3X Sel CH Altana's Mystique

Breeder: Maureen C. Charlton

Owner: Jane Firestone

Sire: MV Sel CH Proven Hill's Up N Adam ROM

Dam: CH Covy's Altana of Tucker Hill ROM/C OFA

GSDbyDesign: How did you come to have Mystique's owners as clients? Who approached who?

Sheree: Jane (Firestone) approached Jim. She wanted a good German Shepherd to be promoted to the American public; one with good temperament. Jim found Manhattan (CH Covy-Tucker Hill’s Manhattan ROM OFA the only GSD and the only member of the Herding Group to win BIS at Westminster in history), who Jane had co-owned. With that dog, Jim began primarily going to all-breeds. Manhattan was a great ambassador for the breed. Prior to that time, there had been a few GSD winners, but Manhattan is really the dog that put the GSD on the map there.

Photos courtesy James and Sheree Moses Above left: BIS under Mrs. E. K. Martin; Sept. 20, 1994.  Right: BIS at the Orange Empire Dog Club; undated.  Below left: BIS under Connie Barton; April 20, 1994.  Right: BIS under Dr. Harry Smith; undated.

    He had been raised by girl that did a lot of Schutzhund work, which made him ball crazy. He had a good puppyhood, as well as excellent character and temperament. When Manhattan retired, Jane was out of dogs for a few years, but she wanted another. So Jim started looking. That's how it got started.

    We had been showing Custom Made (CH Bramblewood’s Custom Made ROM OFA), a favorite of Jim's. On Friday night, we were talking during the drive (in a snowstorm) en route to Lubbock, Texas, about the dogs we were worried about competing against. Jim said Mystique.

    Four days later, Conan bloated and died. Shortly after, we got a letter in the mail from Joan Hunt Smith, who co-owned Mystique, offering condolences for Conan. She also asked if Jim was interested in another dog she had. Jim wrote back and said he wasn’t interested in that one, but he wanted Mystique.”

    Her owners had tried to breed Mystique but she missed. But that didn’t matter to Jim and Sheree – they wanted to show, not breed. "We got her at the end of February 1992, started showing her in March, and showed her through the Garden (Westminster) two years later,” Sheree said.
    She won 19 consecutive Best In Shows and 144 consecutive Group Firsts. Her pigment was all-natural. In the two years she was campaigned, Mystique earned 275 Best In Shows and more than 30 Best In Specialty Shows, plus three Select titles at the National. She is the Top Show Dog of All Time and is in the 1999 Guinness Book of World Records.

GSDbyDesign: Did you set out to break records with her – how did it happen?
    “We finished a weekend in Oregon and Jim had a cold. He didn’t want to get on plane and go to Iowa for the Monday show. I told him,
if we went and we could win, we would break the bitch record for Bests in less than six months of showing. We went and we won BIS and broke the record.
    "As far as records go, she was the right dog, in the right place, at the right time,” Sheree said. “She was a beautiful mover, but she also had all the details that made her a good all-breed dog - straight ears, very beautiful. . . Traditionally, bitches didn’t do as well (in Group and Best In Show competition). But she was just such a pretty girl; you could win under Toy breeders. She was also a big girl – 70-75 pounds, but pretty. In the group ring, feminine bitches tend to get lost sometimes. The Working and Hound people want a big dog. Mystique was big enough, pretty enough and sound enough. She was the right dog, in the right place, with the right combination of attributes. You can have it all, you really can. Records are made to be broken.“

GSDbyDesign: How old was she when she broke the record for BIS/BISS?
    "We were at the Columbus KC in the spring of 1994. The Judge was Jane Kay. That was her 215th BIS.
    "I think Mystique could have gotten 300 BISs, but Jane (Firestone) had a massive heart attack at the dog shows in Miami. She died and her family had us show her through Westminster. We won the Group there and retired her. Jane left her to Jim in her will. Mystique lived out the rest of her days with Lucy (Moses)."

