Steven Hamblin – Breeder Interview by Allan Reznik

Steven Hamblin – Breeder Interview by Allan Reznik

Where did you grow up?

Steven Hamblin: I was born in Stockton, in Central California. My parents had a horse ranch on Bethel Island. They had had a full career as Pentecostal evangelists before I was born, then they settled down outside of San Francisco because they became the pastors of a church in Antioch. In the late 1970s, we moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where I completed my education through high school before going off to college in Vermont (where I was a double major in Theatrical Directing & Performance and Classical Chinese Literature and Language).

Do you come from a doggie family? And, if not, how did the interest in breeding and showing purebred dogs begin?

Steven Hamblin: My parents loved dogs, but we were not a dog show family. My mother had Miniature Poodles and my father loved his Sheltie. I was dog crazy as a child. I drove my parents nuts asking for a dog. They created plenty of hoops for me to jump through—to avoid adding more responsibility to the household, I’m sure! To bide time waiting for them to say “yes,” I studied up and dreamed about what breed would be my ideal. The longer the wait time for my parents to acquiesce, the more time I had to “find a new favorite breed.” When Klamath Dog Fanciers held its annual show, I would ride my bike to Kiger Stadium or the County Fairgrounds and wander around to see all the dogs. I didn’t get my first show Pekingese until 2011—and, even then, I only started showing because the dog came with a contract that said I had to complete his championship title.

Who were your mentors in the sport? Please elaborate on their significance.

Steven Hamblin: My mentor has been Pam Winters. We met only because I was looking for a pet Pekingese and she responded to my inquiry. After lots of conversations and meetings in person, she finally said that my aesthetic ideal was really a show-quality Pekingese, and she networked to help me find something. What finally manifested for me was an exquisite, small red boy that I got from Cody Koch (also a mentee of Pam’s) out of Windemere (Joy Thoms’) stock. Pam walked me through pedigrees, talked to me about historical and influential examples of the breed, and taught me how to groom, handle, and show. She would take me hands-on over every Pekingese that someone would let me examine. We would discuss what we saw and felt, and then we would talk about the pedigrees of those dogs so that I could understand what characteristics could have come from their ancestry.

It was an extraordinary experience to physically understand this marvelous and bewildering little breed. And this was all happening before I ever had my own show dog. When Windemere’s Call Me Deacon At Pevyne came into my life, I had already been cultivating an understanding of what made for an excellent Pekingese. By the time I walked “Deacon” into a ring, Pam had taught me how to pace my walking so that the speed maximized the “roll” of the dog; and how best to present my dog in the ring, from initial entry through stack on the ground and up on the table. Every dog will have strengths and opportunities, and Pam taught me how to discern the differences between the two so that I could maximize the dog’s best traits in front of a judge.

In addition to Pam, I was very close to Jackie Ragland. Jackie was a striking, elegant, red-headed woman with a commanding presence. She had been specialing a vibrant red Pekingese for a couple of years before I started showing, and she and that dog made a beautiful pair when they walked into a ring. Jackie started in dogs by taking a Pekingese through Obedience (can you imagine?!). She could be tough on how a dog was expected to perform in a ring. She taught me why and how to free-stack. She also taught me how to present myself and the dog, to showcase the dog while looking good in the ring. To this day, the visualization in my head when I walk a dog around a ring is of a dapper man taking his regal dog for a stroll in the park.

Briefly tell us about your active years breeding and showing Pekingese.

Steven Hamblin: My initial conversations with Pam were what made me realize that I liked the idea of breeding. I was fascinated by the selection of sire and dam, and the potential of what you could get out of the right pedigrees and the right type. I always liked small
Pekingese—which were not fashionable at the time. Breeding gave me an opportunity to produce what I liked because I really couldn’t find it anyplace else. The first challenge for me was that I don’t like placing puppies. I’m inclined to keep them! Also, I never had a dog in a litter—I only ever got bitches. I think I was the only breeder at the time who was consistently having litters of all bitches. Bitches are not easy to finish in Pekingese. You’re constantly fighting to chase points while they’re in coat, or working through the cycles when they’re out of coat so that you can get them back in a ring as soon as they’re ready. Add in the timing of when you want them to whelp a litter, and it’s a very challenging cycle. I was blessed with some exquisite bitches that completed their championships and grand championships in very little showing. But I never had anything to special.

I also was living in a condominium in a city where there were restrictions on the number of dogs you could have in your home (regulated by both the HOA and the City). It was not an optimal environment in which to pursue an active and vibrant breeding program. I had exceeded the number of dogs I was “supposed” to have in my home and had to back away from producing more. Once I was elected to the AKC Board, the ability to breed became very difficult. The travel schedule is quite intense between Board meetings, Delegate meetings, and being active in the field to be present at events.

