Julep is not like all of the other dogs that roam the Quad with their owners when the weather warms for the first time in February. Julep is a Westminster Dog Show ribbon holder, and her owner Brenna Potash worked hard to get her there.

The senior majoring in consumer science recently participated in the Westminster Dog Show in New York City and won Best of Breed with Julep, a 2-and-half-year-old bluetick coonhound. Potash said her dog is anything but just a show dog to her.

“I tell people who say, ‘Oh, she’s just a show dog,’ that, actually, [her being a] show dog is the icing on the cake, per se. She would be my pet first, my hunting dog second and then my show dog,” Potash said. “Saturday I took her out, and she treed a raccoon, not even five days from winning at the Westminster Dog Show.”

Having her dog follow these three avenues can be a lot to juggle, though Potash noted that all dogs, whether Best in Show at Westminster or regular pets, are perfect. Misconceptions often form about show dogs, as people view them as either frivolous or fully trained and perfect specimens.

“It’s hard to have a pure hunting dog as a show dog, because if you’re at an outside show, what’s the first thing they’re going to look for? Animals. Or they see a little dog, and they automatically think, ‘Furry animal. I’m supposed to chase it.’ [The same goes with] people at Westminster wearing fur coats,” Potash said.

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Potash has had a passion for dogs her entire life, and she has been surrounded by them throughout. She currently resides in a house with three dogs – Julep, Diesel and Maggie. Potash said she remembers being more fascinated as a kid with collars in the dog aisle at Target than with the toy aisle. Potash began competing in shows at the age of 11, more out of her own will than that of her parents.

“It was more her determination,” Laura Potash, Brenna’s mother, said. “She said she wanted to ride horses, and I said, ‘If you fall off a dog, you can’t get hurt that much. Especially a dachshund.’ Because that was the first breed that she showed.”

By chance, a dachshund breeder the family had met contacted the Potash family about Brenna Potash getting a dachshund, and six months later, Brenna Potash entered her first show, taking the prize with her dog Domino.

“She was just a natural. She has a real way with animals,” Laura Potash said. “It wasn’t something we spent a big journey looking for. It just kind of happened.”

Her mother said it has been quite the journey. Since age 11, Brenna Potash has been competing against professionals and winning.

“For Brenna, but for any kid who does this, it takes a lot of determination and work, because I didn’t do it,” Laura Potash said. “I didn’t groom her dog, wash it, show it and get it ready. You have to be a really strong kid, because it’s a different sport. In high school, other kids didn’t understand, and maybe they kind of made fun of her a little, a lot sometimes, but you know, it was something she wanted to do.”

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This misunderstanding of the sport has followed Brenna Potash to college, more in the form of professors than fellow students, though she said many men have a hard time accepting a loss against her in raccoon hunting. While juggling training her dogs and taking them to shows, Brenna Potash also balances her school work and social life.

“I have to make sure I get home every night to my dogs, because they’re my first priority,” Brenna Potash said.

During her sophomore year, Brenna Potash had to give up going to Westminster because a teacher refused to cancel a test.

“I’ve had teachers who weren’t supportive of me, that weren’t going to let me miss a class or make up a test. [Westminster] is the same dates every year, the same Monday and Tuesday every February. I cannot change that,” Brenna Potash said. “I wish teachers understood that there are things students do that aren’t football, basketball or baseball. You can’t stunt their dreams.”

Brenna Potash has recently found a support system within her major. While at Westminster, she was stranded due to bad weather, and she missed a test in her CSM-201 class, taught by Courtney McGahey.

“She is very hardworking. For lack of a better word, she has her stuff together,” said McGahey, an assistant professor and advisor for the consumer science major. “With what she’s doing, it’s like the Super Bowl for her, so there was no way I was going to say, ‘No, you can’t go. You have a test.’ In my mind, we all have so many things on our plate. So if our students work so hard for something like that, we need to help them out and find a way to make it happen.”

The day of her showing at Westminster, Brenna Potash and her father arrived to the competition worried. She said the nerves did not dissipate for her until she held the ribbon in her hand.

“I was a lot more nervous to show in Breed than I was in Group,” Brenna Potash said. “You can tell in the video when I get nervous, because Julep starts moving her feet. Dog show handlers always say the nervousness from the person moving moves down the leash of the dog to the dog.”

On Tuesday, Brenna Potash received a signed football and letter from Terry and Nick Saban congratulating her on the recent accomplishments. However, she said she remains uncertain whether Westminster will be on her plate again. She is working toward Julep becoming the first-ever hunting-titled dog that is an American Kennel Club conformation champion, or show champion within the AKC. She also has plans to enter her dog Diesel into shows soon.

Either way, Brenna Potash said she has learned a lot through dog showing, including what her mother says is simply being true to herself and powering through struggles and setbacks.

“A lot of things with life can be explained through a dog show,” Brenna Potash said. “A dog show is like a mini-life.”

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