CROWNED 100 – Mick the Kerry
The Kerry Blue Terrier Ch. Torum’s Scarf Michael “Mick”
by Anne Tureen
BIS Magazine USA December 2020 issue
BO BENGTSON about Mick
I do not think there is a dog anywhere that more people would include on their lists of All-Time Favorite Show Dog than Mick.
In a 2013 interview for Dogs in Review with his handler Bill McFadden I described Mick as “maybe the greatest show dog anyone has seen in America, and probably anywhere else, too, for that matter.” That is strong, but I stand by that statement, and Mick’s record backs it up. He is one of the very few dogs to have won Best in Show at both Crufts in England and Westminster in the U.S., and he won Best in Show more than 100 times. Other dogs may have won as much, but I am not sure that any of them were as exciting to watch as Mick.
Mick’s breeder Ron Ramsay has separately talked about Mick’s beginning in England. It was usually Geoff Corish who showed him over there, but Michael Coad handled him to BIS at Crufts in 2000, and Mick won BIS at five other all-breed championship shows in the U.K. the previous year. That was only the beginning of what was to come, however. Mick came to America, where his new owner was Marilu Hansen — already the owner of the great Giant Schnauzer Ch. Skansen’s Tristan II, No. 2 of All Breeds with 29 BIS in 1999 — and his new handler was Bill McFadden.
That spring, Mick made his American debut by winning back-to-back Bests in Show at the Great Western Terrier shows, also known as the “Montgomery of the West.” He was then not shown until the great Morris & Essex Kennel Club show in the autumn and won BIS “from the classes,” meaning that Mick was not even an AKC champion of record at the time. The judge was Melbourne T.L. Downing.
The next year, 2001, was really Mick’s year: he won a total of 87 BIS at AKC all-breed shows from January to December, among the most any dog has won during a 12-month period and more than twice the number won by any other dog that year. He defeated more than twice as many competitors as well: over 138,000 in all during the year. In 2002 Mick was shown much more seldom but won 22 more BIS and was again the Top Terrier in the U.S.
Mick’s record at Westminster was brilliant by any standard, except perhaps his own. He won the Terrier Group there in 2001 and 2002 but failed to win Best in Show both times, although he was clearly the favorite to do so. This may have had something to do with the fact that Mick was not an easy dog to show. He was strong-willed and excitable, and he was probably more fun to watch in the ring than to handle. Anyone other than Bill McFadden would probably not have been able to bring the best out of him as often as he did. Finally, in 2003 everything clicked: Mick showed like a dream, won the Group for the third year running — an amazing and nearly unique achievement — and Best in Show! The judge was Mrs. Irene Bivin; Mick was just a couple of months away from turning seven years old. (He was born May 29, 1996.)
Mick was also Best in Show at the AKC National Championship show in 2002, one of the few dogs to have won both Westminster and the AKC show, and the only one to have won these as well as Crufts. The AKC show is of recent vintage compared to the others: the first one was held in 2001, while Crufts and Westminster both started in the 1800s.
While the AKC National is undeniably a prestigious event, it is ridiculous to say — as Wikipedia in fact does — that a win there completes the triple crown. The fact is that there is no triple crown in dogs, as there is in horse racing. If there were, I feel that the FCI World Dog Show would qualify, as well as Crufts and Westminster, much sooner than the AKC National Championship. No dog has ever won all three … but I am sure it is just a matter of time until that happens.
Is Mick the greatest show dog of all time? It is impossible to say. How many today have seen the Boxer from the mid-1950s, Ch. Bang Away of Sirrah Crest, the first dog to win 100 BIS in America? Or the English-born Pekingese Ch. Chik T’Sun of Caversham, the only dog ever to become Dog of the Year in the U.S. three times? The Scottish Terrier Ch. Heather Realisation, who won BIS at British championship shows 16 times, long a record? Or the Cocker Spaniel Sh. Ch. Tracey Witch of Ware, BIS at Crufts in 1948 and best of all breeds at championship shows 13 times? And what about the early winners in Europe and Scandinavia, not as well documented as those in Great Britain or the United States but nevertheless successful, many of them in different countries?
