Retrievers: Remembering a Legend

Every so often, for no particular reason other than wanting to say hello, I’d give Mary Howley a call. I met Mary in the mid-1990s, at a time when Labrador retrievers that she’d bred at her Candlewood Kennels in Wisconsin had won an unprecedented five consecutive National Retriever Championships.

These calls always took the same shape. After she’d answered the phone, I’d say, “Mary, it’s Tom Davis. How the hell are you?”

“Tom Davis,” she’d say in her big, brassy voice. As I explained in one of several articles I wrote about her over the years, if the Broadway star Ethel Merman had been born and raised in Wisconsin, she would have sounded a lot like Mary Howley.

Now, sadly but inevitably, that unforgettable voice has been stilled. In late January, Mary passed away peacefully at the age of 85. When word of her death got around, all of us who knew her had the same reaction: There was only one Mary—and there will never be another one.

Mary was funny but feisty, warm but stubborn, generous but opinionated, at ease in the company of the wealthy but as down-to-earth as they come. And her record, her influence, and her legacy as a breeder of retrievers was astonishing. Labs she bred won a combined 11 National and National Amateur Retriever Championships and at least two High Point Open Dog of the Year awards, while more than 100 Candlewood-bred Labs earned the title Field Champion or Amateur Field Champion. Perhaps her most impressive achievement is that seven dogs Mary bred have been inducted into the Retriever Field Trial Hall of Fame. What Calumet Farm is to the sport of horse racing, Candlewood Kennels is to the sport of retriever field trials.

In the words of Dave Rorem, a Hall of Fame professional trainer from Minnesota and longtime friend of Mary’s, “I don’t think there’s anybody in the last 50 years who’s influenced Labrador retriever breeding more than Mary Howley. Not just through her own breeding program, either. I can’t tell you how many times I called her to discuss breedings with dogs that weren’t out of the Candlewood line, and she knew instantly which sire would match up best with which dam. She was uncanny in that respect, and she very rarely ‘missed.’ She also had a phenomenal ability to recall the results of previous breedings, whether they involved Candlewood dogs or not, and she shared her knowledge with many, many people in the retriever world. While everyone associates her with Candlewood, and rightfully so, I guarantee you that her fingerprints are on hundreds of other field champions from the past 40 to 50 years.”

Having the luxury of being able to call Mary Howley to ask her a question about Labrador retriever breeding would be something like being able to call Warren Buffett and ask him a question about investing. Mary, who never “went digital,” had an accordion file stuffed to bursting with pedigrees. She called it “my computer,” but the real computer was Mary’s mind.

You can’t talk about Mary without talking about her greatest and most famous dog, Candlewoods Tanks A Lot. Bred by Mary, co-owned by Mary and Iowa sportsman Randy Kuehl, trained by Andy Attar and Mike Lardy of Handjem Retrievers in Montello, Wisconsin, and handled by Lardy during her field trial career, “Lottie” amassed more derby points than any retriever in history. After that, she won the National Retriever Championship three times—one of only two dogs to accomplish that feat—with a High Point Dog of the Year title thrown in as well.

Mary began breeding Lottie while the dog was still in her competitive prime. She ultimately whelped five litters, and an astonishing 22 of her offspring went on to win field championships. To use an adjective Mary was fond of, that’s mind-boggling.

Dave recalls that when Mary told him she was planning to breed Lottie, he said, “Are you nuts? What are you going to do if she likes motherhood better than retrieving?”

“Dave,” she replied, “I know my dog, and I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen.”

“Boy, was she right,” Dave says with a laugh. “I’m not so sure that Lottie’s record as a producer isn’t ultimately more impressive than what she did as a competitor.”

It’s important to remember that the vast majority of the puppies that Mary bred and raised never saw the starting line of a field trial. Most of them went to hunters, and a significant percentage went to people who were simply looking for a beautiful, healthy, intelligent, eager-to-please, even-
tempered family companion—roles at which the Candlewood dogs excelled. The bottom line, though, is that they excelled in every role. A few years ago, Mary told me that she’d just sold two pups to a man in Utah who intended to train them as avalanche rescue dogs. “They need brainy, physically sound dogs with high prey drive for that kind of work,” she said. “It gives me goose bumps to think that a couple of my pups will be doing it.”

One of the best measures of Mary’s success as a breeder is the fact that when it came time for clients to start looking for a new dog, few of them gave a thought to going anywhere but Candlewood. Mary devoted herself body and soul to the mission of producing the finest Labrador retrievers she knew how to, and over the course of that journey she created some of the best the world has ever seen. Her legacy will endure for as long as Labrador retrievers do.