Director Profile

from Dog World Magazine September 2022

Durack Vendors

Patrice Johansen

– David Margan Patrice Johansen is not a person to be trifled with, she’s resilient, tough and knowledgeable.

She’s been through the mill of life with all its ups and downs and has been part of our dog world for fifty years as competitor, breeder, international all breeds judge and now, a Director of Dog’s Queensland. She remembers when it all started; “It was a social event when I first started a time and place to gather were you had great mates outside that ring but competitors in it, there were no dog politics then, it was simply a great time, and I was hooked. We had long breaks over Christmas then, and you’d find you really missed the events and going to the big ones, especially interstate, was just so much fun.”

Earlier it wasn’t dogs that took her fancy but horses, showing Galloway Hacks. At one point she even had a moderately successful galloper called, ‘Glenovea’.

Patrice grew up in Rosewood which was a small country town then and horses were in my blood, both her grandfather and dad were accomplished horsemen and grandad had a bullock team to haul logs and also a horse drawn road crushing plant that laid the roads around Rosewood and Marburg. But the transition to dogs and especially Rhodesian Ridgebacks was easy;

“You’ll find that a lot of horse people have Ridgebacks, and they are so engaging, low maintance, calm and very loyal.” Patrice has bred and owned Best in Show and Runner Up Best in Show at Specialties and multiple Best of Breed winners at the Brisbane Ekka.

Her breeding facility, Jomeja Hounds, has this motto,

“The proper and only ‘true type’ of any breed is that which most exactly subserves the purposes for which the breed is designed. Any malformation which is likely to unfit the dog for its uses is fatal to its being true to type.” – The Onlooker 1891. “My breeding ethic is to maintain the integrity of the breed for which it was bred, sound, functional and versatile dogs with excellent conformation and temperament.” Said Patrice.

And she has also successfully owned/bred/shown Whippets, Greyhounds, Giant Schnauzers, Bull Terriers, British Bulldogs, Boston Terriers and Blue Tick Coonhounds.

Moving into the world of judging in 1992 was also a natural progression, even if driven by the frequent nudges by friends and ring associates.

“Once I got in there, I found it really invigorating discovering why breeds were the way they were and how they had evolved.”

Patrice began just judging her speciality, Ridgebacks, but now does them all as an all-breeds judge and now trains prospective judges. Just in the last 11 months she has judged 29 shows.

Judging has also taken her all over the place, pick a place on the globe and she’s been there from judging the National Top 20 Ridgebacks in America to South America, Asia, Europe, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Patrice has judged the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of South Africa (Parent Club) specialty show, the prestigious Top Twenty event at the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the United States National, the Canadian Rhodesian Ridgeback National and the Rhodesian Ridgeback World Congress show, along with presenting a paper on judging to the breed standard at the World Congress.

I asked her whether such moments in the international ring were stressful,

“No not really, you’re having fun doing what you love. You just have to be confident in your knowledge of the breed and look we’re all human and so if you make a mistake, you just have to be confident in that moment as well. And every time I go into that ring to judge I invariably learn something new.”

For anyone considering training to be a judge she says; “Dip your toe in the water and have a go, you’ll find it very rewarding.”

Her daughter Majella had always loved Basset Hounds but had dropped out of the dog world so recently, on the daughter’s 40th birthday, Patrice presented her with two Bassets and now Majella is back in the ring showing and competing. Great result.

On her role as Director, she says;

“It’s been an eye opener. Its very easy to be judgemental from the outside but our Board does not make decisions easily or flippantly, they take a lot of thought, work and consultation.”

While not sure of whether she will stand again, Patrice Johanson hopes she has made a contribution to our collective good; “I have done my very best, supported my committees and helped make small steps towards hopefully achieving bigger and better results over time. It has been a rewarding experience to advocate for our members.”

Plus, there have been a host of positions with committees that drive our passion. Chairperson for the Conformation Judges Committee, Chairperson for the Dog of the Year Committee and Secretary for the Yuggera Canine Club. I have previously held executive positions as Secretary Ipswich Kennel Club, President of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Council Australia, President of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of QLD, Secretary of the Hound Club of QLD, and committee member of the Strategic Planning Committee Dogs QLD.

Her regrets? Well not having a standardised national judges training scheme is one and too, a lost past.

As far as Patrice is concerned her happiest times in the dog world were those simple times of the past when a show was a fun family centred occasion.

Patrice believes the congeniality of shows has faded and that where once, as competitors stepped into the ring, they felt they were on a level playing field and the judge’s decisions were accepted, now with there is an unpleasant intensity, aided and abetted by the scourge of social media.

“People have to be thick skinned to show today, people have to remember we aren’t trying to win a sheep station, in the end it’s just a ribbon. Our dogs know what’s important.”

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