Arlene Butterklee won her first dog championship in 1992.
Twenty-four years later, she has racked up an impressive 200-plus dog championship wins all around the country.
Butterklee, who she spends her weekdays at Northwell’s Center for Advanced Medicine in Manhasset as a radiation therapist, said she and her dogs have travelled all over the world from the Czech Republic, Italy, Poland to France.
She has shown her dogs in the Westminster Dog Show at Madison Garden every year since 1991 and has won eight straight category events — a feat that has never been accomplished before — as well as the Eukanuba Championships in Florida.
Butterklee has accomplished this while waking up at 4 a.m. every weekday to travel from her Ronkonkoma home to her radiation machine in Manhasset by 6 a.m.
“We do radiation treatment in order to make people feel better,” Butterklee said. “It’s a stressful job but I love it.”
Butterklee, who has worked at Northwell for 18 years, said the radiation machine she operates has to be tailored to different patients because of detailed treatments of patients.
“There’s a lot that goes into cancer treatment,” Butterklee said.
The cancer patients at Northwell, she said, can get the radiation therapy, surgical procedure, and an MRI done at the same place.
“They basically come to one place to get every cancer treatment,” Butterklee said. “Going through cancer is tasking for everybody, even on the family of the patient. We offer a lot of emotional support to the patient and their families.”
Outside of work, Butterklee shows two of her favorite breeds — the Chinese crested dogs, which are very hairy, and the Lowchen or little lion dog, which are rare and fluffy in the front.
“My life is dedicated to them,” Butterklee said. “You start when they are little and you train them till they’re grown.”
Butterklee said she has been breeding and showing dogs since the 1980s and has established a bloodline of the dogs she breeds.
Her love for dogs stemmed from a movie she saw in 1968 when she was young.
“When I saw the ‘101 Dalmatians,’ I knew I wanted to get a dog,” Butterklee said.
Butterklee said when she got engaged, she bought a pitbull.
“I took the dog to a vet and she was surprised that I owned a pitbull,” Butterklee said laughing.
She said the veterinarian suggested she take the pitbull to an obedience school where she could have her dog trained.
“The trainer told me about a show on Long Island and told me to attend,” she said.
That began Butterklee’s dog training journey.
In any given day, Butterklee keeps about 15 to 20 dogs in the “dogs wing” at her Ronkonkoma home.
“I have a nanny who takes care of them when I’m away,” Butterklee said. “I have to keep the dogs separate, because you don’t want dog fights and gang bangs.”
Butterklee said taking care of the dogs takes a lot of time and a lot of money but said it is worth it.
“I go to all the specialty shows,” Butterklee said.
Butterklee said she was recently at the New Brunswick Kennel Club showing her dogs. She was in Philadelphia on the weekend of March 19 and in Rockland County two weeks prior to that showing her dogs.
Dog showing isn’t just a getaway, she said, it’s a lifelong passion she’s owned over many years.
She said training a dog takes quite some time before they appear at shows at all.
“You have to teach them how to walk,” Butterklee said.
The dogs have to be conditioned, properly fed and groomed.
At the events, the dog handler steps forward with the dog and proceed to give out a number of commands that the dog has to obey, Butterklee said.
“You have to have taught them how to walk on a leash, pay attention to the handler and walk with head and tail up,” she said.
Judges at these events, she said, examine the dogs, the teeth and body structure.
“And the dogs have to stand still while they’re being touched by strangers,” Butterklee said. “They have to move their front and rear and they have to be balanced.”
In the obedience challenge, judges determine whether the dogs do what they’re told.
“They have to walk off leash, stop or sit next to you,” Butterklee said.
“The passion I have for my job also goes for my dogs,” she said. “I work hard and I play hard.”
