No bull

WASILLA — The Christensen family is all things bulldog — and proud of it.

Their Valley landscaping business is called Bulldog Construction. They used to own a local coffee cart called “Awake-a-Bull.” Mom Inge just got a large tattoo on her right calf of her prize English bulldog Jake.

Topping it all off is their $100,000 addiction to raising and showing English and French bulldogs in Alaska and elsewhere, coming away with first- and second-place American Kennel Club ribbons in their breed and group competitions.

And this year, their obsession is finally paying off.

At age 8, daughter Inge will be the youngest exhibitor competing at the 2010 AKC/Eukanuba National Championship dog show next week in Long Beach, Calif.

Inge, a third-grader at Sherrod Elementary School, finished this season in Alaska with the top non-sporting dog in the state with her 27-pound French bulldog Jazzy. That distinction and her young age earned her an invitation to the prestigious national show where Best in Show earns the winner $10,000.

The soft-spoken dog lover and her two older brothers — Jake, 12, and Chad, 11 — are following in their mom’s footsteps in the show ring.

“I’ve been dragging them out to shows for years,” she said. “I had Inge in a stroller when I was pregnant with Erika one January, then I had Erika the next month between two shows. She was only 2 weeks old at the next show.”

Erika, who is now 4, also hopes to show dogs — as soon as she’s able to lift one of the dogs onto the judge’s table.

At 40 pounds herself, little Inge said Tuesday that the hardest thing about the competition is having is to hoist Jazzy up to the table.

“He’s real heavy,” she said of her brindle buddy. “But I’m having a lot of fun showing him.”

Her mother said she finally let her enter a competition at the last minute last year after she proved she could handle the dog while practicing in their hotel room.

“There were 12 people in the ring and she’d never even been to a class, and she went out there and took third place,” she said proudly. “She was very determined that that was her dog and she was going to show him.”

Since then, little Inge has won 30 ribbons, including two of each place in various competitions throughout the year.

Why bulldogs? There’s just something about bulldogs that mom can’t resist.

“I just love the breed,” she said. “There are a lot of people who say they’re lazy, but they’re not. They’re very animated and very loving.”

They’re also known for snoring because of their short snouts and for one other rather unpleasant propensity.

“They’re a gassy breed,” Inge admits, “So they’re easy to blame for certain odors.”

She couldn’t imagine having any other kind of dog, she said, which became immediately apparent to her husband, Andrew.

“When Inge and I got together, she already had bulldogs and she wasn’t doing very well in the show ring,” he recalled Wednesday. “Since my wife is very competitive by nature, I knew that if we were going to do this, we’d better do it right.”

He estimates they have spent more than $100,000 to acquire the best show dogs they could find through breeders over the years and that last year alone they went through about $110,000 preparing their dogs, getting everyone to shows and paying for various expenses associated with the “hobby.”

Andrew hasn’t merely been sitting on the sidelines looking pretty. He’s kept busy during shows by making sure the dogs’ whiskers are trimmed, their noses are shiny and their collars are just right before they hit the ring.

“Without him, we wouldn’t be able to do it,” his wife said.

To Andrew and Inge, however, all the time, energy and money expended on dog shows has been well worth it.

“It’s a wonderful thing we can all do as a family and it teaches the kids responsibility and patience,” Inge said. “Dogs are dogs and they’re not going to do what you tell them to do all the time — just like people.”

When Christensen and her daughter head to California Sunday to prepare for Inge’s biggest competition, they are going without their special helper or her brothers.

And although Inge will be leading Jazzy around the ring against 43 other competitors in the French bulldog competition who have professional handlers, she’s going to just take a deep breath, smile and know she’s already a champion in her family’s eyes.

“I’m pretty proud of her,” brother Jake said. “I’ve only won red ribbons, but me and Princess have been practicing, so one of these days we’ll win a blue one.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.