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NORFOLK — It was a few days after Thanksgiving, and dog handler Bevin Towell, 18, was two weeks away from his last shot at winning the prestigious American Kennel Club Nationals in Orlando, Florida.
But there was a problem: His dog Target, a 5-year-old löwchen, was missing from his family’s Norfolk home.
Löwchen are one of the rarest breeds, in danger of going extinct. Some estimates suggest there are fewer than 200 in existence.
Target is considered the gold standard for the historic European breed, which was known as a companion to royalty. Target’s coat, temperament and health have garnered more than a dozen Best in Show and Best of Breed wins over the years. As a stud dog, löwchen enthusiasts say Target’s contribution to the gene pool is priceless.
Bevin was distraught that late November day, fearing that he would never see his dog again. While he was most concerned for Target’s health, he also wondered: If Target was found safe, would he be in any condition to go to the Junior Showmanship competition on Dec. 17?
A family affair
Alysha Towell, Bevin’s mother, never thought she’d start a junior handler dynasty. One, she never thought her kids would want to show dogs, and two, she never thought she’d have 10 kids.
About 10 years ago, her oldest child and only daughter had to give up her prize 4H goats when the Air Force family had to move unexpectedly. When the teenager told her parents they had ruined her life, the parents promised she could have a dog and that they would never take it away.
The daughter is now 24 and the Towells’ youngest is 1. To Alysha Towell’s surprise, each son decided to show dogs once they were old enough, and the Towells became known for taking home more awards than anybody else.
Bevin, the fourth child, was drawn to the poise of small dogs with complicated coats. After years of handling papillons, Bevin met Target last year, and they clicked instantly.
Jennie Chen, Target’s primary owner and a board member of the Löwchen Club of America, was so impressed that she offered Bevin part ownership and exclusive showing rights through the end of his junior career. Bevin was thrilled.
“It would be safe to say he’s the No. 1 löwchen in America,” he said.
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Löwchen —“little lion” in German — wear a “lion cut” in competition. Target’s silver hair is cut into a flowing mane around his face, and his backside is shaved. The hair on the tip of his curled tail is shaped into a proud plume, and the hair around his feet is turned into elegant cuffs that pick up dirt as thoroughly as a dust mop.
The trimming, shaving and cleaning take hours every week, and the work has made Bevin a pro — literally. He works part time as a groomer for Norfolk-based DogTown.
But with a house as full of kids and dogs as the Towells’, life can get hectic.
Not-so-great escape
On Nov. 29, a Tuesday morning, Bevin was taking an online test for college, his mother was driving two brothers to class and two of the younger boys were on potty duty for the dogs.
After Bevin finished his test around 10:20 a.m., he was looking for Target. It was time to put him on the treadmill for exercise. But Target was nowhere to be found.
The Towells would later guess that Target jumped out of the outdoor pen while another dog was being taken indoors. As the brothers came and went with their potty duty and didn’t see Target, each assumed the other had taken Target inside.
Then panic set in.
At first, Alysha Towell thought they’d find Target right away. By nightfall, a blinding rain started, and Target still hadn’t turned up.
“You turned the flashlight on and you couldn’t see two feet in front of your face,” she said.
The family picked up the search Wednesday at daybreak, walking the streets, calling animal control and checking every shelter they could find, with no sightings.
Then, they decided to call in the big dogs: Professional Pet Trackers in Winchester, about five hours away.
Carmen Brothers, who owns the business, tracks pets from Florida to Maine and gets requests from overseas. She has been finding lost pets with specially trained dogs for more than 10 years.
She told them she could go Thursday, but she knew it wasn’t likely she’d find him right away.
“The odds of me actually walking up on your dog during the track are kind of slim to none. You’re chasing a moving target,” Brothers said. “My goal is generally to get people to an area and focus in on it.”
Using three dogs, Brothers covered four miles. The search party was certain it was on the right track when it saw Target’s colorful hair ties and his stool, white-streaked from the bone meal in his special food.
They tracked him to a pediatrician’s parking lot. Then the trail stopped. The dogs lost the scent in the same place, which, in Brothers’ experience, often means one thing: Someone has picked up the pet and taken it away.
Show dogs are often found faster because they’re well-trained and friendly.
“To be honest, I’m kind of surprised that Target’s track went as far as it did,” she said. “He likes people, he likes kids, he’s not skittish.”
Chen and the Towells had a new fear: Someone might have realized he was a prize and try to sell him — even though he couldn’t be shown or bred without papers.
“He’d probably appear to be a dirty mop with a shaved butt” after roughing it for a few days, Chen said, but his distinctive lion cut might indicate his value.
Or else, they worried, someone had been charmed by his friendliness and kept him as a pet.
“My worry is that someone might not understand what they have and neuter him, which would be a huge blow to the breed in America,” Bevin said that Friday. “Or goodness forbid they cut his hair 10 days before the national and I have a bald dog. But as long as he’s OK, that’s the important thing. I’m just glad we haven’t found a flattened dog in the street.”
That Saturday, Chen’s phone rang. A good Samaritan, Tesha Taylor, had found Target. The information in his microchip led her to the American Kennel Club registry, and it contacted Chen.
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Taylor took Target home to Bevin, who was too excited and overwhelmed by Target’s condition to get the details of the rescue.
Ready for the show?
Hair matted and pink hair tie askew, Target was a little fatter with a slight twinge in his back, but he was unharmed. Bevin had just a week to turn him back into the No. 1 competitive löwchen in the country.
After three rounds of soaking and conditioning Target, Bevin used every last drop of the expensive emergency product Chen sends for when Target’s hair gets tangled.
It’s a good thing the family has an on-demand tankless water heater, Bevin’s mother said. The process took hours.
Weekend Scoop
But in the end, Target was ready for the show that essentially marks the end of Bevin’s junior career.
Bevin has mostly retired from dog showing — at least temporarily — to study canine chiropractic care. After turning 18, a junior handler is aged out of the sport. If the handler has enough first-place wins in the season before their birthday comes, they qualify for two more chances to show: the AKC Nationals and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
Westminster is an older show with a bigger name, but the AKC show is a bigger deal to Bevin; he feels it’s more competitive.
Bevin turned 18 in April and had only half the time other competitors did to qualify. But he had earned so many points and wins that other competitors didn’t catch up with him until August.
On Saturday, Bevin was cut right before the final round of the junior showmanship competition, which wasn’t quite the result he hoped for. But the wins he’s racked up so far have already set him up with more ribbons than he knows what to do with, scholarship money and the ability to walk into a job as a professional handler any time he wants.
And he has Target.
Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, katrina.dix@virginiamedia.com.