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Vin-Melca Norwegian Elkhounds, 1121 S Chance Ave, Fresno, CA (2026)

02/22/2026

A Northern dog in the frozen North! Thank you to our great friend Letty Hughes for sharing these photos of GCH Vin-Melca’s On Your Mark, a group-winning son of the great Vin-Melca’s Top O’ The Mark, enjoying his best life in Alaska.

Crash was the 2018 Norwegian Elkhound Association of America National Maturity winner, and had a very productive show career.

These are hardy dogs, and they usually have pretty hardy owners, too!

📸 Permafrost Pixels

02/14/2026

All in the family!! Today at the Norwegian Elkhound Association of Southern California Specialty, Josie won Best In Specialty from the Veterans Class, and her daughter Sally earned Select Bitch!!

Thank you to Best In Specialty judge Mr. Al Ferruggiaro for recognizing that great dogs keep getting better with age.

Yesterday at the Sun Maid Kennel Club of Fresno in an entry supported by the Norwegian Elkhound Association of Northern California, Sally went Best of Breed and Josie went Select!!

Thank you to supported entry judge Ms. Ann Roth for spotlighting this mother-daughter duo.

🏎️JOSIE🏎️ MBISS MRBIS GCHS Vin-Melca’s Joyride

🐎SALLY🐎 GCH Vin-Melca’s Mustang Sally

Bred by Patricia V. Trotter

Josie co-owned and presented by Miranda & Andy Vance

Sally co-owned and presented by Kyra, Miranda, & Andy Vance

02/14/2026

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Two years after his sire, Vin-Melca’s Ni**od, went Best In Show (twice) at the Sun Maid Kennel Club of Fresno, DIESEL goes 4-6 Puppy BEST IN SHOW!!!

Thank you to Beginner Puppy judge Susan Willumsen for finding this young prospect from a beautiful set of promising puppies.

⛽DIESEL⛽ Vin-Melca’s Midnight Rider
Sire: ~RODDY~ GCHB Vin-Melca’s Ni**od
Dam: ~JOSIE~ GCHS Vin-Melca’s Joyride

Bred and owned by Patricia V. Trotter and Miranda & Andy Vance

Presented by Miranda Vance

02/11/2026

In honor of the Sun Maid Kennel Club of Fresno shows this week, featuring specialties hosted by the Norwegian Elkhound clubs of both Northern and Southern California, we look back at some fun memories of Vin-Melca dogs there.

We love this picture Diana Han shot of Mrs. Trotter and Vin-Melca’s The Jaywalker from 2022; the historical poster inset in that picture shows the great Vin-Melca’s Nimbus, who went Best In Show at Fresno in 1976.

Jay had a great run at Fresno herself, and a couple of years later Vin-Melca’s Ni**od won the specialties and two Best In Show victories in 2024. Junior handler Kyra Vance had a blast with Vin-Melca’s Daggarwood Delight that year in Veterans, too!

02/03/2026

What a night! Thank you to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club, especially Merry Jeanne and Tommy Millner, for recognizing Mrs. Patricia V. Trotter and her incomparable 11 Hound Group wins by endowing the VIN-MELCA TROPHY to the winner of the Hound Group!!

Mrs. Trotter registered her first litter under the Vin-Melca prefix 75 years ago, and has been a fixture at Westminster as a breeder, owner, handler, and judge for the past six decades.

Seeing her honored with a STANDING OVATION at Madison Square Garden was incredible!!

02/01/2026

Counting down to Westminster 150! Tomorrow, New York goes to the dogs!

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's sesquicentennial celebration, and the inaugural presentation of the Vin-Melca Trophy to the winner of the Hound Group, we're looking back at the 11 times a Vin-Melca dog was honored with a Group Win at The Garden.

