Westminster Dog Show taps Utahn as agility judge

NEW YORK — When the caller ID showed "Westminster, New York," Tracy Mazur's first thought was it might be spam, followed quickly by thinking that it could be one of her dog training friends pranking her.

She picked up the call anyway.

"This is Paul Campanella," said the voice on the other end, "wondering if you'd like to judge agility at Westminster in January."

Westminster being short for "The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show" that is held every winter in New York City.

Tracy forgets all that she stammered back, other than "Yes!"

Just like that, Utah had its first-ever agility judge at the most famous and prestigious dog show in America.

"How did they pick me?" said Tracy, acknowledging that Utah is not generally considered a dog show hotbed. "I'm not sure, but I'm sure glad they did."

Tracy loves dogs and always has, dating back to when she was born in Wisconsin in 1970 to Rita and Ed Stowers, parents who cared deeply about dogs and how they were treated. One of Tracy's first memories is walking down Main Street in her hometown of Elkhorn carrying a box full of strays her parents had picked up from the Humane Society.

"It was hard for people to resist a cute little kid with a sign that said 'Adopt Me' around her neck," she says with a smile.

Besides looking out for them and breeding them, her parents also trained dogs to compete, sparking the same passion in Tracy. Over the years, she's trained and competed with all manner of breeds, until she settled on her current dog of choice: Cocker spaniels (she has an 8-year-old named Eve who's retired, a 3-year-old named Quill who is currently competing, and a 9-month-old named Ember who is still in training).

She moved to Utah several years ago, immersed herself in the local dog community, and met her husband, T.J., at a dog show agility competition. When Tracy's not doing "dog stuff," which is often, she's the administrative assistant for the preschool department at Canyons School District.

Competing in dog shows is what got her interested in becoming a judge. She was especially drawn to judging the agility events, a job that requires not just rating a dog's performance, but also setting up the obstacle course of teeter-totters, slides, jumps, hurdles and tunnels the canines are required to negotiate at top speed.

At Westminster 2027, she'll be in charge of setting up the agility course at the Javits Convention Center next to the Hudson River in Manhattan. The agility championship will be decided Saturday night, Jan. 30. On Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 1-2, the purebred Best of Show portion of Westminster, where Tracy will be a VIP guest, will be held at nearby Madison Square Garden.

All the events will be televised, as has been the case with Westminster since 1948, making it the longest-running TV sports competition in history.

"What I love about judging is I love watching the teamwork between the human and their dog," said Tracy, "that bond is something you can't put your finger on, but when a human and a dog are running completely in sync, and they're communicating with just their body language or a few words they've been taught, all while running at a high rate of speed, it's just beautiful."

The most important ingredient in a relationship between dog and human, said Tracy, is trust.

"A dog has to be able to feel safe and trust that you will make decisions that are always in their best interest," she said. "How do you build that up? It takes time; you have to do it every day. You have to know how to reward them, when to reward them, what to reward them with. I think it's hard to get to the point of total trust because, as humans, we want it quick and we want to put a label on it. But dogs don't see the world that way, so you kind of have to step into their shoes. Instead of using force, learn to manipulate the environment a little bit, learn to use the human brain to help them."

In New York, it will be her job to judge who does that the very best — all while staying at the official Westminster hotel in midtown, with all expenses paid and a car and driver at her disposal.

Tracy's already gone shopping for new clothes.

"I do have to dress up more than normal," she said, which is totally understandable because "In the dog world, this is about as big as it gets."

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