Beneath the white, woolly ringlets was a Lagotto Romagnolo puppy, and junior handler Julie Longshore was determined to groom him herself.
The teen printed photos of top-winning Lagotti and taped them to the wall so that she could study the dogs’ outline, then attempted to replicate it on “Patch,” her puppy. She sought advice from her breeder and other Lagotto handlers, watched YouTube tutorials, and pored over an Italian grooming manual specifically for the breed.
The results weren’t always great at first. When looking back at photos of Patch from their early handling classes, “he looked horrendous,” Longshore laughs.
But she continued to practice and observe, and her moxie is what inspired breeder Giene Keyes to place Patch with Longshore in the first place.
Her dedication has paid off. At the time of writing, 17-year-old Longshore and 3-year-old Patch (GCH Shooting Stars Pirate Of The Long Shore) rank in the top 10 Lagotti Romagnoli (all-breed). They’re the No. 2 Lagotto team in the AKC National Owner-Handler Series (with an NOHS Best in Show), and Longshore is the No. 1 Lagotto Romagnolo handler in AKC Junior Showmanship.
‘I Fell in Love, Right Then and There’
Longshore, of Alcoa, Tennessee, always loved dogs and grew up with a few beloved rescues. Aside from watching the National Dog Show each Thanksgiving, conformation was not on her radar.
But when a friend invited her to a local dog show, Longshore was totally captivated. She lingered at the Meet the Breeds tables, asking questions about different dogs, how shows work, and how to get involved. “I fell in love, like right then and there,” she says.
A member of the Tennessee Valley Kennel Club encouraged Longshore to check out a handling class, despite not having a dog to train. “They just told me to show up. That’s all I did,” says Longshore. She says the other handlers in the class immediately supported her. “I walked in, and they just started putting me with different breeds.”
She clicked with “Louie” (CH Lakeway’s Le Roi Du Lac By Poricia), a young Toy Manchester Terrier who was just starting his show career. His owners, Cheryl and Richard Roach, would eventually allow Longshore to keep Louie for several weeks at a time to build a rapport and refine their showmanship skills.
In March 2020, the team debuted in the Intermediate class (for junior handlers between 12 and 15 years old), as well as breed competition, where Longshore and Louie were “thrown into group” at their very first show.
“I had no idea what I was doing,” Longshore laughs. “I was just told to follow the line, so I made sure I watched all the professionals go in front of me.”
But COVID-19 hit, and it was another several months before Longshore made it back to the ring. But she’s a quick study — in a little over a year, she finished Louie’s AKC Championship, and the Longshore family got a few Manchester Terriers of their own for Longshore to show.
Getting the ‘Goofball’
Longshore believes the best way to learn is by observation, so she and her mom, Sarah, would often walk the showgrounds to see how other breeds are groomed, shown, and judged. At one show, Longshore met “Chip,” a top-winning Lagotto, and fell in love with the breed’s rustic curls and cheerful demeanor.
Longshore and her mom researched the breed and networked with Lagotto fanciers for more than a year before driving to Wisconsin to pick up Patch. Breeder Giene Keyes trusted Longshore with the male pick of the litter, trusting that the junior handler could groom, train, and show the dog herself.
Despite thinking that he’s one of the Manchesters, Patch is, well, a totally different breed, Longshore says.
“Oh, he’s such a goofball. And everybody knows he’s a goofball,” she explains. “All my junior friends know that if one dog’s going to act up in the ring, it’s going to be mine. But he’s not doing it because he’s so mad — he’s just there having a great time, living his best life.”
With his boisterous attitude and bouncy curls, Patch makes his presence known. But while Lagotti have risen in popularity over the years, finding local competition can be difficult. It took almost two years to finish Patch’s championship, but the team was winning hearts — and NOHS group placements — early in their career.
“A lot of the Working judges and the Herding judges … really like me and Patch, because I’m constantly having to work with him,” Longshore says. “Because even though he gets training all the time, he will never be a statue dog. And it’s not because he doesn’t want to be there — it’s because he’s just so excited, because showing is his favorite thing to do.”
School and Dog Shows: A Balancing Act
Longshore and her mom aim to attend dog shows once a month, but as a Senior, school is Longshore’s number-one priority. She’s taking AP classes and dual-enrollment courses at her local community college, and also works part-time at a baseball stadium. After graduation, Longshore hopes to major in biotechnology to become an animal geneticist.
Dog shows are a getaway from the stresses of school and work, she says. They’re chance to catch up with her friends and spend time with her dogs. But never one to remain idle, Longshore has started working with professional handlers Mike and Linda Pitts at any show she can get to.
“That was the biggest opportunity that could have come,” Longshore says. “I love those people to bits, that they were so willing to take me on.”
Her advice to young handlers: “Go for it,” she says, but also, “be prepared to do a lot of work.” She believes that training her dogs from scratch, learning how to groom them, and making mistakes in the process have made her a better handler.
“I just kind of figured it out along the way,” Longshore laughs. “I’m still figuring things out … because we’ve never had a dog go this far.”