The same paws that walked the streets of Portsmouth recently graced the famed purple podium at the Gardens. James Dalton and his partner Dr. John Turjoman of Portsmouth, raise French bulldogs and won Best in Breed and Best in Group this week at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Champion Fabelhaft Robobull I’m On Fire, their two-year-old male Frenchie, captured the breed’s first ever non-sporting group win in the 113-year history of America’s most prestigious dog show.

I’m On Fire goes by “Bru” and was named for the song by Bruce Springsteen. The gregarious little dog was a big favorite at the show, even capturing the adoration of avid Frenchie lover Martha Stewart. Dalton and “Bru” were featured on Tuesday’s Martha Stewart Show and the win has been splashed across leading news channels and publications all week.

“Martha Stewart had invited me to come on her show before we even won and because of the weather we had, and the snow, I had actually decided I wasn’t going to go to the show,” said Dalton. “So I was sitting home in Portsmouth and I knew he had won Best of Breed Monday morning. And Monday night, I was sitting there in my little jammies with a glass of red wine and watching it on television and I almost choked when I saw him winning the non-sporting group. So of course, the phone was ringing, texts, the phone — it was crazy. So I hopped in my car at 1 ‘o clock Tuesday morning and I drove three hours in the snowstorm to get to the airport. I flew out the first flight out to New York. Then I got in a cab and I went straight to the Martha Stewart studio. I got there at 9 (a.m.) and the show went on live at 10 (a.m.). It was crazy. It was a lot of fun and Martha was just wonderful. She’s a great animal lover and she absolutely fell in love with ‘Bru,’ so it was very, very nice.”

Dalton and Turjoman have bred and shown top-winning French bulldogs under the kennel name Fabelhaft for 12 years. Turjoman is an SOMC pediatrician practicing in Wheelersburg. Before coming to Portsmouth, Dalton had been breeding Best in Show-winning dogs for many years in Europe, and then while designing fashion in the United States.

“I lived in Ireland before I came to work in the States, and then I took a little break while I completed a Master’s degree in fashion design at the World College of Art in London,” said Dalton. “So then I came to the United States and I was design director for Reebok. I worked with a lot of famous athletes, including designing for the Williams sisters. I also worked with Madonna and Gloria Estafan. So then Dr. Turjoman and I decided to relocate because he interviewed with SOMC and he really liked SOMC. So we decided to come to Portsmouth about seven years ago. But we’ve always had top-winning dogs, always. So our dogs have won best in shows all over the place and we’ve had top dogs go to England, France, Scandinavia, Japan, Australia, to name a few. We’ve enjoyed tremendous success and we have had the No. 1 French bulldog in the United States for five times now in the last 10 years.”

“Bru” was bred with co-breeder Shelley St. John, from Canada, and was trained in Portsmouth. Dalton said Dr. Counts and the staff at Shawnee Animal Clinic in Portsmouth played a big role in the health and wellness of “Bru” and their other champion Frenchies.

“Bru’s” win was especially significant, as the breed had a total of 36 entries in the show, making them one of the best represented breeds at the Gardens. Popularity of the French bulldog breed in the U.S. has skyrocketed in recent years. American Kennel Club registration statistics show the breed as 24th most popular, up from 73rd just 10 years before.

“It was really special that he was best of breed at Westminster because he went on and won the non-sporting group to make it to the finals and French bulldogs have been shown at Westminster since 1897; so 113 years and he is the first French bulldog ever to win the non-sporting group,” said Dalton. “He was on Fox News, ABC, NBC — he’s been really featured sort of everywhere so we thought it would be fun to bring home a big award like that to our little town of Portsmouth.”

Turjoman and Dalton have enjoyed great success in breeding world champion Frenchies, and after speaking with them, it is easy to see why. They have a genuine love for the breed and their dogs.

“They always say don’t work with dogs and kids and we work with both,” joked Dalton. “We are one of the top breeders in the world. We are very careful. We are very particular about where every baby goes. It’s really a labor of love and we do it for the betterment of the breed. They’re not really like a dog. They’re like a little person and wonderful. They have a great personality and are often described as ‘little clowns’ because they have a little clown-like personality. We just fell in love with the breed.”

MAJAL PERRY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 234 or via email at mperry@heartlandpublications.com