Friday Night Dialogues: For the love of Schipperkes

Melanie Coronetz and her husband, Bruce Miller, love dogs. But they especially love Schipperkes, a small Belgian breed.

Their first Schipperke found its way into Melanie and Bruce’s lives about 25 years ago, and when you come to Melanie’s Friday Night Dialogues presentation on January 19 at 7 p.m., you will meet Hercules, their 8-year-old Schipperke. 

Melanie grew up with dogs but always longed for a purebred. At some point she made a life-sized papier-mâché dog that resembled a bull terrier, the breed she and Bruce thought they wanted, but ultimately decided would be too big.

Then, as Melanie tells the story, “Exercise brought me to Schipperkes. I was on my exercise bike in 1991 and I was watching the Westminster Dog Show on the TV set in front of the bike. I saw my first Schipperke and was captivated.”

Shortly thereafter, an ad in the New York Times for a Schipperke sealed the deal, and Mercury became part of Melanie and Bruce’s family.

After Mercury came Monkey, Argo, Marlena, Mozart, Zora and finally Hercules. These names are the dogs’ “call names,” literally the name they are called by. Their American Kennel Club (AKC) “registered” names are those under which they are entered in dog shows. Melanie’s Schipperkes had AKC names like: Kebrill’s Mothersday Miracle, Kebrill’s Mercurial Argonaut, Coda’s Torchsong Trilogy, and Delamer’s Seagoing Strongman. Melanie’s first dog show was with Mercury, but it didn’t go well.

She remembers, “The judge was very mean, and yelled at me to go get some dog handling lessons.”

But over time, her dog show life improved and she now has lots of ribbons to prove it. In addition to breeding and showing her dogs, Melanie has written several books including: “Schipperkes: A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual.”

Melanie and Bruce have summered on Shelter Island for decades. First they rented and then, surprise surprise, realized they’d fallen in love with the island. That prompted them to buy their home on Ram Island Road in 1986.

Shelter Island has allowed Melanie to indulge some of her other passions. She is an avid tennis player, her tennis pals being mostly “gentlemen of a certain age” as she describes them. In 2006, Melanie became first woman to sail in the Menantic Yacht Club sunfish races, again competing against gentlemen of a certain age, or as she dubbed them, “old salts.” Now that she’s no longer racing, you can count on Melanie and Bruce to host one of the after-race parties.

Melanie’s history of caring for animals has included volunteering at the Southold Animal Shelter, and trying to make sure that turtles crossing Shelter Island’s roads between April and October are not run over.

You may recall the story in the August 1, 2017 edition of the Reporter detailing Melanie’s efforts to place warning signs on the causeway to Little Ram Island alerting drivers to turtle crossings. When the signs disappeared, she filed a police report and then went to the trouble to replace the signs.

“A lack of awareness is a large part of the problem,” she told the Reporter. “Drivers should always be on the alert for turtles by looking left and right as they drive.”

Melanie Coronetz will talk about the who, what, why, where and when of dog shows (demystifying them in the process) at Friday Night Dialogues on Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7 p.m.

Up next: Hap Bowditch, on February 16, will share stories of life on Shelter Island — including his family, his many roles in the community and how he became a sculptor.

Please join us for an evening of entertaining reminiscences.

Submitted by Judy Hole