Did you always believe it was important to be an active dog club member? In what breed and all-breed clubs do you participate, in addition to your AKC responsibilities?

Steven Hamblin: My first club was my local specialty club, the Pacific Coast Pekingese Club, in Los Angeles. PCPC is one of the few local specialty clubs remaining that is a member club of the AKC, having joined in 1917 after being founded by some influential local exhibitors in 1916. Because I hadn’t been in Pekingese long enough, I couldn’t join the parent club early on, but I did join the national group of fanciers, the Pekingese Association (now recognized by the AKC as the Pekingese Association of New York). By 2013, I had become the Delegate for PCPC, and at my first Delegate meeting I met David Powers who invited me to become a member of the Los Encinos Kennel Club in Los Angeles. LEKC was my first all-breed club. Then I joined the Pekingese Club of America, followed by Morris & Essex, and finally the Santa Barbara Kennel Club.

I learned different things from each of those clubs about the value and importance of being a member. First and foremost, I was taught the value of giving back: you volunteer time to your club to put on shows and to reach out to the public. The needs of a local specialty club are dramatically different from those of a national parent club, and an all-breed club has different needs than a specialty club does. I am a richer person for experiencing and supporting these different clubs. I’ve served on their boards, served as an assistant show chair and a show chair, and volunteered time at shows as a ring steward or wherever else I was needed. None of these clubs can survive without active members volunteering time and mindshare. It seems that every club has the same five people doing every job—and I admire every one of them for giving so selflessly.

The sport has changed greatly since you first began as a breeder and exhibitor. What are your thoughts on the state of the fancy and the declining number of breeders? How do we encourage newcomers to join us and remain in the sport?

Steven Hamblin: I started after the financial crisis of 2009, so things had already dramatically changed for breeders and exhibitors. Additionally, I chose to be in a breed that was not as popular as it had been even 10 years before, so my experiences have always been about what it’s like to push a snowball uphill on a hot day. There are many things we need to do to right this ship, and I could give you pages of my ideas of the things we need to address. But the short version is that we need two key things: to be more welcoming in general, and to persuade a younger demographic to think that dog sports are cool. People love the idea that they can spend time with their dogs—that’s why companion and performance events (Agility, Rally, Fast CAT, Scent Work, etc.) are all seeing solid participation. People enjoy having fun with their dogs while watching their dog do things the dog loves to do! Conformation is a hard sell for many today because they don’t understand it, and it requires more prep work than many people are willing to give time to. Those of us who participate need to invite these people in and demystify the process so that Conformation events aren’t bewildering, boring, or inaccessible. Part of getting them in is being welcoming when we encounter people at shows.

There are polite ways to engage people if you’re preparing your dog to go into the ring, and it can be as simple as inviting them to come back after you’ve shown for a longer conversation and a chance to meet your dog. Early on, I had a professional handler say horrible things to me before I even got my dog out to groom. I almost packed up and went back to my car—and would never have come back to a show again. Neither that handler nor I ever dreamed that someday I would be elected to the AKC Board of Directors, serve as Treasurer for the AKC Canine Health Foundation, nor be President of the Pekingese Club of America. In hindsight, I understand that some of the bad experiences I had were nothing more than competitors who were trying to knock out the competition. But none of us benefit from less competition. More competition brings more points and the possibility for majors; more buyers for our quality puppies; and makes us all up our game on what we take into the ring and how we present it. I dream of a world where my fellow breeders are producing enough litters to fulfill the demand for pets in the United States so that they have the luxury of taking only the very best into the show ring. Those pet people love their chosen breed as much as each one of us do—and that’s the common ground. Pet people who join a club can become excellent workers, and they can be encouraged to step in and participate more fully when the process isn’t foreign or scary for them. We need to cultivate the next generation so that our hard work isn’t forfeited once we’re all gone.

Where do you see yourself in the next decade or two?

Steven Hamblin: In dogs, I often dream of reviving my breeding program. But I also dream of buying a home with land and adding some other breeds that I love just for the experience of sharing my life with them. I would like to have a wonderful show dog that I could special, and really savor the experience. None of that can happen while I’m still committed to the AKC Board. Outside of dogs, I still have a decade or two before I need to think about retirement, and there’s a lot to accomplish professionally before that day comes.

Finally, tell us a little about Steven outside of dogs… your occupation, your hobbies.

Steven Hamblin: In the “real world,” I am in residential real estate in Los Angeles, working out of the Coldwell Banker Realty office in Beverly Hills. I advise clients at all price points on how to maximize their investment either in buying or selling. Outside of work, I love live performances: theater, dance, music. I try to see something—anything—as often as I can. I love artwork and museums, and make a point to see as much as I can in my travels, or to take a brief respite in LA to escape the chaos of the streets and wander the galleries of our extraordinary art institutions.