I have two bitches and two very young puppies, a boy and a girl. I also have a show dog that lives with Gabriel Rangel. When he is finished with his show career, I will find him a very special home. The retired show dogs make magnificent house dogs.
I also move the bitches along after they are finished having puppies. This is always very difficult for me, but I do find wonderful families for them. I really think this is far better than keeping too many house dogs where they don’t get enough individual attention. When you re-home a dog at six years of age, they are very placeable.
Working with Eduardo and Sean has exponentially increased the number of Irish Terriers that are part of the breeding program. Eduardo and Sean have one dog and five bitches at home. They co-own two bitches and three dogs that live with co-owners, all bred by the three of us.
Today there are five Rockledge male specials actively showing, and seven bitches that we co-own and are part of my breeding stock.
As I mentioned before, Eduardo and Sean have done an excellent job developing new show homes.
Ch. Rockledge’s Siobhan O’Goss is the dog I bought a house for so that I could have her, and that was an incredibly good decision. I could not have started with a better foundation bitch. She gave me Ch. Rockledge’s Mr. Morgan. Mind you, the father was Ch. Ahtram Bonus who came from Martha Hall. Then, when Mr. Morgan was bred to my mother’s Ch. Rockledge’s Norah Ann, a very special bitch, they produced Ch. Rockledge’s Mick Michael. This was Woody’s very first extremely successful dog. I think that even today, he says Mick Michael was one of his favorite dogs of all time.
The repeat breeding of Mr. Morgan and Norah Ann produced Ch. Rockledge’s Bro Brendan and Ch. The Irishman’s Mr. Rockledge. This was an exciting time when the three boys would meet at Montgomery and Westminster. People would come from afar to watch the boys compete. One judge had the three of them come from three sides of the ring to meet at the center. They could not get too close because they had no time for each other—typical Irish boys! Woody showed Mick Michael, Ric Chashoudian showed The Irishman’s Mr. Rockledge, and Bob Clyde showed Bro Brendan. It was always quite a show!
My next important dog was Ch. Rockledge’s Mick of Meath. The mother was Ch. Glennkelly Maeve O’Rockledge bred to Jeanene’s Ch. Mullaghboy Colin Murphy. He had a great career. Woody was showing Billy the Kid, a top-winning Welsh Terrier, so Mick was second call. Andrew Peel ended up showing Mick most of the time, which was wonderful for Andrew. Mick and Andrew were a great team.
The climax was Montgomery County in 1998. Woody could not take Billy the Kid to Montgomery, so he showed Mick. After winning the National Specialty, Woody showed Mick in the Group and he went on to win Best in Show. It was nothing I ever thought was possible, but the stars aligned and it happened. What an incredible day! I just wish my mother could have been there to see it. She passed away in February of that year, after my father had passed away in October of the prior year. Hopefully they were up there watching. They would have been so proud.
In 2002, Hildreth Hunter bred Ch. Mullaghboy Annie Moore (that she got from Jeanene) to Ch. Rockledge’s Mick of Meath and produced Ch. Falcarragh Meg O’Rockledge, my next important show bitch to then become an important brood bitch. Meg had a great show career, particularly for a bitch. She was the one bred to “Edwin” who had come over from Sweden. We called the puppies “Megwins.” They produced eight champions, one of which was Ch. Rockledge’s Marco of Meath.
“Marco” went to Sweden in exchange for them letting me use Edwin for breeding. He got his American championship in three days at the Montgomery weekend and an Award of Merit at Montgomery when he was moved up. He got his Swedish championship while in Sweden. Luckily, I collected from him before he left because he has produced some very beautiful Irish Terriers. He is the father of my current puppies.
Sticking to my mother’s words, when you have an outcross, go back strongly into your line. I did this by using Marco’s sister, Ch. Rockledge X-Tra Special Eadaoin, bred to a strong Rockledge line-bred dog, Ch. Rockledge’s M Fitzsimmons. This produced GCHG Rockledge McCallen of Meath, the first Irish Terrier to achieve his Gold Grand championship. He has produced some beautiful champions, including my current brood bitch, Ch. Rockledge Michaelene of Meath.
“McCallen’s” sister, Ch. Rockledge McKayla of Meath, has also been a very prolific producer. Eduardo and Sean had been waiting for two years for their foundation bitch when McKayla came into season right before tax season. We agreed to send McKayla to them in Florida along with frozen semen from Ch. Mullaghboy Colin Murphy that I had inherited from Jeanene MacDonald. They produced a litter that included GCHG Rockledge Mr. Murphy of Meath, our second Gold Grand champion. This also gave Eduardo and Sean their foundation bitch, Ch. Rockledge Tribute to Mullaghboy. She has been a very good producer.
Recently, I bred McCallen’s daughter, “Michaelene,” to Mr. Murphy which produced my current show dog, GCHB Rockledge McTavish of Meath. I am very pleased with him, and Gabriel Rangel is currently showing him as a special. I feel that he is better than his father.
Recently, the Hagstroms from Sweden used their 30-year-old frozen semen from their foundation dog, “Magic” (Tralee’s Hurricane Kid), to breed to one of their very best bitches, “Zinnia” (Ch. Merrymac Zinnia of Gold Again). Magic has a lot of Rockledge Mick Michael in his pedigree. I was offered a dog from that breeding, Merrymac Hurricane Hawker. I used him with Michaelene and got very good puppies and I kept one of the bitches that will become my next brood bitch. He definitely added some very good quality to my breeding program.
