Choice Wild West: A Tribute (page 2 of 4)

Extraordinary it was - he quickly collected the requisite CACIBs for his International championship and ended up finishing it in 1981 at the young age of 3 years and 10 months. That same year, he started racking up the titles that eventually ended up overshadowing his name by sheer volume. He became “Afghan of the Year”, “Sighthound of the Year” and “Most Successful Show Dog” (all breeds) for the first, but certainly not last, time.

Wild West at 22 months of age

1982 ended up being an off year, primarily as Bodil was in the US on an exchange student program and Wessu pretty much refused to be handled by anyone else. In the ensuing years during which Wessu and Bodil dominated the rings in Finland and neighboring Sweden and Norway, there were many a comment about the seamless cooperation between the two. As Bodil puts it: “I had this special connection with him, like he knew what I was thinking and I knew what he was thinking…”

Once Bodil was back in the country, Wessu resumed his dominance in the rings, adding five more “Afghan of the Year” titles for an unprecedented total of six. In addition, he won “Sighthound of the Year” in the successive years 1983-1986, for a total of five. While he won the “Most Successful Show Dog” (all breeds) title twice, we feel his most impressive points win was for “Dog of the Year” in 1984, as that made him the first sighthound ever to capture that crown, and the only afghan ever to have owned that title in Finland. Given his amazing show career, we feel confident in saying that he remains the top-winning afghan ever in the Nordic countries.

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