The first Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded in 1999 in New York. My responsibility was to make sure that the recipient was there to accept it. That member was Janet P. Horn. At this time I am pleased to announce the award at the first National Specialty Show held in Utah.
In the fall of 1985 I received a phone call from an interested puppy buyer. She was a member of the ACC and was given my name by a member in California who knew I had puppies. At the time the puppy was purchased her interest was “field work” and she wanted a companion dog. I selected the best female puppy in the litter and she was shipped to the buyer.
She became a member of the ACC in 1985. She is also a founding member of a local obedience club (Alyeska Canine Trainers) and a member of Alaska Kennel Club. Within the American Chesapeake Club, she has served as Regional Director pre-1995 and is still the RD. She has chaired multiple Supported Entry shows during this time. In 2006, she became chair of the Agility Committee for five years. That committee subsequently evolved to become Performance Events where she served as chair. Two years later, it became the Companion Events Committee where she continued to serve on the committee as a board liaison. She has also served on the Editorial Committee from 2011 until present day. The real time-consuming work began when she became a Director in 2012 and served on the Board before moving into the job of Secretary under President Joanne Silver. In 2016, she became Vice-President serving under Linda Harger, and then became President of the ACC in 2018. She served for the permitted three years and during that time the renovation and updating of the ROM (Registry of Merit) took place. She continues to serve as Bulletin contributing editor for Obedience & Tracking since 2008, with Rally and Agility added on through the years.
Although Lynda lives in Anchorage, Alaska, there is hardly a National Specialty Show that she has missed. The first one was at Mayo Beach, MD in 1987 and I finally met this person in 1987. The story is still told about “Shemya” who broke out of her airline crate and was wandering around BWI Airport. Fortunately, they were reunited. Since then, the dog crates are double and triple locked and strapped. No one has escaped since!
When Lynda shows up at a Specialty she always lends a helping hand. She has even served as Agility Chair for recent specialty shows – even though it is long distance. She also volunteers as a worker at most agility trials. Because her most serious training is done in the Agility ring – Lynda and her dogs have been participating in the Agility Invitational held in Orlando, FL in December. She is proud to represent our breed – only 5 of each breed are invited every year. She makes the long trip from Alaska to Florida most years when her dog is eligible.
Lynda is known for bidding and buying items at the auctions held with the National and then has to figure out how to get everything back in her suitcase. Now that she is driving a trailer there is plenty of room. She always donates a wonderfully filled Alaska “bag” with special goodies from her state.
And then there are the dogs:
Am/Can/St CH Eastern Waters’ Sanderling OP, Am/Can UD, CGC, St CD, ROMX became Lynda’s foundation bitch. Over the years, she has produced nine litters. Among those they are all Champions. There are three who earned Am/Can UD titles – and three more who earned the CDX title. Then Agility entered the life of the Nuka Bay dogs – and four have earned the Agility championship – a MACH.
I asked Lynda who was her heart dog – and I guessed right: MACH GCH Am/Can/Int’l CH Independence Mine Am/Can UD, GO, VER, RAE4, MSX, MJG, MXP, MJP MXF T2B CGC WD plus eleven more NADAC agility titles and five ASCA agility titles made Inde Lynda’s “most titled Chesapeake.”
The other Chesapeakes with MACH’s are:
A couple of personal vignettes: Lynda and I have been on the obedience team at the National Specialty shows (along with several other “regulars”) and as the years have gone by, she had been flying to Specialty shows. The rest of the team would have to provide her with some of the outfits that we were going to wear. In 2017 in Raleigh, NC I had a large duffle bag with the outfit she needed for Team. That year we were residents in a retirement home, and wore bathrobes, slippers, a shower cap and we carried a long-handled scrub brush, since we were on the way to a shower (along with our water dogs!). I carried all those extras in my van.
The following year, in Ohio in the heat of July, our team went with an American theme of red, white and blue. However, Lynda from Alaska did not own any WHITE pants! Everyone else did. I took a couple of extra pairs, in hopes that one would fit – and one did. She did provide her own red, white and blue ball cap – along with a navy blue shirt.
And one more thing – if you ever go to Alaska – look Lynda up and she will give you the BEST tour and talk about the Alaska pipeline!
I am proud to have Lynda as a friend and to have known her for over 38 years – I see what she has accomplished with her Chesapeakes in many venues over the years. She is supportive of everyone in the sport – no matter which event they are participating in. She is a definite asset to our breed. I thank the Lifetime Achievement Award Committee for the decision to grant this award to Lynda and her Nuka Bay Chesapeakes.
Submitted by Betsy Horn Humer