Our friend over at the AKC, Bud Boccone, Managing Editor of the AKC Gazette, has a marvelous video about an early icon in the dog fancy, a Doberman Pinscher named, “Storm,” aka Ch. Rancho Dobe’s Storm. Born in 1949, Storm lived with Len and Shirley Carey starting at the age of two months, and when the Careys realized Storm was once-in-a-lifetime dog, professional handler Peter Knoop became charged with developing his career. Storm won Best of Breed at his first show as an adult – he was sixteen months old – and would repeat the feat in all 25 of the shows he was entered into becoming undefeated in breed competition.

Bud does a terrific job of sharing Storm’s story, and bringing into the narrative the biggest threat to Storm’s career, the Boxer, Bang Away. Storm and Bang Away went head to head just six times in Working Group ring, and Storm walked away the victor in four of the six matchups.

Of his performance at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 1952, Life magazine would later report: “During the final judging, Storm stood motionless for thirteen full minutes while the judge [Joseph Sims] looked over the field of six. As Storm held his pose—few human beings, let alone dogs, can stand still for thirteen minutes—the eyes of one onlooker after another swung to him and remained fixed, until at last 12,000 people were staring breathlessly at him. Finally, Sims approached him, and at that instant Storm turned his head, peered puckishly up at the judge, then resumed the pose. The crowd gave one prolonged roar, and kept on roaring until Sims signaled that Storm had won the show.”

That, dear readers, is why it’s called a dog show. The description foreshadowed another dog whose performance was called, “the stack heard around the world, ” and that was Carlee, the German Shorthaired Pointer. Carlee won Best in Show at Westminster in 2005, and proving that good breeding counts, Carlee’s grandson, “CJ,” would go on to win Best in Show at Westminster in 2016 with no less an impressive free stack.  But we digress.

Storm and Bang Away’s most famous meeting came at that Westminster show in 1952, but for the superstitious, things didn’t look good for Storm. It had been thirteen years since a Doberman had won Best in Show

Royal Doulton Doberman Pinscher Ch. ‘Rancho Dobe’s Storm’ HN2643
Model #1508
Approx 16cm tall
Designer: Peggy Davies
c.1955-1985

at Westminster. It was Storm’s thirteenth show, and almost unbelievably, he was registered in the show catalogue as #13.

Bang Away was the defending Best in Show champion, but he never made it out of the working group because Storm won the group, and would go on to win his first Westminster Best in Show. It would seem that thirteen turned out to be Storm’s lucky number: It was the thirteenth time that Peter Knopp,  Storm’s handler during the show, had handled a dog to Best in Show.

Storm had become a rock star.

Royal Doulton released a ceramic figurine of him, and in 1993, Storm became one of only three  conformation show dogs in the Hall of Fame at the Museum of the Dog in St. Louis, Missouri. (the other two were Ch. Bang Away of Sirrah Crest and Ch. Vin-Melca’s Vagabond, a Norwegian Elkhound.

Storm was retired after his second Best in Show win at Westminster in 1953, and was the beloved house pet of the Carey family until he died in 1960 at the age of 10 plus.

Thumbnail image of Storm: By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34282653