Vet tech’s skill helps malamutes embark on show careers

Poor little Quoth is facing a crisis: Her ears are drooping.

This is a serious matter for a malamute puppy destined, maybe, for the show ring, which evaluates canine confirmation. Show dogs are the epitome of their breeds. Clearly Quoth (her real name is NvFurMore, for Poe’s raven) needs to shape up here … or maybe not.

“That’s OK,” says Quoth’s best human friend, Helen Schultz, a technician for more than 20 years in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “If her ears don’t stand up, we’ll support them.” How? With cardboard rolls and self-dissolving fabric glue.

So it goes in the world of showing purebred dogs. While the rest of you are squandering Valentine’s Day on truffles, roses and precious gems, Quoth and her sister EvFurOn (named for how the road goes in “The Lord of the Rings” – “We always name for fantasy,” Schultz says) may join their human companions in watching the Westminster Kennel Club dog show live from New York. The show will be televised on the USA TV network starting at 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 14 and 15.

Schultz will pay particular attention to the “working breeds” category, because the malamutes are in that group. She says that the breed standard emphasizes the capability for hard work.

“Malamutes are the Clydesdales of sled dogs,” Schultz says, meaning that they are substantial canines, big of paw, heavy of bone and double of coat. “But we aren’t anywhere near as serious as the Westminster people,” she adds.

Actually, she’s pretty serious. Schultz has been showing malamutes since 1977 with her first dog, Avalanche.

“I got hooked very easily,” she says. “Luckily, I had a mentor that let me work with her and learn how training, handling and grooming are done the right way.”

One of the most critical lessons that Schultz learned from her mentor was interpreting animal behavior. Perhaps no other category of animal care is so crucial to know the right way, she says.

“Once, when I was working with my mentor, she asked me to get a Rhodesian ridgeback (a large hunting dog bred to go after lions) out of a crate. The dog was scared and backed up. I didn’t know what he meant by that, and he bit me. Suffice it to say I learned my lesson!” she says.

As you might expect, such knowledge comes in plenty handy at the vet school.

“The work I do with my own dogs really adds extra knowledge and depth to what I’m able to show students at the vet school,” she says. “Let’s face it – the animals aren’t feeling well when they come here, and it’s important to realize what signals they’re sending us about how they are. I work with fourth-year students, helping them learn how to place IV/catheters, draw blood and urine samples and, with residents, do endoscopic exams. Most recently we helped remove a huge pork chop bone from a Pekinese.”

Today, Schultz and her husband own 19 malamutes. Most of them are pointed for conformation, with seven “finished champions” and four more on their way. There also are working championships that the Alaskan Malamute Club of America awards. Schultz’s sled teams compete in freight races and weight pulls through local and regional clubs.

“We can have up to six on a team at a time. We’ve never done the Iditarod in Alaska – and don’t intend to – but we have competed in national freight races. My husband, John, was the gold medalist for freight racing in 1988 in the International Sled Dog Racing Association, but we do most of our sledding now for pleasure,” Schultz says.

If this all sounds like it requires a good deal of time, effort and money, Schultz says that’s because it does. It’s also something of a daunting responsibility, not to be taken whimsically, she warns.

“The amount of time you spend training, grooming and traveling to and from shows comes down to about two minutes in front of the judge,” she says. “There are so many avenues of enjoyment with your pet. Obedience, agility and tracking are open to all breeds, and there are also events geared toward specific breeds, for example, herding, earth dog trials, tracking, lure coursing and more.”

Nor do you have to adopt an 8-week-old puppy, she says. “They’re a lot of fun but also a lot of work, and not necessarily the right choice for everyone.”

Schultz’s next decision will be whether to debut the two sisters at the International Kennel Club Show on Saturday, Feb. 26, in Chicago.