For years the old masters have warned young champions of the ring against indulging in the dangerous passions of Delilah during training. But the mighty Pennsylvania heavyweight known as ”Bubba” blithely ignored that adage recently, frolicking with one of his favorite females in the wild spring grass under the stars.
The morning after, as Bubba danced through his jogging and aerobics workout, his trainer, Khalid Karriem, stood nearby, smiling. Love had not softened the champ.
”Bubba gets in that ring, and he has the urge to dominate,” Karriem said. ”He knows when to get serious.”
”Bubba” is the nickname bestowed by fans around the country on Champion Von Hottenstein`s Hubabubba-the 26-inch-tall, 125-pound mountain of black-and- brown muscle who is the top-ranked Rottweiler in the United States.
The top dog of the hottest breed. The hip guard dog of the `90s, as the Akita was in the `80s. Rising faster on the American Kennel Club (AKC) list of Top 10 dogs than any other breed.
Bubba recently traveled from his home in West Bradford, Pa., to Seattle to defend his crown at one of the largest AKC dog shows in the country, an important step in holding on to the No. 1 national ranking that has been his since late March. And on Bubba`s brawny shoulders rode the dreams of Karriem and of Nancy Reynolds, his breeder-owner-dreams of fame, and maybe a little money.
”A Bubba is born once every 30 years,” Karriem said. ”He`s the sum of all the parts-like Bo Jackson, a great athlete. He`s got an undercarriage like a horse, a classic gait. He`s a huge-boned dog. He`s got those classic almond eyes. And he has one of the best rears on a Rottweiler.
With Bubba, Karriem said, ”a breeder could go down in history. A trainer, like a jazz or blues artist who struggles for 30 years, could become famous.”
Competing against 416 Rottweilers in the American Rottweiler Club`s national show in Seattle, Bubba was one of only five honored as ”Select,” an award of excellence. He outperformed 40 champs of other shows.
”We were so proud,” said owner Reynolds. ”The crowd was really excited about Bubba. A lot of people out West hadn`t seen him. The award goes in front of his name forevermore.”
From now on, he`s Select Champion Von Hottenstein`s Hubabubba.
Top Rott at 4
When the puppy who would become champ was born four years ago, he was named partly after his master`s business-Von Hottenstein`s Kennels, breeders of Rottweilers since the mid-`80s.
But most everyone calls him Bubba.
A few bitches, could they speak, undoubtedly would call him ”Hubba Hubba.” Bubba, only 4, already has fathered approximately 100 offspring by about 20 dams.
At least 1,500 other show-quality Rottweilers, given the chance, would call him ”Sir.”
That`s the number of Rottweilers Bubba has humbled in AKC-sponsored competitions this year, according to Reynolds. Bubba`s rating comes from the Pedigree Award System, in which a dog-food maker ranks dogs on overall tournament wins.
What a time to be top Rott! No. 12 on the AKC list three years ago, the Rottweiler now has grabbed the No. 5 spot from the German shepherd. Rottweiler registrations rose 17.9 percent in just one year, from 51,291 in 1989 to 60,471 in 1990, said AKC spokesman Wayne Cavanaugh in New York.
But popularity is more curse than blessing, Cavanaugh said. First, there are more erratic Rotts-too big, too small, funny ears, fat heads-born of irresponsible breeding.
Second, this good dog is seen increasingly in the company of bad humans. The Rottweiler, a steady, noble, ancient Roman-German breed used to cheer the old and sick in nursing homes, is suddenly appearing behind drug smugglers`
doors in reality-cop shows. People who never had heard of Rotts are asking,
”Wasn`t that the evil dog in `The Omen?` ” (Yes, it was.)
The Pennsylvania SPCA gets several calls a week from young toughs who once scoured dog pounds for pit bulls.
”They don`t even know how to pronounce the breed,” said SPCA spokesman Charlene Peters. ”They say, `You got one of them `Rockwells?` It`s like handing a loaded gun to a child.”
Recently, a New York man, sans gun, used a Rottweiler to commit several robberies.
Some would say also that the thousands of show Rottweilers like Bubba are being exploited: that to breed a dog for human vanity, to force him on the road 300 days a year to win ribbons, is an unnatural, stressful existence.
Some would say Michael Jordan lives an unnatural, stressful existence too.
