Pure serendipity! I was recently separated and living alone, and the dog my ex-husband and I had had remained with him. That dog was a Collie/Shepherd cross and had been my very first dog. I missed him! A friend of mine (named Charlie -- this is significant later!) had received a generous tax refund that year and offered to buy me a dog. He handed me the newspaper and said "I'll buy you a puppy. Start reading down the list of [breed] names." I *really* wanted another Collie/Shepherd cross, as my 'Duncan' was such a neat dog, but I obligingly started with "Afghans" and read down as far as "Dalmatians", when Charlie said "Hey, those are cool dogs!". I thought for a minute and realized *I* had always thought they were 'cool' too, so I went and got one! The combination of 'Charlie' and 'Linda' is the source of my kennel name: Charlin.

More serendipity! I lived in Baltimore City at the time I had my first Dal ('Bojangles'), and lived within walking distance of the armory where the Maryland Kennel Club held its shows. I knew *nothing* about shows or showing, but I went every year to that show (which was benched at that time) and admired the gorgeous dogs. Further, Bojangles attracted many admirers on our daily walks, and many people asked 'do you show him?'. Well, no, I didn't (then). I had bought him as a pet and companion, and had no thoughts of showing him. However, I *was* curious about the whole thing.

One day, I was at a gas station filling up the car when a gigantic motorhome pulled in. It had Ohio plates and had Rottweiler stickers on the back and an ex-pen strapped to the front (although in those days, I had no idea what that was!). Being a total, rank novice but also bold as brass, I informed the driver of the motorhome that I had a Dalmatian which many had said was very nice and I wondered how one got started in showing. This *lovely* man said I needed to get into some handling classes and he just happened to know of a person who gave handling classes right outside of Baltimore -- and she was a Dalmatian person! (I know -- how weird was that?!).

Turned out, it was none other than Lorraine Donahue of the original Long Last Kennels, Reg. And one last bizarre coincidence: my Bojangles turned out to be tightly linebred on Lorraine's English import, Eng/Am Ch. Colonsay Blacksmith!!!!

I'm not sure how to answer this, as what goes into a "favorite" is so many-faceted. As a breeder, I must consider who was my best producer or who was the best example of the breed I ever produced. As an exhibitor, I must consider who taught me the most or who was my biggest winner. As an owner, I must think about who was the easiest to live with, with the sweetest and most companionable personality. So here's a list:
Best producer: Ch. Charlin's Ship of the Line (Bert)
Most perfect Dalmatian of my breeding: Ch. Charlin's Once in a Blue Moon (Maggie)
Dal who taught me the most: Charlin's Mr. Bojangles (Bo)
Biggest winner: Ch. Green Starr's Major Hoolihan (Hotlips)
Loveliest companions: Ch. Charlin's A Dream Come True (Dreamer), Ch. Charlin's Once in a Blue Moon (Maggie) and Ch. Green Starr's Major Hoolihan (Hotlips)

All bred by me except Hotlips and Bojangles.

Temperament, type, structure/movement, health. Shortcomings in any of these departments knocks a dog out of the show ring and most certainly out of the breeding program.

The most successful single mating (which was done twice, actually) was the one of Ch. Charlin's Ship of the Line to Ch. Blue Moon's Madeleine Hayes. This was a breeding of a Bert grand-daughter back to Bert, and several champions were forthcoming from this match. It was a breeding which consistently produced superior puppies in all of the above criteria.

The most successful sire I've had, who proved himself across many breedings with bitches of numerous different bloodlines, was Bert. He produced many champions for me and for others and was uncannily consistent in what he produced, no matter what he was bred to. This was quite odd, really, since he himself was an outcross, but he was a remarkable sire.

Asking that Ohio Rottweiler guy how to start showing dogs. Just kidding! Although, not really, because it indicates something about me in that I have never been afraid to ask questions at any time, of anyone. People are amazingly forthcoming with information one might never know they had if one didn't step up and ask! I've learned an awful lot over the years by asking questions and then keeping quiet long enough to hear the answer.

I am a great student of dogs in general, whatever the breed. I am a firm believer that the more one learns about other breeds, the more insight one gains into one's own breed. I greatly enjoy pedigree study, structure study, type study, and the study of breeding theory in dogs (and in horses,for that matter).

Finally, my focus has always been on the dogs and whatever small steps I can accomplish toward improvement of the breed. If one is not improving, one is moving backward, because there's always going to be someone else out there moving ahead. I have always been infinitely more concerned with the quality of the breed and of my dogs than with the vagaries of the show ring. The greatest gratification for me has always stemmed from the production of better and better examples of the breed, generation by generation, step by step. Success in the show ring, while rewarding, is just the icing on the cake for me.

Well, to save everyone from having to plow through a 5-page diatribe, let's say there have been plenty! If I were to pick one major change which I've observed, I would have to say it is the loss of many long-time bloodlines/breeding programs over the years. With this has come a sort of homogenization of the breed, as more and more people with less and less experience seem to breed to the popular stud dog(s) of the day, rather than having an image of ideal in their heads and breeding to achieve that ideal. In my neck of the woods, anyway, it used to be that one could look into the ring at the line-up of dogs and say "That one's Susie's breeding. The next one's John's breeding. The next one's Joan's breeding", etc. (All those names are fictitious, of course). Nowadays, it seems that while many of the dogs look vaguely similar, there is little or no differentiation from one breeder's stock to the next and the overall quality of the breed has dropped as a result. If everything one sees, both in the ring and out of it, is a product of "Local Girl Makes Good" bred to "Ch. Too Too Divine", where does one go from there?

I had several, actually, and I was able to incorporate their input with that of others, of whom I was bold enough to ask to pick their brain. In learning a breed, I have found it to be of the greatest benefit to glean as many viewpoints from as many sources as possible. Even if one ends up disagreeing with that viewpoint, it will teach the true student something by virtue of that viewpoint being different. Learning how another breeder, exhibitor or handler sees a dog is invaluable to assessing and validating (or not!) one's own focus.

I love you ALL! (Well, most of you, anyway....) I would like to urge the newer members of the Dalmatian fancy to become students of the breed before attempting to breed it. Don't be afraid to tap one of us old-timers on the shoulder when you see us at ringside and ask to pick our brains. And yes, with 30 years in, I count myself an old-timer, although there are those who would speculate on how much brain I have left to pick...! Some few of us are still around, and while we may not be doing the breeding and showing we used to, we still love to talk about the dogs and offer our viewpoint (with explanations, an easel, and PowerPoint slides!). You just have to ask.

Thank you, Toni, for asking for my views, and for those who have made it this far, thanks for reading.