Currian Hot Toddy owned by Connie Knotts (model is unknown china make). Hot Toddy is a male Old English Sheepdog puppy.
ü Connie Knotts.
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Gone To The (Model) Dogs!
Sallie Crowder George
If you have a collection of model dogs or sculptures that sit gathering dust on your shelves you may be surprised to know that there is an alternative to simply collecting model dogs. You can take their pictures, and show them as a member of a model dog club. Several internet groups are involved in the organisation and showing of model dogs and they are listed in the resource area at the end of this article. Model dog collectors are those people who collect model dogs and related items. On the other hand, a model dog 'hobbyist' is someone who not only collects model dogs, but exhibits their dogs in photo shows. To participate in these shows you send your photographs to a host to be judged based on the American Kennel Club breed standards as well as other well-known kennel clubs. The models are judged as if they were real dogs. Model dogs can do anything a real dog can do which includes breeding ... but we call it "pedigree assignment". (For a copy of my model canine sire/dam list, just send me a 6 x 9 sixty cent stamped envelope so I can mail you a copy. My details are at the end of this article). And these model dogs do breed, you can ask any hobbyist!
I started out with just a few model dogs in 2001, now I have almost 300, which does not include the dogs that I have given away, sold or traded from my personal collection. How did I get into the model dog hobby? It started about 15 years ago when I took my daughter, Angel, to a local riding stable. The owners did not mind people coming on the property to feed the horses. The first time I took Angel, it was love at first sight! Even though we could not own a horse she would collect any "horsey" looking object.
ShortStufs Song of Mecca - the model dog is a artist's resin by Gina Hall and painted by her. Doll and horse owned by Anne Olejniczak. This dog is one of my favorite models.
ü Photo by Anne Olejniczak.
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When Angel got a littler older, she started collecting the models made by
Breyer
Horses ¨. We found out about Breyerfest ¨ which Reeves International holds every July at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. After meeting some model hobbyists Angel soon joined the Yahoo Groups Haynet, the group for model horse enthusiasts. It was on the model horse message board that Leigh McDonald provided some information about model dog clubs and her message board modeldogs. I got excited, because here was a hobby for me and as the saying goes, the rest was history. After joining modeldogs I found out about the newsletter Model Dog Hotline. My first intentions were to only receive the newsletter and not participate in the photo showing. That was until editor Liz Battista, told me about two china model dog Chihuahuas (the dog I raise, show and breed) she was selling.
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