When he passed away in 2018, he left behind beloved family members and a wide circle of friends who mourned him deeply. They remembered the affectionate man for his loyalty, his warmth, and especially for a mischievous sense of fun that often came with a theatrical flare – dry quips and expressive body language included.
Colleagues, however, described Dr. Richard Meen as a “giant” in the sphere of his chosen profession of psychiatry. Thomas Bradley, former chairman of the Westminster KC Dog Show, once said of Meen, “He’s a psychiatrist, and he should have been an actor.” But we get ahead of ourselves.
Born in 1940 in Canada, Dr. Dick, as he was affectionately known, studied medicine at the University of Western Ontario and completed postgraduate psychiatric training, including a diploma in psychiatry at the University of Toronto, before entering practice in the late 1960s. Over more than four decades in psychiatry, he became particularly noted for his work with troubled youth and with communities in Canada’s Far North, where he focused on providing mental health care to vulnerable and underserved populations.
His real exposure to purebred dogs came when he routinely walked past a house that had two Afghan Hounds in the yard as a university student in Ontario in 1959. He became smitten with their exotic elegance, and may never have guessed that one day, he would be entrenched in the dog world. He purchased his own Afghan Hound in 1965, and soon developed a particular interest in sighthounds, though he and his partner, Dr. John Reeve‑Newson, would eventually breed and/or exhibit many breeds under the Kishniga prefix founded in 1971. They included Afghan Hounds, of course, but also Borzoi (one of their most famous was Ch. Kishniga’s Desert Song), Scottish Deerhounds, Italian Greyhounds, Skye Terriers, Harriers, French Bulldogs, Old English Sheepdogs and Doberman Pinschers, many of them group and Best in Show–winners.
He began to judge in the late 1990s, and eventually became licensed to judge all breeds at major shows around the world. He was selected to judge Best in Show at the 140th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in 2016.
He had earned the honor. He was a founding member of both Borzoi Canada and Skye Canada, and had served as President and Chairman of the Board of the Canadian Kennel Club. Dr. Dick was celebrated for many accomplishments, but we have a particular interest in his articulation of the nine characteristics shared by all sighthounds, a functional and aesthetic description rooted in his decades of experience several sighthound breeds. The list is still quoted and discussed by breed experts, and we share it below:
1) Keen eyes need to sight prey;
2) Clever enough to work and turn prey with its hunting partner;
3) Fast enough to catch up to the chosen prey;
4) Strong enough to throw it to the ground;
5) Determined enough to kill or hold the prey;
6) Extremely elegant;
7) Graceful in outline;
8) Floating movement, and
9) Essentially silent and not barky.
Do you agree?
Image by Nan Kilgore Little
http://
https://www.facebook.com/