Conformation Judge – Robert Damron

My wife, Gael Lewis-Damron, raised, trained and showed Irish Wolfhounds from 1969. We met (although I knew her parents well and who she was) officially in 1992, and in a matter of 4 months we were married. I had gone to shows with her and her family prior to our marriage and actually proposed to her at a dog show.

After my first trip to Westminster in 1993, I was becoming intrigued by the sport. I had been raised on a farm and showed horses in 4H for multiple years, although different in some aspects, similar in others. My wife was committed to other shows in March of 1993, so I entered our Bulldog in puppy sweeps, and our IW in breed at shows in Monroeville, PA. I won the Bulldog sweeps, and took the points in IWs that day. I was smitten, the bug got me.

I continued to show IWs over the next couple years while she showed the Otterhounds. We decided to go professional due to multiple requests for us to handle dogs for clients. Gael and I were known as “Team Purple” and we worked diligently to maintain our skilled presentation capabilities and excellent reputation in the sport for over 20 years together, while still showing our own beloved IWs. I absolutely adore IWs and they are my favorite breed of dog without question.

After multiple losses of beloved family and clients in 2012, we had agreed we did not wish to breed any more litters, so we decided we needed to start to move to the next level and go into the judging side of dog shows. We eventually hung up our leads and processed the AKC paperwork.

I look at the opportunities to judge as an honor. To have the privilege to have my hands on the dogs and watch their movement in the ring, is still as important to me now as the first show I judged. I take these assignments very seriously and feel confident in making firm qualified decisions based on the standard of our breed.

We lost our last IW, “McLister” in January 2022, and our family home has been without an IW for the first time since 1969.

~Bob Damron~