Of course, nobody can say for sure who is the greatest of them all. But there is no question that Mick, through his charisma, showmanship, and evident quality, is the closest many of us have come to watching greatness in the show ring.
BILL MCFADDEN about Mick
I first heard of Mick when a Kerry Blue Terrier client of mine came back from a visit to the UK with such a heavily embroidered rendering of this puppy that she had seen that I discounted it. However, the news started to filter through of this young Kerry Blue who was outstanding. I started discussing this dog with Marilu Hansen and we made contact with Ron Ramsay, but I didn’t actually see the dog until we went over for Crufts in March of 2000. There were other people looking at Mick, according to the grapevine, even Peter Green was contending. I watched him at Crufts, and to tell the truth, it was a moment of doubt for me. His performance was not impeccable, in fact, I was more impressed with a son of Mick who was present from Ireland.
In hindsight, now, I can easily believe that his handler, Michael Coad, was probably nervous, too, since Mick is a handful, and Geoff Corish had been handling him for the most part until then. Mick was fussy when the judge went over him, that kind of thing, but he went Best in Show underEllisHulme, and my client, who was with me, was thrilled. When we went over to see Mick and Ron, they didn’t give us the time of day. They were celebrating, which couldn’t be more natural, but it was a bit awkward. When Ron and I finally had a moment, there was no urgency in his plans. They were doing a painting of Mick and had publicity commitments. I began to wonder if we had in fact sealed our agreement or if someone else had, but I went with the flow and we went home empty-handed.
In early June, however, all came to fruition and Mick arrived. We started walking about two hours a day at the park just to hit our stride together. I got his trim looking the way I like it, too, and things started to crystallize for me. We had a big terrier show at that time called the Great Western, and it was second only to Montgomery, counting 1,500 to 1,700 terriers; it was both prestigious and elegant. Top terrier in the USA that year was a Bedlington owned by my wife Taffe. When she saw Mick walk out of his kennel, she did not have nice things to say to me (Bill laughed). He won the breed under a breeder-judge, a Kerry lady of the old school. This was not a shoo-in, since she was the sort of judge who understands that this is a working breed, and I couldn’t be sure she would appreciate the polish I had put on his presentation. Mick, however, was out to please and you could hear everybody falling in love with him. He was the talk of the show, and we sailed through to Best in Show. We replicated that win the next day as well with top honors for Mick! The third day was an all-breed event, the Beverly Hills show, and he hadn’t been entered. The Best in Show judge actually came round and reprimanded me for not entering Mick, and I apologized, of course, and explained that we had only come for the terrier shows and our strategy was to save him until Montgomery weekend.
This was the very first year that the Morris and Essex show was being recreated from the original 1940s shows that were such a legend. The committee did an amazing job, and the show relived all its early glory. We won Winner’s Dog under another breeder-judge, and then went Best of Breed, and then group, which was a great win considering the quality that day. It was getting dark, and a light rain started as Best in Show began. This didn’t ruffle my feathers; in fact, I think a Kerry Blue looks great in these circumstances, his coat goes wavy and he sort of glows. Mick went Best in Show to public acclaim under judge Melbourne Downing and that made three shows, AKC champion with three Bests — nice record! Moreover, Mick brought home three out of four of the Bests that Montgomery weekend. He garnered over 113 Bests total, so we were popping up on that podium about every other time we went out. His second year at Montgomery he took home all four Best in Show wins.
Mick had a reputation for being wild, and he was spirited, but never mean; he loved playing with other dogs. The only place he wasn’t magical was Westminster. I truly believe that he felt all those people had come just to see him. He was so excited to walk into the main ring that I could not get him to focus. We got through group well enough, but the main ring was just too much for him. This happened two years running, and l felt a bit guilty since he clearly deserved to win, so obviously I was missing something in my presentation. The third time, I made clear to his whole team that this would be the last try. He contracted a prostate infection coming up to the big day so when he got overexcited and the testosterone started pumping he must have felt some pain because when I was about to free stack him in front of the judge his neck would go stiff, and he would start barking. I managed the smaller rings well enough, but the Best in Show judge was a Doberman person, and I knew there would be zero tolerance for unruly behavior. I was sweating it out from the moment we broke from the curtains. When we made our return from the down-and-back I knew he was ready for his little display of terrier temperament, so when we came before the judge for that moment of clarity, I threw myself down on one knee. He looked at me, like “What the heck are you doing?!,” so that curved neck and that twist of the head that terriers do when they are trying to work something out in their minds did it. He looked amazing. He finally made it to Best in Show at Westminster!
