Feb. 20—Ruth Vogel of Effingham has been training dogs for most of her life, and she just recently added some new awards to her long list of accomplishments in the field.

Last fall, the local trainer and her dog, Hart, received several awards at the 2023 American Wirehaired Pointing Griffon Association (AWPGA) National Specialty in Helena, Montana.

The roughly four-and-a-half-year-old Hart, whose full kennel name is Moonshine’s Hart Beats Red White and Blue, was recognized as a Versatile Griffon and AWPGA 2023 Field Dog of the Year at the event where many of the roughly 400 members of the AWPGA, the American Kennel Club’s parent club for Griffons, meet every year.

“I always try to go,” Vogel said in an interview. “We have been from Maine to Montana for different specialties. We’re planning on going to Winston-Salem next October, and then it will be in the central region here in 2025.”

Hart also won the AWPGA 2023 Korthals Vision Award, which is given to dogs that best embody the vision of Eduard Korthals, who is credited as the first breeder of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons.

“This is Korthals’ because he envisioned a dog that was structurally correct and could hunt,” Vogel said.

Vogel said the phrase, “Show dogs that hunt and hunt dogs that can show,” is often used to describe dogs that fit this vision. Hart has been successful in a variety of areas since he began training, earning the American Kennel Club title of Grand Champion, Master Hunter, Companion Dog, Tracking Dog and Rally Excellent.

“And then the award that I like the best is the Versatile Griff, because you have to qualify, get enough points at various different things,” Vogel said. “He’s already now qualified for the Versatile Griff Excellent, and I plan to apply for that.”

Vogel expects to receive the Versatile Griffon Excellent title at the AWPGA’s 2024 National Specialty.

Hart is one of many dogs Vogel has trained over the years. She said his name comes from the “lopsided” heart shaped brown spots, which could be seen more vividly when he was a puppy with whiter fur. She also noted that each dog in Hart’s litter was given a patriotic name because they were born on July 3. Hart was bred by Jessica Frazier and Elaine Hunsicker, and, in addition to Vogel, he’s owned by Frazier and Doug Reimann.

About five years ago, Vogel, who grew up in Altamont, moved to Effingham from Des Moines, where she worked for a distributor that sold building materials to contractors in the Des Moines area before retiring.

“I decided to retire, and about two weeks before that, I had a friend who had a boarding kennel with grooming and training. And she had just fired her manager,” Vogel said.

Vogel quickly became the manager of the kennel and remained in that position for seven years. After moving to Effingham, Vogel joined the Dog Training Club of Champaign-Urbana, where she works as a trainer.

“I joined there about two years ago because when I moved to Effingham, I couldn’t find any training clubs,” Vogel said. “And I can highly recommend them. I’ve learned things from them that I didn’t learn in all my other years.”

Although retirement has allowed her to focus more on dog training, Vogel began training dogs long before retirement, and before owning Griffons, she owned Rottweilers.

“I’ve been training all along,” Vogel said. “When I got my first Rottweiler, it took me about two weeks to realize I’ve got to do dog training because otherwise I wouldn’t have had control of him. And I enjoyed it.”

Despite her love for Rottweilers, Vogel eventually began looking for other breeds of dogs because of all the health issues Rottweilers and susceptible to, and her own Rottweiler developed a seizure disorder. One particularly serious seizure caused him to lose vision in one of his eyes.

“It took the veterinary hospital in Ames, Iowa three days to bring it under control,” Vogel said. “And I learn after the fact, ‘Yeah, it was in his pedigree. So I decided that was enough Rottweilers.”

Vogel decided she wanted a Griffon when she saw one while watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on television.

“I said, ‘I like the looks of that dog,’ so I started looking, researching, looking at pedigrees, and the pedigree I wanted was out east,” Vogel said. “What caught my attention initially was the size and the appearance and their trainability and their just sweet personalities. What’s not to like?”

Initially, she struggled to find a Griffon breeder, but she eventually discovered the dog she’d been looking for at a meet and greet event at a dog show in Des Moines where the public was had the chance to meet dogs of a variety of breeds. It was there that she met a female Griffon that lived just 30 miles away from her home at the time.

“I looked under the table, and there she was,” Vogel said.

After vetting Vogel to make sure she’d be a responsible owner, the breeder gave her one of the 13 dogs in the Griffon’s litter, Benelli, and Vogel has been a Griffon owner ever since.

“He was a lovely sweet dog,” Vogel said.

Over the years, Vogel has met and worked with many other dog trainers and joined several dog clubs, including the Des Moines Obedience Training Club, the American Rottweiler Club and, of course, the AWPGA.

“I met a lot of nice people who remain friends to this day,” Vogel said. “People who enjoy dog training also enjoy sharing that knowledge.”

Vogel trains Hart in several different areas, including hunting which Hart is able to do at a hunting preserve in a village outside of Champaign which is owned by fellow trainer Debbi Koeberlein.

“She loves to train hunting dogs,” Vogel said. “She breeds shorthairs, and when I heard about her, then I went up and started training with her.”

Hart is now quite the skilled hunter which has helped him succeed at hunt tests held by dog clubs.

“If a bird is shot over him, and it’s still alive; it’s still alive when he hands it to me,” Vogel said. “We couldn’t have done our Senior Hunter and Master Hunter without her help.”

Another area Hart has proven to be effective in is tracking which Vogel has been teaching dogs to do for years.

“The dog follows human scent from a given starting point with a personal item,” she said. “And then their supposed to follow where that person went without the handler knowing where it is. I’m helping teaching a tracking class, and we just finished it.”

To win awards like those Hart recently received, Vogel trains with him four times a week, and, fortunately, she has a training area in the basement of her home in Effingham. It’s equipped with agility bars, a grooming station and a bath designed for dogs.

Although she’s happy with Hart’s recent awards, Vogel is looking forward to seeing what else Hart is able to achieve, especially in her favorite area of training, tracking.

“Our first Griff, Benelli, was the first Champion Tracker Griff,” Vogel said. “Eight years later, there’s only been one other, so I hope that he will be the third one.

“But it means we’ve got to put a lot of miles in.”

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.