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| Joan Weiskopf and CH Velvety Angel Eyes |
The sport of purebred dogs has lost another important contributor. Author, veterinary clinical nutritionist, and
longtime Bedlington Terrier breeder, Joan Weiskopf, died on Monday after a long
battle with ovarian cancer. We first met
Joan back in 2008 when she was campaigning the Best In Show winning Bedlington,
CH Velvety Angel Eye, aka Loppan. We
named Loppan a Dog2Watch after Joan piloted her to a BIS over Crufts and Montgomery
County Kennel Club winner, the Sealyham Terrier, CH Efbe's Hidalgo At Goodspice.
Loppan was not Joan’s first BIS winner. To much of the show going public, Joan was
the face of the Bedlington Terrier breed, representing the breed at AKC’s
annual Meet the Breed event in Manhattan and appearing on TV several times as
the breed winner at multiple Westminster Kennel Club and Kennel Club of Philadelphia
shows. Joan was a woman of many
talents. She designed jewelry for her
cousin Davie Yurman before he became the industry icon he is today. She had attended the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinarian Medicine and penned a bestselling book on
pet nutrition, Pet Food Nation: The Smart, Easy, and Healthy Way to Feed Your
Pet Now. More recently she had developed
a probiotic, BOOST-n-GO, a supplement especially for the show dog to bolster
the immune system against the stress, pathogens and disease encountered in the
sport.
However it would be in whelping box and show ring where Joan
would have the most impact. Joan’s
Peremi Bedlington Terriers were always refined, balanced, and beautifully presented. Where most Terrier breeds are a series of
planes, straight lines, and sharp angles, the Bedlington is a sensuous
collection of curves. One slip of the
scissors and the Bedlington can look chopped up and coarse. Joan was always happy to share her knowledge
with any serious dog person, but she could be impatient with those who were
looking for a shortcut to success. She
mentored many new Bedlington owners and several of the judges active today.
Joan was a persuasive lobbyist for the international sport. She believed that the World FCI Show, twenty
times larger than the average American show, was a venue that could build
alliances that would ensure the future of our sport. Joan and Loppan would
return to Europe for the World Shows in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2009 and in
Herning, Denmark in 2010, where Loppan successfully defended her World Winner
titles. Joan took her home bred liver colored dog, GCH CH Peremi
Roll the Dyce, to the World Show in Salzburg, Austria. Dyce would follow in the footsteps of Loppan
and take home the World Winner title. In
2013, Dyce’s littermate, GCH CH Peremi I’m a Player, would travel with Joan to
Budapest, Hungary where he would be the breed winner at Interra, the FCI Terrier
World Show. Joan’s health would prevent
her from attending the 2014 World Show in Paris, but she bravely rallied this
year and, with a little help from her friends in Italy, she attended this
year’s World Show in Milan, showing Player’s
daughter, CH Colcoda American Express, bred and owned by Raffaella Gammella.
On a personal note, we have missed our weekly phone calls
from Joan with show reports from all over the US. She gave us results, behind the scenes
anecdotes, and most importantly, encouragement.
She thought that giving back to our sport was essential to being part of
the game. The Bedlington breed and the
game at large is poorer for her absence.
Godspeed Joan. Contributions in
Joan’s memory can be made to Take The Lead.
