Beth Dowd's Stump Takes Top Honors At Westminster

Horses and dogs often go together, but Beth Dowd’s interest in dogs has exceeded the usual few running around the barn. While she does have a posse of pointy-eared Corgis patrolling, her name earned international headlines for a Sussex Spaniel called Stump.
   
Her 10-year-old, pulled-out-of-retirement champion earned the Best in Show title at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Feb. 10.
   
The longtime Southern Pines, N.C., resident and horse enthusiast has been showing dogs of various breeds at Westminster since 1999. Her daughter Carol, a successful hunter rider, shares her interest.
   
Stump, whose full name is Champion Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee, was sired by CH Three D Genghis Khan, and his dam was CH Clussexx Sprinkled With Dew. Breeders were Douglas Horn, Douglas Johnson and Dee Duffy.
   
Born Dec. 1, 1998, Stump is the oldest dog to win Best in Show at Westminster and the only Sussex Spaniel to claim the title. He won the Sporting Group in 2004, and Beth thought that he should have won overall that year—the same year he collected 50 Best in Show awards.
   
But shortly after that he contracted a potentially lethal bacterial infection that got in his bloodstream and affected his heart. He spent 19 days recovering in a pet hospital and then lived the life of a retiree for five years, when co-owner and handler Scott Sommer decided to enter him in this year’s competition.
   
“He seemed to be doing well,” Beth said, “so we decided to bring him to Westminster as a trial run for possible competition in an upcoming special show.”
   
With the Westminster win under his belt, Stump has now earned his retirement for good.

The Price Of Celebrity

At Westminster, Stump competed in the breed category, trumping, among others, his son, CH Lexxfield Twilight Hunter. In the sporting group, Judge Robert Ennis chose Stump as winner over 27 other dogs. Finally he took the highest honor, the Best in Show award.
   
The Dowds’ other dogs had impressive performances in the show, which featured about 2,500 dogs and 170 breeds. Ranger, a Lakeland terrier, won Best of Breed while Pixie, a Bichon Frise, took fourth in the non-sporting group.
   
Stump has become an overnight celebrity across the country and in his hometown. “We are so excited and proud,” said Nona Burrell of the Moore County Kennel Club. “Beth and Carol are an example of members who uphold the integrity of the purebred dog, which is the aim of the club.”
   
Beth’s daughter Carol owns Botanicals flower shop in Southern Pines, N.C., and owns and shows three of Stump’s pups. “My mother always loved him,” Carol said of Stump. “We didn’t think he had a big chance of winning. He was just an extra dog entered, and we just planned to have fun.”