Linda Honey: The Irish Terrier standard states, “The Irish Terrier must be neither ‘cobby’ nor ‘cloddy,’ but should be built on lines of speed with a graceful, racing outline.” It further states, “The body should be moderately long. The short back is not characteristic of the Irish Terrier, and is extremely objectionable.” I am hoping we are getting judges educated to the fact that Irish Terriers are not a generic Terrier. Irish Terriers should be longer than tall, and definitely not square. “Racy, rectangular and red” should characterize an Irish Terrier.
The Irish Terrier standard states, “The Irish Terrier must be neither ‘cobby’ nor ‘cloddy,’ but should be built on lines of speed with a graceful, racing outline.” It further states, “The body should be moderately long. The short back is not characteristic of the Irish Terrier, and is extremely objectionable.” I am hoping we are getting judges educated to the fact that Irish Terriers are not a generic Terrier.
Irish Terriers are not a “generic” Terrier, and most definitely, the generic term “Terrier Front” does not apply to the Irish. As a farm dog they were created to be out all day, so a sound dog is essential. That being said, a well-laidback shoulder and the presence of a prosternum are consequences of a nice length of upper arm (humerus), the exact opposite of a “Terrier Front” (what occurs with the presence of a short upper arm).
As our standard states, “The over-all appearance of the Irish Terrier is important. In conformation he must be more than a sum of his parts. He must be all-of-a piece, a balanced vital picture of symmetry, proportion and harmony.” Our focus has always been to breed well-balanced Irish Terriers which move beautifully, with an easy and fluid movement.
Because we are getting more responsible breeders who are breeding to the standard, we are hopefully moving the breed in the right direction.
Linda Honey: I think we are all looking for the answer to this. We are very blessed in Southern California because we have a club member who does mobile grooming. This has been wonderful for new puppy owners because they have a good way to get them groomed.
Eduardo Fugiwara and Sean Mansfield have been doing well, finding some homes with junior handlers. That’s so special when you can find these kinds of families. This will be the future of our sport.
One of the advantages of working as a team is that we have members with different skills and abilities. This has been a big asset in finding and developing new show homes. I live in Southern California and Sean and Eduardo live in Southern New Jersey, so we have both coasts covered.
One of the advantages of working as a team is that we have members with different skills and abilities. This has been a big asset in finding and developing new show homes. I live in Southern California and Sean and Eduardo live in Southern New Jersey, so we have both coasts covered.
Eduardo and Sean made the decision to have Eduardo retire early to dedicate full-time attention to our breeding program and to become more involved with our sport in many ways.
Eduardo is an AKC delegate and an elected member of the “All-Breed Club Committee.” His contributions here have helped to create changes which allow small clubs more options that enable them to have more profitable shows.
Eduardo’s involvement in the All-Breed Club Committee sparked his interest in getting involved with junior handlers and 4-H. He is a volunteer instructor, working with 4-H not only in the handling but also trying to develop the interest in animal husbandry in his juniors.
Eduardo and Sean have been instrumental in finding show homes for Rockledge dogs. In the past 12 months they have six first-time show dog families started. They run weekly grooming sessions with their new owners and help them to find handling classes in their area. Eduardo and Sean make sure the newcomers are never alone at the shows. They are establishing a network with their friends in the fancy so that newcomers have the welcoming support needed to start.
Eduardo is an active show chair and a former cluster chair.
Linda Honey: I am very excited about the future of Rockledge Irish Terriers. With the addition of Eduardo Fugiwara and Sean Mansfield we are expanding the breeding program. They are breeding some lovely dogs.
Over the years, I have collected from my best dogs and have built up a nice collection of frozen semen. Eduardo, Sean, and I have been taking advantage of this great resource. Eduardo and Sean will be able to take advantage of this asset long after I am gone. Rockledge has a long future ahead.
I am still very involved in breeding. I currently have two puppies that I am very high on. They came from frozen semen.
As I mentioned earlier, I think the brood bitch is extremely important. So, I am always looking ahead for my next one. This is the last litter for my current brood bitch, Michaelene. She is six years old and my mother taught me that it is dangerous to have litters after that age, and I totally agree. I have a young bitch from Michaelene and “Hawker.” I am very pleased to have her as my next in line. She is two years old. Then one of my current puppies is two years behind, and I think she will make another great brood bitch. They both have wonderful pedigrees.
In the past two years, we have placed 10 Rockledge dogs in show homes. All of them are working together to create a synergy to secure the future of the Irish Terrier and the Rockledge legacy.
Linda Honey: I owned my own tax and financial business for the past 30-plus years. This was a very demanding business and, during tax season, consumed 12 to 14 hours a day. Work has always been a big priority for me.
The dogs were my highest priority after work. I have always had a real passion for Irish Terriers. Because of the high demands of my job, I have always used a professional handler to show my dogs. I have been blessed with the best handlers who have always treated my dogs with extreme care.
Over the years, I have acquired many dear friends in the dog world. I really enjoy weekends away for dog shows. We always have friends to party with. I especially enjoy our Montgomery weekends in Pennsylvania. It is great to see all of our friends.
My work and dogs have pretty well consumed my world, but I have always enjoyed entertaining and gardening. The gardening has had to take a backseat because of the current lack of water in Southern California. I will always enjoy entertaining with friends.
Interview with Linda Honey, Breeder of Rockledge Irish Terriers, by Allan Reznik.
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