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Hilton Head Island Kennel Club hosts its 10th annual anniversary dog show

Celebrity canine spice of owner's life

 

Celebrity sightings are common in the Lowcountry. Michael Jordan, John Cougar Mellencamp and Sandra Bullock all have been said to frequent the area.

But if you attend the Hilton Head Island Kennel Club's 10th anniversary dog show March 11-12, you might catch a glimpse of a different kind of celebrity. Her name is Spice. Champion Heartstring's Twice the Spice, if you want to get specific.

Photo: Janet White of Hilton Head Island is crazy about her award-winning pooch, Spice. The Australian shepherd isn't just a celebrity in her own home, though. The canine has been featured in TV commercials and on bags of dog food.
Harmony Motter/The Island Packet

The Australian Shepherd, which will be competing in the kennel club's rally competition, might not be able to sign autographs, but she's famous in the canine world. And she has the attitude to prove it.

"She definitely knows it," Spice's owner, Janet White, 38, says as the 50-pound brown and white dog jumps up and down and curls its lips into a "smile." "She has no idea she's a dog."

Then again, Spice is no ordinary dog. She has won countless ribbons and trophies in obedience, agility and herding at dog shows across the country, and she has competed at The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the most famous dog show in the United States.

Not to mention that 10-year-old Spice had an agent for several years, before she and White moved here from Texas in 2003. An animal talent scout discovered the pooch at a show in Fort Worth. After that, Spice appeared in television commercials, print ads and on products -- including a Dillard's newspaper ad and a RadioShack television spot.

You can still see the dog posing on various packages at PetSmart and Wal-Mart, including dog crates, spray bottles and medicine.

"She's definitely well known," says White, who lives in Bluffton and is an English teacher at Hilton Head Preparatory School.

White also has other dogs at her house, three of Spice's "granddogs," and she co-owns several other show dogs that live with her part-time.

White and her husband, Richard, have two sons, Devin and Colin, but White says you're more likely to see pictures of the dogs in her wallet.

"It's not that I don't love my kids more than the dogs," White says with a laugh. "But more people ask to see pictures of the dogs."

Other telltale signs of White's penchant for dogs are the bumper sticker -- "My Australian Shepherd is Smarter than Your Honor Student" -- and doggie decals that decorate her van.

Each of her dogs also has its own Web page, complete with photographs.

White says her passion for animals started early in life, when she was growing up in Philadelphia.

"I loved all animals. My brother had Doberman pinschers, and I would train them to jump over the lawn furniture."

White also started riding horses at 9 years old, and by the age of 10, she was helping teach riding lessons. She continued to ride and show horses in high school and college.

However, White had to give up horses after she started a family in 1989, she says, because owning and showing horses was too expensive.

"I switched to dogs," she says, adding that she started out showing Jack Russell terriers but found that Australian Shepherds were more suited to her tastes. "Australian Shepherds are more eager to please."

White says she's found her "doggie soulmate" in Spice. She bought the dog when it was a puppy, raised it and trained it herself.

"I think everyone can associate with one type of dog or another," White says. "To me, Spice is perfect."

Contact Jacquelyn Lewis at 706-8125 or . To comment on this story, please go to www.islandpacket.com.