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Something About Mary
There’s a place near Portage, Wis., where all retriever
lovers should go. It’s a place where you can hold a 16 day-old
chocolate Labrador in your hand, and savor that new puppy smell.
It’s a place where you can watch professional field trial trainers
work with some of the best dogs in the nation.
If you care
to reminisce about some truly great dogs — perhaps some of the
greatest dogs ever to play the game — don’t miss this opportunity.
This is where some of the great ones were born or bred. Or, if you
simply long to see that look on a little girl’s face when she meets
her new puppy for the first time, then this is your lucky day. All
this can be yours — just go to Portage, Wis., and a place called
Candlewood to meet Mary Howley.
This morning, like most
mornings at Candlewood, dogs are everywhere. In the basement, Hazel,
a chocolate Labrador, nurses her five16-day-old pups. In the
driveway, FC-AFC Candlewood’s Rita Reynolds, co-owned by Mary and
Sue Reynolds, wags her tail. Rita, the 2001 High Point Open
Retriever, is due to whelp a litter from the current National Field
Champion, NFC-AFC Five Star General Patton. In the garage, little
Agnes, a Boston Terrier and full-time admirer of Mary, woofs at the
visitor. In Mary’s clover field behind the house, a dozen field
trial Labradors are airing in the distance while Andy Attar, a local
professional retriever trainer, sets up for a series of tests. Mary
Howley emerges from her outside kennel with two 3-month-old yellow
Labradors of show stock — Dottie Dimple and Willow — at her heels.
“Girls, girls, girls,” Mary says to the delight of Rita,
Agnes, Dimple and Willow. “What are we going to do with YOU?” By
now, all tails are wagging and puppy butts are wiggling and Mary
just laughs. “Come on girls, let’s go watch the guys train.”
“Lottie”
Mary loads Rita, the yellow
puppies, and Agnes into her van — the one with Wisconsin license
plates “3X NFC” — and begins the short drive through her back yard.
In retriever lingo, those tags mean “Three Times National Field
Champion” and honor’90, ’91, ’93 NFC-AFC Candlewoods Tanks-A-Lot, a
legendary Labrador known simply as “Lottie” throughout the field
trial world. Lottie, who died in 1997, was co-owned by Mary and
Randy Kuehl of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“Oh, she was pretty
special,” Mary says of “Lottie.”
That’s like saying
Wisconsin produces pretty much cheese, or Vince Lombardi was a
pretty good football coach. Lottie, the daughter of NFC-NAFC
Candlewood’s Super Tanker (“Tank”), is the youngest retriever and
the only bitch to win three National Open Championship Stakes.
Lottie is the all-time High-Point Derby Dog, amassing an amazing 108
Derby points. Lottie was the 1993 Purina Outstanding Open All-Age
Field Trial Retriever, earning more points in Open competition than
any other retriever. Lottie did all this while whelping five
litters, and producing 22 field champions!
Lottie was pretty
special. But then, she’s just one of many special dogs to come from
Candlewood. You want National Champions? There’s FC2XNAFC
Candlewoods Bit O’ Bunny, FC-2XNAFC Candlewood’s Ramblin Man, and
NFC Candlewoods Raisa Ruckus. Add the three National Championships
from Lottie and two from Tank. Plus, so many Candlewood Field
Champions, scores of Candlewood Amateur Field Champions, and
countless pedigrees dotted with the Candlewood name.
And
Mary knows them all. Just ask Andy Attar, as he takes a break from
training.
A Breeding Legend
“Mary’s a
handler and she’s a judge, but she’s really made her mark on this
game as a breeder,” Andy says. “She knows the dogs that are running.
She knows the dogs they came out of. And she knows the grandsires
and granddams. She’s seen them run and knows what they produced. Or
she’s handled them herself.”
Andy credits Mary for helping
bring two important components to the retriever field trial game:
“She put a lot of stock into the quality of the bitches being bred.
Years ago the sire was always mentioned, whereas Mary also focused
attention on well-bred, hard-going, talented bitches. There’s no
question the sire is important, but momma’s got a lot to do with
what happens with the litter.”
“Second, Mary has a
reputation for producing talented dogs that will be good to deal
with, and good with kids. Years ago, many field trial dogs were
intense, hyper dogs that a lot of people couldn’t really deal with.
Mary’s dogs — like FC-AFC Wilderness Harley-To-Go (co-owned with
Jack van den Boogaard) and Nifty Nick were intelligent, good-looking
and great producers. Those dogs really put Mary on the map. They
showed how important it is to have an intelligent, compliant dog
with a lot of desire. That’s a powerful factor that’s changed the
game in a very positive way, and I think Mary’s had a lot to do with
that.”
Andy adds that the roots of Candlewood go back to
FC-AFC Candlewoods Nellie-Be-Good, a puppy out of the famous NFCNAFC
Super Chief that Mary acquired at 7 weeks of age.
“Oh gosh
yes,” Mary says. “I wanted a puppy out of Super Chief. Nellie was a
sister to Cup A Soup and NFC Euroclydon. Just take a look at the
books and see what they produced. They’re in a ton of pedigrees. And
Harley. What a dog. He produced 50 Field Champions.”