Irene Bivin had been the judge for Best in Show at Westminster, and she was a classic Texas lady. She had no problem going against the grain, she would always say it as she saw it. When I met her again in Dallas after the big win she said, “Do you know what I was thinking as you all came into the ring?”. That’s when I started trembling inside, but then I said to myself, “Don’t worry, they can’t rescind the win!” — but all I actually said was, “Oh, what was that?”— “I thought that of the two dogs that were NOT winning under me that day, the Kerry Blue was one!’’. That means that live on television with 17,000 people watching, there is so much pressure that it is palpable, Mrs. Bivin’s opinion rose from zero to win. That is remarkable.
Everyone great and small loved Mick. A young lady that worked for me, Dana Gabel, used to spend lots of time with Mick, training him or just enjoying his company. Marilu Hansen, his owner, loved him too, and it was a gracious gesture that she allowed me to keep him on for the rest of his life. This was also a practical decision. For one thing, she already had a collection of beloved dogs, among them was a Giant Schnauzer who had been Number 2 All Breeds in the USA, and that dog probably would have had words with Mick before long. She also had a Pekingese which Mick might have seen as his personal squeaky toy. Another practical consideration was Mick’s busy calendar with mounts, so it worked out best for all concerned that he stayed on with me.
He was a great housedog. It was a privilege to live with him.
Interview with Ron Ramsay: Torum’s Kerry Blue Terriers
Q: Mick was not an all-time champion that came out of nowhere; he was the result of careful breeding, yet the COI (coefficient of inbreeding) percentage is quite low. Tell us about his pedigree and the choices you made.
A: Here is some background …. My first Kerry Blue was acquired as a pet. Now, just like everything I do, I went out of my way to research the breed. I wanted a puppy from the best breeder in the country, so I eventually contacted Malachy McGeown of Granemore kennel, and they were able to give me Granemore Mary Reppin, who was just going to be our family dog. Since this breed is known for being strong willed, we decided it would be best to enroll her in obedience classes as a youngster, and through this group we learned about dog shows and what you need to do to participate. We decided to go ahead and give dog showing a try.
In 1979 A Kerry Blue from Canada, Callaghan of Leander, went on to win the Best in Show title at Crufts. since we were now very keen on the breed, this inspired a dream for me, that of promoting the Kerry Blue Terrier and showing the world that these are not just wonderful dogs, but worthy of the highest accolades. Perhaps I was just a naïve beginner, but I called up the owners of that winning dog and asked to use him at stud for my bitch, and the answer was yes. I felt sure about this choice not just because of his great win, but I had been gathering all the material on the breed that I could get my hands on, and for some time I had held Melbees Chances Are in my mind as the finest Kerry Blue ever, and Callaghan was descended from that line.
See Mick’s pedigree at: HERE
I kept on two bitches from that pairing: the bitch pup I wanted to keep — Rosa (Torum’s Rosa Mundi) and her litter sister Elsa (Torum’s Agapanthus). Elsa was poorly as a youngster and we decided to keep her until she got better, then we didn’t want to part with her! We went straight to work on these girls. I was improving in my grooming and training at this stage, and Rosa did very well and became my first homebred champion. At that time, another dog from the United States (Bluefires Double Trouble) had been acquired by David Roche from Australia (Fermoy kennel), and he had brought that dog over to the UK to Granemore kennels. Here was another male from the Chances Are line, and I called them straight away for a mating.
With Elsa (Torum’s Agapanthus), the bitch we’d kept by chance, we used Bluefires Double Trouble and produced Int. Ch. Torum’s Mr. Dooley (who features in three lines in Mick’s pedigree) and Am. Ch. Torum’s Corky Capers, who went to USA as a puppy in the ‘80s and became a top-producing sire and for many years was Number 2 Top Sire behind Melbees Chances Are. Corky sired around fifty champions in the USA until Mick overtook him.