Fans wait in line
Bubba`s fans mob him in arenas from New York to Chicago, sometimes waiting in lines after shows just to see him up-close, to touch him, to ask about his puppies. His burly face and wide-set amber eyes adorn the covers of magazines such as Rottweiler`s Xpress. He has been featured on ESPN. His trophies and ribbons and silver medallions fill dresser drawers in his home.
”Huba-Bubba isn`t in town very often,” Reynolds said one recent day.
”You`re lucky to see him.”
It was midmorning. The champ was sitting in the living room, filling one side of a sofa and nearly capsizing it. Bubba was a sight to behold: a massive, short-haired beast, black as midnight with a few painterly dabs of rust coloring, wide as a silver galleon in the middle. His neck has a greater circumference than Mike Tyson`s (26 inches to 19 1/2 inches; no contest). His head is 25 inches in circumference. He looked like the offspring of a black bear and a red oak.
And he was smiling a drooly smile.
”Bubba`s happy today,” Karriem said.
Earlier, Bubba had wolfed down his usual breakfast-two eggs, a cup of yogurt and cottage cheese, four cups of chicken-based dog meal, wheat germ, Vitamin C, Gatorade to keep his electrolytes up-in less than a minute. He has the same thing for dinner, with a hamburger or two thrown in.
”Bubba likes to eat,” Karriem said.
Like many pro athletes, Bubba is gentle with children, tolerant of fans, but in the ring he puts on his game face.
”He thinks he`s as smart as I am, smarter,” Karriem said. ”He lets out this low growl, lets you know he doesn`t like to be dominated. It`s a battle every time.”
Astonishingly, for his bulk, Bubba moves with the grace of Secretariat while packing the power of the Broadway Limited. As he trots, his immense
”top line”-the broad line of shoulder and back-remains washboard-straight. He has 42 teeth, the proper number (Rotts with 41 are
disqualified instantly). He has exceptionally low body fat, which earns points, and has both testicles (one and you`re out of the running).
All of these traits must be apparent in less than a minute in the show ring, as Bubba goes through his paces tethered to Karriem`s 4-foot leash.
”My job is to keep Bubba psyched up, keep him motivated, keep him disciplined, keep him happy,” said Karriem, who gave up an engineering career to become a dog handler. ”I have to think of all his physical and psychological needs.”
When Bubba`s claws get too long, Karriem grinds them down with a small electric sander. When the star`s teeth are dirty, Karriem cleans them with long steel hooks. When Bubba travels (he has logged more than 20,000 miles this year), Karriem is his chauffeur, pulling him around the country in a 16- foot-long Ford van. Bubba sleeps on a lambskin-covered mattress bag in a crate large enough for a man to curl up in, with water, food and rawhide bones.
When the star is bored, Karriem gives him liver treats instead of chicken, or sends a bitch back to Bubba`s cage in his traveling van or even his motel room.
Karriem keeps Bubba`s secrets.
”Everyone wants to know how Bubba trains, but that`s privileged information” he said. ”All I can tell you is it involves roadwork, and aerobics and some weight work, and it keeps him in top shape. Bubba could easily pull a small car, but he doesn`t need that kind of weight work because he`s so strong already.”
Bubba, like an expensive thoroughbred, is a long-term investment.
It costs $25,000 a year to keep him on the road doing shows, Reynolds said.
”It`s all for the ribbons now. I`m losing money on him right now. . . . He`ll pay me back when he retires and goes to stud.”
Reynolds, an antiques dealer as well as a breeder, plans to keep Bubba on the road for another year or two. Then he`ll return home to West Bradford, where he`ll go to stud, commanding fees of at least $1,000. (His puppies already go for $750 as pets and $2,000 as show dogs; they`re in homes as far away as Poland.)
(On the same day that Bubba snagged honors in Seattle, Bubba`s daughter,
”Good Golly Ms. Molly,” won best Rottweiler puppy. And in Florida, one of Bubba`s sons, ”Gatemaster`s Vestasian,” won best of breed in a Broward County, Fla., competition.)
Bubba will spend his autumn years roaming a familiar fenced half-acre in the company of many sons and daughters, such as Champion Von Hottenstein`s U Dazzle Me, and his 10-year-old grandmother, Champion Von Hottenstein`s Bear Handed.
”He doesn`t really even know about his fame,” Karriem said. ”But it`s not a bad life.”
