Champion

Spectators at Manhattan's annual Westminster Dog Show have agreed of late years that the big white & golden sable collie, Champion Lucason of Ashstead o'Bellhaven, is a magnificent sight. Imported from England and reared at the famed Bellhaven Kennels in Red Bank. N. J. by energetic Mrs. Florence B. Ilch, No. 1 U. S. collie breeder, he was judged best of breed at Westminster from 1930 to 1934. But many a layman, remembering the smart, friendly Scotch collies of his youth, has deplored the breeding trend which gave Lucason his looks. Aiming at a long, narrow, chiseled muzzle and skull collie fanciers have crossed their dog with the Russian wolfhound. According to oldtime collie-lovers, they have bred out the dog's brains, made it a snappish, treacherous fashion-plate fit for nothing but mincing around a show ring. One morning last week Trainer Michael Kennedy took Champion Lucason out to groom him for a show at Englewood next day. Mrs. Ilch houses her 60-odd collies Beside the North Shrewsbury River. While he was brushing the dog, Trainer Kennedy heard a cry, saw a small boy who had fallen from a rowboat threshing in the water about 100 ft. offshore. Watched and tampered every day of his seven years, Lucason had never swum before. But when Trainer Kennedy cried, "Go get him." the champion plunged in, swam out to the boy, gripped his clothes in a long narrow jaw, towed him safely to shore.

At Englewood next day Lucason won a champion's blue, a hero's acclaim.

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