Another litter from one of my first bitches is the result of rather a funny story. I was attending a breed dinner-dance with my nephew sometime after the early death of my first wife. When we arrived at the venue, the only seats left were at an empty table, so we sat there alone, feeling a bit awkward. The next people to arrive joined us. I was a bit taken aback when the gentleman introduced himself by saying, “Hello, I’m Sean Delmar, I’ve seen your bitch Rosa Mundi, and I have the male you are going to use with her at stud!” Today we all know Sean as the president of the Irish Kennel Club, but back then he was just another bloke. The following day at the show he brought out his dog Shillelagh’s Fajara of Nostaw, and sure enough, I saw exactly what he was thinking. He was a slightly small male, while our bitch was slightly tall, and he had a lovely length of neck and he moved like a dream.
To answer your question about the COI, my ideas about breeding from the very beginning have been to go out and then to come back in again. The success of this approach, of course, depends in part on the quality of breeding that a third party, who has your dogs, is going to produce, and in this we were lucky. We entrusted Mr. Dooley to Sean and Cathy Delmar. From him they produced Shillelagh Fairy Charm and several champions, then through a Louisburgh dog, Mick’s sire Arranshire Pioneer was produced. We saw Pioneer at the famous International Kerry Blue show in Cork, Ireland, and thought he was something special. He was mostly Louisburgh breeding but with the line to Mr Dooley.
We brought him over to England and Geoff Corish handled him for us, while we showed Mick’s dam, Dasumianco Quietner. She was a bitch we had been following since her grandmother (Torum’s More Than A Match) came out of a litter from Rosa Mundi and Mr. Dooley and was bred by friends of ours who also had Granemore lines. We brought Dasumianco Quietner back to Torum because her pedigree went back to Mr. Dooley twice, so in pairing her with Pioneer, we had three strong lines to Mr. Dooley in the pedigree, along with several other good dogs. This is how Mick came into the world.
Q: Ric Cashoudian is quoted as saying that he “thought God had broken the mold after Chances Are until he saw Mick”.
(See a video of Chances Are from 1968)
What were the watershed moments evaluating Mick as he matured fulfilling the promise you saw in him, the obstacles, and the decisions you made in his training and career?
A: Clearly Mick was the pup we kept in his litter, though I would say that was a difficult choice, since the litter was quality straight through, and his siblings went on to nice careers. However, at eight months I began to see something I felt was exceptional. Remember that the standard was published in 1934, but it did not exactly correspond to any one dog. In fact, if you go and look at some of the images of dogs from that period, you will see nothing resembling the description of the standard, so at the time, the standard described the ideal Kerry Blue Terrier rather than anything walking in the rings at the time. When I saw Mick at eight months, I saw exactly the dog described in the standard! That is when I contacted Geoff Corish to say we had this exciting youngster!
Most dogs in the UK were owner-handled in the late 90’s, and I had handled my own too, but I felt Mick needed the best of the best to realize his potential. He lived with us as a house pet, like all my dogs, playing with the kids and what have you. All my dogs have a long walk on the beach in the morning, chasing each other up and down the grassy sand dunes. We had a young German Shepherd male at the time; this was my wife’s breed, and I have memories that will last a lifetime of Mick and the GSD (who was called Miko) gamboling along the beach, then occasionally it would happen that they would have a look at one another as they were trotting along, say one or two meters apart, and they were clearly saying “Are you in?” – “Yes!” and off they would shoot, racing each other down the seaside. What a sight!
So he lived with us, and I groomed him and we took him to the shows — but when he came into Geoff’s hands he would be on the table every day of the show and Geoff would regroom him, snipping just tiny bits of coat here and there; amazing because I could see the difference it made in clearing up the profile. He is a top dog man.
Q: You mentioned the standard. Do you feel the standard of the Kerry Blue Terrier is easy to understand for people coming to the breed?
