Sianna Spieth, who runs the copy center on the first floor of Moss Hall, travelled to New York City last month with her husband Jason and their dog to compete in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. On Feb. 11, their dog Oakie, registered under the name “CH Moonlight’s Most Wanted,” was judged as the top American-English Coonhound in the world.
Spieth and her husband have been raising and showing the same breed for the past 16 years. Currently, they have 27 American-English Coonhounds, as well as three smaller “pet” dogs, and a Great Dane.
“It’s a severe addiction,” Spieth said. “It’s our own personal fun thing to do.”
This past year, Spieth said they probably appeared in 50 different dog shows, spending about one weekend per month attending the various shows. Over the year, they accumulated enough points to come into the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, holding second place in the nation for their breed.
The show the Spieths entered Oakie in was a conformation show rather than an obedience show. In it, all recognized breeds of dog are judged based on how well they conform to the breed standard, or the ideal dog of that breed.
The American Kennel Club, which puts on the show, recognizes 28 different breeds of hounds including six types of Coonhound alone. All together, 3,200 dogs were entered in the invitational show.
Spieth said her favorite part of the experience was showing Oakie along with the winners from the other 31 hound breeds.
“We got to show in Madison Square Gardens in front of the cameras and everything,” she said. “That was cool. And I didn’t fall. I was so afraid I was going to fall in front of national television.”
Spieth said before she met her husband, she showed horses and rode competitively. Also a horseback rider, Jason Spieth enjoyed hunting raccoons. When he took Spieth to his hunting competitions, she realized there was a showing aspect to them, something she both enjoyed and excelled at.
“I like to hunt, but I don’t like to competition-hunt,” Spieth said.
Spieth said she focused on the showing, allowing her husband to concentrate on the hunting.
Together, they began taking their dogs to shows as well as hunts, and they became experts in their breed.
Josh Ewers, friend of the Spieths, is beginning to learn the ropes of hunting and showing along with his wife, Amy. Currently, they are raising one of the Spieths’ puppies to be a hunting and show dog. They have also visited several shows with them, including the one in New York.
“We kinda got suckered into it, really,” Ewers said. “We were just showing horses with them and stuff like that, then Jason asked me if I wanted to go down to Lima, Ohio with him. We went down there to a swamp meet and water dog race, and we’ve kind of been doing it since then.”
The two couples, who met through Ewers selling hay to Jason Spieth, also own horses — 18 altogether — which they race together at the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds and take to horse shows.
The Ewerses, who participated in their first dog show this past weekend, can attest to the Spieths’ merits as breeders.
“I think they probably have the best coon dogs around,” Ewers said. “Most all the [American English] coon dogs that are being shown are out of their stock.”
Of those in shows right now, Jason Spieth said, “probably 70 percent are out of our stock in some way, shape, or form.”
Ewers and Jason Spieth both said they enjoyed more into the hunting aspect of the dogs, while their wives preferred showing more.
“I like taking a young dog pup and starting them and seeing them do what they’re supposed to do,” Jason Spieth said. “And listening to them in the woods at night. If you’ve never heard a dog in the woods at night, you need to go [hunting] sometime.
Having shown dogs as well as horses, Spieth says she enjoys it all, especially the personal element.
“I just enjoy showing, so, I mean, I can go out and show a beef cow, I can go out and show a horse,” she said. “The part I enjoy the most about the dogs is that they’re our dogs; we raised them, we trained them.”
Oakie is the great-great-great grandson of Trailer, the Spieth’s first ever English Coonhound.
Jason Spieth said his favorite part of raising dogs is when they’re young: “I show young dogs usually for her to get them started. I like the pups. It’s a passion”
