Blame It On Westminster!

Ok ... so I am not going to lie to you. When I was a kid, I never once blurted out "I want to be a dog food demo girl" when my overbearing aunts pinched my cheeks and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up - even though "Bobby," my pseudo-Basset Hound was always at my side. And it certainly didn't come up in any conversations with my high school guidance councilor even though I was volunteering at the county animal shelter every weekend. In college, after many aptitude tests and a Philosophy degree, my advisor told me that either grad or law school would be an excellent choice - even though "Sartre," my German Shepherd/Traveling Salesman mix had attended most of my classes with me and was laying at my feet. Nope, no one had seen this coming but I was destined to be a dog food demo girl.

I have always been a dog person. It started with the aforementioned “Bobby,” a dog my parents got out of the newsletter that accompanied our daily milk delivery. Long and low, he followed me everywhere - something no one really realized until I tripped over him while getting ready for school. He was waiting for me outside the bathroom door. I lost a tooth in that fall - and had to wait another year before the adult tooth grew in to replace it.

“Muffet” was the first dog that was “all my own.” A white Miniature Poodle, we got her from what would now be called a puppy mill but unheard of at the time. “Muffet” was not much of a Poodle - short muzzled, round eyed, roach backed - but she was a heck of a dog! She taught me a lot - how to use clipper and scissor, how to train, how to accept responsibility for something that was totally dependant. She was patient and smart and knew when and how to say “enough” when I got over-zealous with her. She was a wonderful girl and I can't help but smile when I think of her.

“Sartre” was my college dog. Given to me on my 18th birthday by my Aunt after a visit to the very same shelter where I volunteered, she probably understood Hegel and Socrates and , of course, her namesake, Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as I did - and probably Statistics and Chemistry even better. She was one of those dogs that was naturally obedient, rarely necessitated a lead, and was welcomed everywhere. She loved going to the “Old Grey Mare” and spent many a Friday night listening to folk music and drinking water out of an oversized coffee cup.

It was shortly after graduating that IT happened. I was down with the flu and I watched - and I mean really watched - the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. The pageantry, the precision, and the dogs! Oh! Those dogs! They were perfect - almost magical. I was on the phone not twelve hours after the final day of broadcast and had my very first show dog four months later. Over the subsequent years, attending handling classes became teaching handling, attending dog shows became hosting them, membership in dog clubs became Board of Directors member, and exhibiting became judging, It is an avocation/responsibility/lifestyle that has endured until this day and as anyone who knows me will attest, I am no spring chicken.

Ok … Ok … I know you are wondering what the heck this has to do with being a By Nature Demo Girl. Everything! Five years ago, I was approached by a By Nature representative after a nutritional/performance lecture I did at one of the local dog clubs. A good salesman but lousy dog person (actually, he had never had any animals!), he had questions. I have to admit, I probably didn’t receive him well - the questions were too basic and his approach too much along the lines of “how can I sell this?” But he was lucky - the dog food formulations were actually good … and I had no dogs shows scheduled. We set up a meeting for the following Saturday.

The meeting went well - although I know he was put off by all the studies, articles, and the copy of the NRC’s “Nutritional Requirements of Dogs and Cats” that I gave him. He wanted to learn? Well, this is how you do it - and, I told him, it would be something he would have to keep on doing forever to keep up with the changes in science and the all the new findings - something I had gone back to school to do! It was probably lucky for me that he, being new to the area, had few friends and lots of free time because he proved to be a willing and quick learner. Soon, he asked me to accompany him on his more difficult calls with veterinarians and prospective retailers who were involved with more than just the average pet owner. Those sales calls soon evolved in doing marketing pieces and presentations that would make their way to his boss and then his boss’s boss and, without even really realizing it, the dog food demo girl was born.

Now I travel - to dogs shows and dog club meetings, state and county agricultural and 4-H fairs, pet expos, carnivals, charity fundraisers, and town festivals - to give out samples of By Nature Pet Food and sell a product, certainly … but, perhaps even more importantly to me, to talk dogs and give out the best and most correct information available. It is all about the dogs … which, in my mind, is just as it should be!