Jess Trains Dogs, LLC

Oh my heart

Meet Miss Firecracker
Young handler Mackenzie Wagoner brought smiles all around at the Newfoundland national. In the Newfoundland Club of America’s upcoming Gazette column “Big Dogs, Little Handlers,” Katie Dolan writes about the pure joy youngsters are bringing to the sport. (photo courtesy Tami Palomba/NCA)

More about Mackenzie, a third-generation dog-show kid, from Katie’s column: “Mackenzie entered her first conformation ring when she was only 3 years old. Handler Samantha Brainard was in the ring beside Mackenzie and a Newfoundland, using a double leash. Samantha says, ‘Mackenzie is a firecracker. She is totally comfortable around dogs and has a natural understanding of animals—a 4-year-old going on 14. At last year’s national, she dressed for the ring every day. She helped watch the dogs in the ex-pens, held my bag at ringside and handed me supplies I needed, and gave out plenty of treats.’ ”

Read the full column, along with a full slate of Sporting and Working Group breed columns, in the July AKC Gazette arriving in your inbox next week. If you don’t already subscribe to the Gazette, you can do so at https://www.akc.org/subscribe/ It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s free!

VIEWER ALERT— AKC Agility Premier Cup on ESPN: Sunday, June 28, at 3:00 pm ET (check local listings). Commentary by Carolyn Manno, Kelly O’Donnell, and Carrie DeYoung.

June AKC Gazettehttps://images.akc.org/pdf/gazette/june-2026.pdf

Back issues https://www.akc.org/products-services/magazines/akc-gazette/

AKC Down and Back podcast https://www.akc.org/about/down-and-back-akc-podcast/

Gazette on Substack https://akcmagazines.substack.com

Gazette on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/

AKC Digital Library https://library.akc.org/

Happy weekend! We’ll see you around the rings.