A Future in Dogs
by Joseph Esch

My family has been involved as fanciers in the sport of purebred dogs for three generations. My grandparents showed dogs, my parents have been showing dogs for twenty years and I began my own path into the sport with Junior Handling. I applied for the AKC Junior Scholarship program for the 2004-2005 school year and this scholarship was instrumental for allowing me to be able to attend my dream school. I have been attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where I am majoring in Animal Science with emphasis on the pre-veterinary program along with plans to minor in both History and Business. I believe that junior showmanship is one of the most important things that helped convince to me to go into my particular major. I love working with animals and I believe that after I gained this love from working with my dogs in both junior showmanship and the conformation ring.

I have participated in the dog show world as both a Junior Handler and in the Conformation ring showing my family’s dogs. I left the Junior Handling world at the age of 18 but not before I was in the Top 20 and the Top 10 Collie Junior Handlers and I finished my career by winning the Best Junior Handler at the 2003 Collie Club of America National and then attending the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. I am also trying to complete the application to become a Junior Handler Judge. Due to these plans I steward for local dog shows so that I can become more proficient at ring procedure. In the conformation ring I have taken many different dogs into the ring and I put an Award of Merit on my bitch at the 2003 Collie Club of America National. I plan to continue to be involved in showing my dogs and I hope that I will also be able to become a judge. I also applied and hope to be accepted to the AKC Summer Internship Program. This will allow me to continue giving the world good handlers in both their handling skills but also their ring procedure including good sportsmanship.

I gained experience with how to become a good leader when I was in the Boy Scouts, where I was an Eagle Scout at the age of 14. I was a den chief and a troop guide and I loved working with the kids and in my time working with these kids I tried to instill in them the ability to become better men. I also wanted to give them some abilities to be successful in the real world and to learn the value of good sportsmanship. I learned these values myself from not only my parents but through my own personal experience in boy scouts and through my experience in the junior handling ring. I believe that by being a Juniors Judge I can promote the beliefs that I believe make good handlers and will help these young people into growing up into handlers with both good skills but also good sportsmanship skills. I also want to continue to handling my own dogs and after attending school I want to continue either by handling other people’s dogs or by creating my own kennel that will continue in my family’s tradition of showing and owning purebred collies.

My future career plans hopefully include getting a Masters and then attending the PhD and DVM combined program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I had a perfect 4.0 my first semester and I am on the Dean’s List as well. I am a James Honors Scholar and a recipient of the Jonathan Baldwin Turner Scholarship, which both require competitive GPA’s to maintain. I hope with this education I will be able to pursue any sort of career with regards to animals and use my background in veterinary medicine and research. I have found that in my first semester at college after having to do a research paper for an Honors requirement, that I really enjoy doing research with regards to animals. My first paper was entitled “Is it Marketing or is it Research? What is driving the proliferation of commercial dog food of today?” After doing this research paper I realized that I want to be able to do some sort of research with animals. I want to be able to go out into the world and be able to help animals and possibly through research I will be able to find cures for problems for animals.