My President’s Post in the latest addition of the Maticar.  Read more here 

Dear Members:

Can you believe it is already the second half of January! I hope all the

Podengos big and small are enjoying the winter and are staying warm.

I live in New England and my Pequenos are enjoying the unusual winter we are having. They love

snuggling up by the fire and not having to dig through the snow like last year.

The Podengo world lost a great ambassador when Manny died. We send our condolences to all

who knew him and loved him. It is always hard on the family when a beloved pet passes, but I

think Manny’s passing will be hard on the entire Podengo community because of the road he

forged for all of us.

I have important topics that I would like to discuss with our

members. Some of these are issues that I think need to be re-
solved at the ukc level. My agenda as your President will be to

advance our position on these issues and achieve favorable reso-
lutions.

1. Membership! We need members of all sizes. Pequenos,

Medios and Grandes. I call on each of you to invite other po-
dengo fanciers that you know to join us.

2. The Podengo Breed Standard. It needs some tweaking.

Kip has worked to fix some of the history in the standard.

Please take a moment and study it, then let us know your

thoughts.

3. Shows. We need more Podengos at shows. We need to

identify the reasons why people are not attending ukc shows

with their Podengos and address them.

4. Judging by Size and Coat. I would like to petition the

UKC to adopt the FCI approach for showing Podengos. Cur-
rently, all Podengos are judged in one breed class at UKC shows,

with just one winner going to group. The FCI splits the Poden-
gos by size and by coat. They still have one standard, as would

we. This will not be an easy point to win but would be an

enormous improvement.

PORTUGUESE PODENGO CLUB OF AMERICA WINTER 2016 NEWSLETTER

5. Specialty. Mark your calendars and plan on attending the 2016 Specialty. We had a fantastic

time at the specialty this summer. I hope we can build on that success to make 2016 better than

ever. We have planned an exciting event in April as part of the Carolina Classic. It’s sure to be a

great time.

6. Breed Education. I believe the judges in the UKC could benefit from breed education in

regards to the Podengos. We need a plan to make this happen.

7. Statistics. Other than the top 10 list that the UKC publishes, we have no collective record of

our wins. We need to develop a way to keep track of Podengos winning Best in Show or how

many sighthounds we beat to win a Group 1. I have started working on this issue already and look

forward to sharing the results with you.

8. Unity. This club is for all Podengos. We urge the Medio and Grande community to become

more involved. As Uncle Sam would say… We Want YOU!

I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on these issues. Please email me at President@Po-
dengos.com. We can only accomplish these objectives if we work together as a team.

Which reminds me of my last thought. I believe we are a team. We have to be a team. For all

intents and purposes, Podengos are new to this game. There are not enough Podengos in the

United States for any smaller group of us to venture out on our own. We need to continue to

work together despite our size or the length of our coat. When I suggested that the UKC have us

enter the ring separately by size and variety, by no means did I mean that we shouldn’t be ONE

Club. I firmly believe that we need the safety and strength of our combined numbers. We need to

work together to make the Podengo Breed a better place. We should do our best to eliminate all

in-fighting and back biting. The Pequenos are not against the Grandes. Smooths are not better

than Wires. We are just different varieties of the best dog EVER. Let’s make our dogs proud and

work together to preserve their lineage and make it even stronger in the future.

Enjoy your Podengos and be contagious in sharing that joy with others.

Margaret