Casey, Sociology Professor Ilene Kaplan's cairn terrier, won an Award of Merit Monday at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. The award was one of two given for the cairn terrier breed from among 17 champions who competed.
The Westminster Kennel Club offers a bronze color medallion for the Award of Merit. This year marked the two-day competition's first “Champions Only” dog show with entries limited to 2,500 dogs from the 165 recognized breeds and varieties.
Casey is a three-year-old male terrier born to champion sire Ohioville Mohonk and champion dam Lillian of the Valley. The breeder was Jill Wertheim.
Kaplan, the Joseph C. Driscoll Professor of Sociology and Marine Policy, has been teaching at Union since 1978. Casey is her first dog and she began showing him only two years ago.
“Casey is my family pet and it's so great that he's doing so well competitively,” said Kaplan. “But, he loves the snow and is happy to be home.”
At Westminster, Kaplan used a professional handler to show Casey. But at the Winter Classic Dog Show in Queensbury earlier this month, she showed Casey to a victory over a two-time Westminster winning cairn terrier.
“Casey's choice of bait in the ring is steak,” Kaplan continued, “but we treated him to filet mignon in the ring at Westminster.”