Youngest In Show

Letesha Girth, a 12-year-old dog handler, proves she can hold her own in a ring of adults.

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When she first got Trouble, Letesha had to practice nightly for more than an hour.

At first Dad was resistant. He thought dog shows were not for him and political, but he’s since changed his mind. Ron, Sandy and Letesha make going to dog shows a family affair. “I’ve never seen anything that’s more fun as a family sport than this,” Ron says. “I was the one who didn’t want anything to do with it, and now I’m hooked.”

Sandy still does all the grooming, fluffing and perfecting of Trouble before the shows, but Letesha does all the work in the ring. “It’s pretty intense,” Bumm says. Each dog and handler have to go through several rounds to earn points, she explains, and at each level, anticipation grows. “It gets pretty competitive. You have to get 15 points to become a champion, and you get more points if you place in the rounds. Some are just in it for the fun of it, and you want to win, but some really want to win.”

While Letesha was training Trouble, they were in the homemade ring outside their house for an hour or so every night for several months on end. When it shows, Sandy explains, a dog has to have attitude. It has to look like it owns the ring. Letesha also had to train Trouble to place his feet in the proper spot and stick his ears up straight. These days she only has to practice a couple times a week to keep both of their ring skills fresh. “Show dogs are not a push-button machine,” Ron says. “There’s a misperception that they’re mistreated, but they really have the best life.”

Whether Letesha’s next chapter in dog handling continues on with Trouble is up in the air. Although she has raised and trained Trouble, she co-owns the dog with a professional dog handler Noble Inglett, who won The Westminster Kennel Club show in New York City with a Pomeranian in 2006. The handler will come look at Trouble in the next month and decided if he wants to take him to the top-tier shows. The family harbors no hard feelings. They want
Trouble to go as far as possible, and a professional handler might be the only one who can do that. Trouble could be at Westminster as early as next year.
If the dog does go on with the other handler, Letesha plans to still show. She’s interested in showing other breeds and thinks showing will be something she’ll always do. She does climb trees and ride bikes like other kids, but she also has the somewhat rare achievement of having walls covered and photo albums filled with awards and ribbons.