GSDbyDesign: What kind of show dog was Mystique? Did she like to bait? Free stack? What were her strengths in the ring?
    “She didn’t particularly like to bait or free stack. Jim would stack her and tell her to stay, and back up. She'd look at me, and he would pretend to bait her. We had to let her walk into a stack and look at me or Cocoa (Mystique’s canine best friend). Her strength was that she was such a sound dog, physically. She really didn’t put her feet down wrong."
“I remember we were under a well-known all-breed judge at a May indoor show somewhere and he beat us because of double handling. He put up Chip Rayner and gave Mystique BOS. He told Jim, ‘You’ve got to train her.’ Fast-forward a year. Mystique had been on a roll now and people always want to beat a winner. We were showing in Idaho and she won every BIS there in five shows.
    “The last day, it was 90 degrees. Dogs, especially smart dogs, get bored really easily. We had gone to 186 dog shows that year, plus specialties. It wasn't horrible for the dog – a sad, miserable, unhappy dog does not go Best In Show. We had dedicated our lives to making her happy. We were being paid to win and happy dogs win. But now, she's sick of it. She doesn’t want to run - been there, done that. And that same well-known judge who beat us a year before is doing BIS.
    “Jim wanted Mystique more animated. I’ve got to get her attention, but we know this judge hates doubling. I told Jim to take her to the ring. I took Cocoa and made her hop in the car and started the engine. Mystique thought we were leaving.
“I gunned engine a bit and started to back up. That dog flew around the ring. When it was time for her individual, I loaded the car, threw the luggage out of back; I just kept making noise so she'd watch me. I was yelling, ‘Come on, Cocoa, let's go.’ Mystique flew around the ring again. I was a couple hundred yards away. We won.
    "After it was over, the judge said to Jim, ‘I told you that you don't need to double handle.’ Jim replied, ‘You're absolutely right.’ "
 

Photos courtesy James and Sheree Moses Above right: BIS at the Wyoming Valley KC; undated. Right: Mystique and Sheree's two children, undated.
“As a breed, we do not teach these dogs to double handle for joy. . . . We breed these dogs to be aloof; they are not overly given to friendliness. So what do we do when we go to show? We hand them to a stranger and go and hide. What part of that fosters good character and sound disposition? The dog typically goes into the ring with a stranger holding the lead so they don't hang out with their buddy – they gait. Then we have another stranger (a judge) come and stalk them while we're hiding. Am I saying they should be spooky? Absolutely not. I am saying that the way we train them fosters anxiety so that they will gait around a National ring. God forbid you have a heavy-handed handler. The dog thinks, ‘Where's my mother? This guy is hurting me.’ It’s a testament to their temperament that despite what we do to them, they still end up sound.” - Sheree Moses

GSDbyDesign: What did you have to try to improve with her before hitting the ring?
    “She had to get used to an all-breed setting. She was not accustomed to the grind of an all-breed career. In order to keep her winning, we had to make sure she had a good time.
    “We did that with Cocoa mostly. I used to lay awake at night thinking of what to do to make it fun.”
    “As a breed, we do not teach these dogs to double handle for joy. From the time our dogs are little, we ask them ‘Where's your momma?’ We breed these dogs to be aloof; they are not overly given to friendliness. So what do we do when we go to show? We hand them to a stranger and go and hide. What part of that fosters good character and sound disposition?” Sheree said. “The dog typically goes into the ring with a stranger holding the lead so they don't hang out with their buddy – they gait. Then we have another stranger (a judge) come and stalk them while we're hiding.
    “Am I saying they should be spooky? Absolutely not. I am saying that the way we train them fosters anxiety so that they will gait around a National ring. God forbid you have a heavy-handed handler. The dog thinks, ‘Where's my mother? This guy is hurting me.’ "
    "It’s a testament to their temperament that despite what we do to them, they still end up sound.”
    "In Schutzhund, everything is about building confidence. But they make it fun; we don't make it fun. We make it nerve-wracking. You have to make it fun for that dog. Maybe that means you have a war with your handler, or maybe you run around the ring with a chicken leg. Maybe some dogs will do it because you rub their head and tell them what a good kid they are. But you have to make it fun. That’s what we did with Mystique."
 

GSDbyDesign: Was Mystique ever bred? If so, to whom and did the progeny go on to become show dogs?
    We tried, but she missed. At that point, she was 7 years old and that was it.

GSDbyDesign: Please share with us your fondest memory of her campaign.
    “We had so many good times with her – nerve-wracking times, too. . . 
    "We were at a photo shoot in Santa Barbara on the beach. Mystique was on the edge of the water. It’s a great photo
(below). "But I also have pictures of Cocoa and I from that day. I am up to my chest in freezing water to get her head and ears up."  (Laughs).