Top Dogby Duane Beeson

Northwestern student establishes national reputation as dog handler

DOUG BURG

It’s Saturday morning in the park, and seven-year-old Zach shows evidence of his lively cairn terrier heritage. Like his ancestors, bred to hunt vermin in the Scottish Highlands, the dog quickly notices the squirrel to the right and the bird behind him. While perfectly coiffed by his handler, Riley DeVos, the little dog is more interested in what’s going on around him than in his upcoming photo shoot.

Yet Zach also conveys the qualities that made him one of the top cairn terriers in the nation. One minute he’s licking DeVos’ face; the next he responds to her command and holds perfectly still, legs out and tail raised.

DeVos, a senior elementary education major from Le Mars, Iowa, showed Zach twice at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York’s Madison Square Garden and at the Eukanuba National Championship in 2006 and 2007. Her work with him and other dogs has led her to become known as one of the nation’s up-and-coming dog handlers.

She handles dogs for other owners around the country, is working toward becoming a junior showmanship judge, and is trying her hand at breeding the next generation of dog show winners. DeVos also trains misbehaving dogs and does some grooming.

It all started in the fifth grade with a book about show dogs and a visit to Tom De Koster’s (’64) class by dog handler Mary Fedders. Fascinated with the cairn terrier and Fedders’ stories of dog shows, DeVos volunteered to write a thank-you note to the classroom guest.

“I told her I wanted to show dogs someday,” says DeVos. Impressed, Fedders invited the girl to join her at a local show and allowed her to show a puppy.

It was an inauspicious beginning—placing second out of two entries—but DeVos was hooked. “I thought it was the best thing ever.”

Two years later, DeVos brought home a puppy on Christmas eve. It was Zach, handpicked as a great show prospect by Fedders.

While a high school student, DeVos went to shows 40 weekends a year with Zach and other dogs. Spending only a few hours a week with her dogs while at Northwestern has helped her realize how much she misses them.

“I really like that I can take a dog and, within a few minutes, develop a bond with it. And I love the feeling of teamwork in the ring. It’s amazing that a dog knows what I want just from the way I look at him,” says DeVos, whose dogs have won nearly every award possible except for best in show.

DeVos’ ability to make dogs respond to her is the result of a studious devotion to her sport. “She reads everything she can get her hands on about dogs,” says Fedders, who co-owns all her dogs with the Northwestern student. “She observes other handlers and learns from them.”

Riley DeVos celebrates a Best of Breed win in Chicago with cairn terrier Petra.

During the summer, DeVos ramps up her dog show schedule, handling at shows from Omaha to Fargo and Minneapolis to Chicago. It’s a schedule she could see herself doing for years as a special education teacher.

DeVos has several dog show friends who are also going into special education. “There are so many similarities between how you work with dogs and children,” she says. “You need to be patient, loving and caring, but sometimes you have to be firm.”

DeVos spent the previous two summers teaching teens from Girls Inc. to do dog training as a way to help build their confidence and learn a life skill. She knows from personal experience how effective that can be.

“I used to be incredibly shy; I would be in tears talking in front of a group. Having to carry myself as a teenager in front of people at a dog show and be seen as somebody who knows what she’s doing helped make me more mature and self-confident.”

Watching from the sidelines for most of that time was Fedders, the mentor who saw something in a wide-eyed fifth grader and gave her many opportunities.

“She’s like my kid,” says Fedders. “We’ve been to shows around the country, done breedings together, walked puppies together. When you’re waiting hours for puppies to be born, you become quite close. I think she’s a really special young lady.”

A rare breed, indeed.