By Kim J. Harmon

NEW YORK, New York – Sara Carnrick has been breeding bulldogs for the past 20 years and just recently qualified for Hall of Fame honors when she was credited with her 10th champion, but not once has she been to the grand mecca of all dogdom – the Westminster Kennel Club show.

That is, until this year.

Mrs Carnrick will be going to the 125th Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Monday and Tuesday, February 12 and 13, to see one of her prized dogs, Ch. Helfyre Little Pond’s Promise, compete against 13 of the top bulldogs in the world.

Promise is the No. 1 bitch in the nation and No. 3 bulldog overall.

“She is amazing,” Mrs Carnrick said. “It’s all coming together for her.”

Promise earned her ranking through numerous competitions from January 1 and October 30, 2000. Promise won about 35 Best in Breed awards and 19 of those – an amazing figure – came from specialty (bulldog only) shows.

“She is doing it (getting her ranking) the hard way,” said Mrs Carnrick. “With the specialty shows, her strengths are more seriously considered under a breeder judge.”

In these shows, as in Westminster, dogs are judged against what is the accepted standard for the breed.

“It makes more of a statement winning these specialty shows,” added Mrs Carnrick, “because it proves her worth and competitiveness.”

Mrs Carnrick will be going to the Westminster Kennel Club show with Promise’s owner, Liz Karshner of Sardinia, Ohio (also a Hall of Fame breeder). Mrs. Carnrick and Mrs Karshner (neither of whom have been to New York let alone the Westminster Show) will start a weekend of competition with Promise at the Long Island Bulldog Club Show on Friday and then move on to the Bulldog Club of America Show on Saturday (both at the Crown Plaza in Secaucus, New Jersey) before moving on to Westminster.

For Mrs Carnrick, this could be her last big fling. After 20 years breeding bulldogs, she and her husband, Glen, have retired and are just playing out the string (that is, seeing how her newest litter of dogs is performing).

“This is my last litter,” she said. “After 20 years of breeding, we felt a little like Michael Jordan – felt like it was time to go out on the top of our game. It has been a dream come true and we achieved far more than we expected when we got started in 1981. All my goals have been more than met.”

Although Mrs Carnrick started breeding dogs 20 years ago, she didn’t get her first champion until 1994. She kept things low key and quiet, with a new litter every 18 months or so, but since 1994, of course, they have kind of piled up on her with 10 different champions in the last seven years.

“It took us a long time to get it down right,” said Mrs Carnrick. “We struggled. The first decade was disheartening at times, but I stayed on because I absolutely love the breed. I really became determined to keep striving.”

And now she is heading to Westminster.

There are 14 bulldogs entered in Westminster (in the non-sporting group) and 11 of those are male. The males have a higher probability of winning Best in Breed honors, said Mrs Carnrick, because they are often closer to the accepted standards of their breed.

“Our goal is to not only have a good time and enjoy ourselves,” she said, “but if we are really, really lucky this judge will consider Promise for an award of merit.”

Promise is actually Mrs Carnrick’s second bulldog to reach Westminster. In 1998, a Canaan woman bought a bulldog puppy and in 2000 she managed to enter the dog into Westminster – in what Mrs Carnrick called “the free for all.” The top five ranked animals in each breed get automatic bids to Westminster, but all the rest have to scramble in the one hour it generally takes to fill the 2,700 spots available.

Promise will continue competing once Westminster is over – from specialty shows to the Nationals in September and around the turn of the next season, she may start to breed and may one day even reach the Hall of Fame herself (as a dame).

It took a long time for Mrs Carnrick to see some success in this business of breeding, but – like she said of Promise – it’s all coming together.