Pat Trotter started breeding Norwegian Elkhounds 75 years ago, hitting her stride when she moved from her native Virginia to California's Monterey Peninsula in the early 1960s. By 1970, she had built a bloodline that would stand the test of time with two superlative dogs who would leave an indelible mark on the breed: Vin-Melca's Howdy Rowdy and Vin-Melca's Vagabond. Howdy Rowdy was a prolific sire – he fathered 166 champions, all via natural service – but Vagabond was the dog that forever linked Elkhounds and the Westminster Kennel Club.

Vagabond was born in Carmel on February 11, 1967. Mrs. Trotter campaigned him, as a full-time middle school teacher who never missed a day of school, to Top Dog All Breeds in 1970, and her first group win at the Westminster Kennel Club that February in Madison Square Garden. He won the group at the "big three" of American dog shows (Westminster, the International Kennel Club of Chicago, and Beverly Hills), and won America's biggest dog show in 1970, the Santa Barbara Kennel Club.

"It was a thrill to have him in the ring” Trotter told New York Times dog man Walter R. Fletcher in 1974. “He was the ideal type; powerful, moved beautifully, and possessed fine temperament.”

He lived to the ripe old age of 18, and came back to The Garden in 1981 for the Parade of Champions, having sired an incredible crop of daughters over the years who would in turn become brood bi***es of note in the pedigrees of the other Vin-Melca group winners at Westminster.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club and especially to benefactors Merry Jeanne & Tommy Millner for honoring Patricia V. Trotter's incredible legacy at Westminster with the endowment of the Vin-Melca Trophy.

See you tomorrow around the rings in New York!

01/31/2026

Counting down to Westminster 150!

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's sesquicentennial celebration, and the inaugural presentation of the Vin-Melca Trophy to the winner of the Hound Group, we're looking back at the 11 times a Vin-Melca dog was honored with a Group Win at The Garden.

As we board our plane for The Big Apple, we near the end of our countdown with Mrs. Trotter's 10th Group Win at The Garden, Vin-Melca's Marketta in 1995. As Pat told The New York Times in a 2008 interview, "True dog breeders live for their dogs, not off of them. The people who show at Westminster are trying to develop a quality bloodline of dogs, and they recognize that they won't pay for themselves."

Marketta made a strong case for how you develop that quality bloodline. The daughter of two-time Westminster group winner Calista, sired by Bombardier (the No. 2 Hound in the country in 1991 and No. 1 Hound in the country in 1992), Marketta's pedigree remains one of the finest matings in the history of the breed.

Bombardier was an improvement on his great sire Barnstormer, who had a beautiful front but Pat wanted to improve his rear; breeding him to the great bitch Vin-Melca's Before Dawn delivered, and a generation later pairing Bombardier with the superlative Calista – a two-time Westminster Group winner – yielded an exceptionally typey, correct-moving bitch in Marketta, the No. 2 hound in the country in 1993, and the last Elkhound that Pat Trotter campaigned personally prior to turning her attention to judging.

Mrs. Trotter, speaking with historian Bo Bengtson some years back, noted that as far as we know, Marketta is the only dog of any breed to win the Quaker Oats Award (for most group wins of the year) who had a Quaker Oats-winning sire and Quaker Oats-winning dam. Pictured below, in addition to her win photo at The Garden, are two paintings by artist Ruth Maystead; one of Marketta with her sire Bombardier, and one of her paternal grandsire Barnstormer.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club and especially to benefactors Merry Jeanne & Tommy Millner for honoring Patricia V. Trotter's incredible legacy at Westminster with the endowment of the Vin-Melca Trophy.

Will we see you around the rings in New York?

01/31/2026

Counting down to Westminster 150!

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's sesquicentennial celebration, and the inaugural presentation of the Vin-Melca Trophy to the winner of the Hound Group, we're looking back at the 11 times a Vin-Melca dog was honored with a Group Win at The Garden.

Of the seven Vin-Melca dogs to win the group at Westminster, five won it twice. After winning the group five times in the 1970s, the 1980s started out more modestly, with Gilda (Vin-Melca's Last Call) going 3rd in 1982, Before Dawn going 3rd in 1983, and The Smuggler earning 2nd in 1985. Call to Arms would win the group in 1986, before Calista won it in 1989.