As Mary
reels off the names of Candlewood sires and dams, Andy returns to
training, and sends his talented retrievers on triple marks of 400
yards or more. Mary pays particular attention to some of the dogs
from her breeding, including FC-AFC Candlewood Court Jester, a
handsome Labrador owned by Mike Fullerton of Minnesota, and
Candlewoods Whisper, a promising young Labrador out of FC-AFC
Candlewood’s Rita Reynolds and the famous 2X NAFC-FC-2X CNAFC
Ebonstar Lean Mac, owned by Fred Kampo of Wisconsin.
“I love
to watch the dogs,” Mary says. “You can learn a lot by watching them
work, and of course, I know where they came from.”
How It All Started
Mary started
watching, and working, retrievers in 1958, when she inquired about
an ad for Labradors in the local newspaper. “My dad was a great
hunter,” Mary says. “He wondered if I could train a Labrador. So
when I went to check out the puppies advertised in the paper, the
breeder said he would sell me two pups for the price of one if I
joined the Madison Retriever Club. That’s how it all started.”
Mary adopted the Candlewood name after visiting a friend
near St. Louis who owned a dog named Wendy of Candlewood.
“Candlewood was the name of a bush or shrub that lined his
driveway,” she says. “I named my first dog Matches of Candlewood,
and he was a good one. I sold Matches for $3,000, which was a lot of
money back in those days. After that, I stuck with Candlewood.”
Back at the house, Mary pages through a scrapbook with
yellowed newspaper clippings and photos. “You’ll get a kick out of
this,” she says, and points to a headline that reads “Mary Howley’s
Lab wins Puppy Stake.”
“Candlewood Little Lou, a
91/2-month-old black Labrador owned and handled by Mary Howley,
Sunday won the puppy stake of the Madison Retriever Club field
trial. Mike Lardy, only 9, directed his Tipper of Handjem to second
place.”
The mention of Mike Lardy, a local boy who made
good, is humorous because he’s gone on to train and handle a record
seven National Champions, including Lottie and Tank, since turning
professional in 1981. It’s also a bit prophetic, because Mike and
his family still live in nearby Montello, and he’s due to visit Mary
this afternoon.
“Mike is so smart and so good with dogs,”
Mary says and points to a large National Championship photo of Mike
and Lottie on her wall. “I remember he had just graduated from
college and he wanted to be a professional retriever trainer. His
mom said to me, ‘Do you think Mike will really stick with this dog
thing?’ He stuck with it all right.”
In 2003, Mike
established the all-time record by running his 33rd National
Finalist, including the 2003 National Champion, NFC-AFC Five Star
General Patton.
Mike arrives at Mary’s house later that
afternoon, and like AndyAttar, he credits Mary’s exceptional success
as a breeder. “I’ve always thought that Mary has an effective and
relatively simple philosophy when it comes to breeding,” Mike says.
“Get two nice dogs. Know the pedigree. Know the dogs. She breeds
dogs that look good, move well and have enough pedigree that they
have a good chance of throwing a good dog.”
The Art
of Raising “Easy” Puppies
Mike also stresses the
importance of the environment in which Mary’s puppies are raised.
“Puppies from Mary are so easy because they’re so well socialized,”
Mike says. “All of her bitches are with families. They tend to be
good to live with and easy to train. That comes from the family
environment and the way Mary raises them.”
Mary has bred as many
as 25 litters in a year, but now averages around 15. Many are born
and raised in the whelping box and kennels in her basement; however,
she also has bitches that live with a network ofarea friends and
families. “They whelp the puppies, raise the litters, and the
bitches live permanently with these families,” Mary says. “They do a
super job.”
A professional pet groomer for more than 20
years, Mary believes in a hands-on approach with puppies. “You pet
them every day, stimulate them with music and light. I always play
the radio. You clip their front toenails, play with them, take them
outside, let them explore. They need plenty of house time. It makes
a difference.”
Mary buys rolls of coated paper to line
wooden boxes that fit her pens. The puppies sleep on sheepskin while
the back half of the kennel contains shredded newspaper. “It teaches
them to go to the back and go potty,” she says. “You can housebreak
a puppy in two days if you watch them like a hawk. They have a
routine, and they’ll let you know when they have to go. If you pay
attention it’s easy.”
Candlewood puppies eat Purina Pro Plan
brand Large-Breed Puppy Food. Adults eat Pro Plan Performance brand.
“I’ve always fed Purina, never fed anything else,” she says.
On the Lookout
An accomplished handler,
Mary is always on the lookout for another highly competitive
retriever. Rita fit the bill, but two cruciate injuries sidelined
her from active duty. “Rita was really nice in the field, now we’ll
see if she can make her mark in the brood box.”
Like Lottie
did.
“Lottie was pretty sharp even as a puppy,” Mary says.
“She climbed right out of her pen and went up a whole flight of
stairs that were open. She had courage.”
Mike Lardy
remembers Lottie as a dog that never once broke. “She was
intelligent, thoughtful and motivated. She always tried to figure
out what was the right thing to do. She was a very easy dog.”
“She just wanted to be with people,” Mary says. “She was
pretty special all right.”
As the sun sets on Candlewood, it
has been a perfect day in Wisconsin. Talented retrievers. Great
trainers and handlers. Memories of the great dogs. And the promise
of puppies yet to be born.
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