A: Yes — it gives a good picture of what you should be looking for in a good dog. I feel there is much beyond the standard that experience adds to that picture. The coat, for example, is especially difficult to understand. It says that the color should be coming through by 18 months, but this is only a guideline. Good color can come in later than that; in fact, if it comes in very early, I am always on the alert for unsatisfactory pigmentation. I keep a very careful watch on the eye color, which should be dark, and the pigmentation in the gums and roof of mouth, which should also be dark. This can sometimes be a problem in a Kerry that comes into color early. Another important aspect of the coat is the texture. It should be comparable to a woman’s soft wavy hair. If you have a hard coat, or God forbid, a wooly coat, this is very far from typical of the breed.
Other supremely important points are the powerful, broad quarters, which are the motor of the dog, then the front must also be correctly developed to handle all that power moving straight out. The neck should never be too short or long. A short neck does not have the sufficient mobility to tackle larger vermin, and a long one won’t have the power. Kerry Blue Terriers are not sweet little “give me a biscuit” dogs. When you see one, you should feel, especially from the look in his eyes, that he is a dog to be wary of, although in life they are generally incredibly good-natured with people.
Q: What is your nutritional plan for a growing puppy?
A: We used to get fresh ground meat from the abattoir in our district. They cleaned out the grinders and the result was the finest grind of meat, innards, and bone that you can imagine, and for as long as they were operative this was our feed. Unfortunately, they closed, and we moved on to dry kibble with something fresh in it, such as ground meat, scrambled eggs, fish — always something different.
Q: In the Charlie Rose interview following Mick’s Westminster win (https://charlierose.com/guests/6987), Bill McFadden points out that Mick did much more intense showing in the USA that he had done in the UK. Had you evaluated attending the European national shows, specialties, big events such as the European Dog Show or World Dog Show?
A: Oh no, of course not, remember that quarantines were still in place at the time. Moreover, we are just a small family operation. My kennel maxes out at four dogs; they all live in the house. We have maybe one litter in a year and I would say, though we are extremely dedicated to the breed, extremely, we are just active at a hobby level. When Mick achieved the Crufts BIS, I was overjoyed; I was fulfilling my dream of seeing the Kerry Blue brought forward to the highest prizes. Nonetheless, I felt this very special dog could carry on beyond what I was able to do for him.
When he left for the USA, my heart simply broke. He was my boy. There is no sense in what people say that I was well paid or any such trifling matter, though Mick’s career had drained our resources in a significant way. We did not regret this, and we did not look for any amends. We decided to trust Marilu Hansen and Bill McFadden to carry Mick on to recognition for the breed in the USA. This was trust very well placed, since I was thinking “Oh, let’s hope he can win Montgomery,” when in fact he went far beyond that fine achievement. But this decision was for Mick, who was so clearly a superior animal, and for the breed to which we feel dedicated. He was like our son — that is the only way to explain how we felt about giving him to Marilu.
Q: Did you breed only from Mick or also from his littermates, and what were the results? (Wikipedia states that he has sired over 61 champions.)
A: Very good question. Do you know that hardly any show people used Mick in the UK? After he won BIS at Crufts, one pet breeder came to us. One explanation is that Melbees Chances Are was considered a PNA (Progressive Neuronal Abiotrophy) carrier. I have my doubts on that because in over 40 years of breeding I have never had a PNA issue and now that tests have been developed, I can say my lines are clear.
Q: What is lifelike after a dog like Mick?
A: Fortunately we have continued to breed quality. You can be sure we repeated the 1996 mating that produced Mick. From the same combination in ’97 we bred Int. Ch. Torum’s Stormin Norman, who after all his groups and BIS achieved Number 2 Dog All Breeds in Finland, then in ’98 it produced Ch. Torum’s Tunde Bayou, who won many groups, RBIS, and BIS all over the country, including two Terrier Groups at Crufts and RBIS at Crufts. Tunde was Top Terrier in the UK at that time.
Int. Ch. Torum’s Calico Jack at Irisblu went on to Top Kerry 2013 in Ireland, 2015 Top Dog All Breeds in Australia and 2016 Top Dog All Breeds in Canada, so we are far from resting on our laurels. I am proud to have served as judge at many significant Kerry Blue events in the UK and abroad, so I am a lucky man. I think I can say that my work contributed to bringing forward the Kerry Blue Terrier as a breed to be reckoned with in the dog world.
See Mick in 2001 at and in 2003