Coming back to The Garden in 1990 as a reigning Group winner and the No. 1 Hound in the country was heady stuff, but Sarah, as she was called, rose to the occasion. Judge Mrs. Robert V. Lindsay found the nation's top hound, giving her a second Group win in as many years, and marking Mrs. Trotter's eight group win at The Garden between 1970 and 1990.

But perhaps Sarah's great achievement was her work in the whelping box. After retiring with more than 60 all-breed Best In Show victories to her credit, she delivered her first litter at the age of four. "This was a fit bitch who whelped a litter of seven in an hour or so," Pat told historian Bo Bengston some years back, "...and he daughter Marketta did the same thing." Marketta, like her famed dam, would go on to win Westminster twice in the mid-90s.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club and especially to benefactors Merry Jeanne & Tommy Millner for honoring Patricia V. Trotter's incredible legacy at Westminster with the endowment of the Vin-Melca Trophy.

Will we see you around the rings in New York?

01/30/2026

Counting down to Westminster 150!

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's sesquicentennial celebration, and the inaugural presentation of the Vin-Melca Trophy to the winner of the Hound Group, we're looking back at the 11 times a Vin-Melca dog was honored with a Group Win at The Garden.

Vagabond won the hound group at Westminster in 1970 and 1971, and took second in 1972. After a year out of the ribbons, Mrs. Trotter won her third group in four years with Vin-Melca's Homesteader, a young son of the legendary Vin-Melca's Howdy Rowdy.

"Chester," as Homesteader was called, hadn't shown much when he arrived in the Big Apple, but he'd made his limited appearances count: Four shows entered, four hound groups won. He made it five for five with his win at Westminster under judge Haworth Hoch.

Chester took the reigns from Vin-Melca's Valley Forge, the No. 1 Hound in the country in 1973. Homesteader would match that, going No. 1 Hound in the country in 1974, despite a relatively light show schedule by modern standards: he won just three all-breed Best In Show honors, but one of them was the massive Santa Barbara Kennel Club show in late July, which drew 4,288 dogs, the largest show in the country since the Morris and Essex Kennel Club hit a record 4,456 dogs 35 years prior.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club and especially to benefactors Merry Jeanne & Tommy Millner for honoring Patricia V. Trotter's incredible legacy at Westminster with the endowment of the Vin-Melca Trophy.

Will we see you around the rings in New York?

01/28/2026

Counting down to Westminster 150!

In honor of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show's sesquicentennial celebration, and the inaugural presentation of the Vin-Melca Trophy to the winner of the Hound Group, we're looking back at the 11 times a Vin-Melca dog was honored with a Group Win at The Garden.

Vin-Melca's Nimbus, known affectionately as "Tuffy" won the hound group at Westminster twice in three years. His win in 1977 sparked an incredible run in which he ranked among the Top 4 dogs of all breeds three years running, and was No. 1 Hound in both 1978 and 1979.

The all-time top-winning male in breed history with 63 all-breed Best In Show victories, he sired 37 champions, including multi-Best In Show winners Vin-Melca's The Smuggler, Vin-Melca's Buckpasser, and Vin-Melca's Southern Rain.

Westminster group judge Melbourne Downing had no trouble finding Tuffy in 1979 for his second group win at The Garden, and Mrs. Trotter's fifth group win of the decade.

Our deepest gratitude goes to the members of the Westminster Kennel Club and especially to benefactors Merry Jeanne & Tommy Millner for honoring Patricia V. Trotter's incredible legacy at Westminster with the endowment of the Vin-Melca Trophy.

Will we see you around the rings in New York?

01/28/2026

Thank you to the great Diana Han for sharing these fantastic photos, including a few from the 145th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, when Mrs. Patricia V. Trotter selected Best In Show. Precious memories, shared with the late, beloved, and very much missed Charles Trotter and Jennifer Reed.

Vin-Melca Norwegian Elkhounds

02/22/2026

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02/11/2026

02/03/2026

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