Catherine Thompson

VON GAILINGEN ROTTWEILERS

“puppies with a future”
Catherine M. Thompson
1579 Rock Bridge Rd. SE
Washington Court House, OH 43160-9721
Phone or Fax (740) 636-0272

Mrs. Thompson became interested in Rottweilers in the late 1950’s. She acquired her first
Rottweiler in 1969 – this bitch, CH Natascha Vom Hohenreissach, CD, was the beginning of a
very long involvement with the sport of purebred dogs and Rottweilers. The first Von Gailingen
litter arrived in 1973 and from the “A” litter came CH Anka Von Gailingen, who became the top
producing Rottweiler bitch in the USA for 1977 with 5 offspring finishing their American Kennel
Club championships. Anka was awarded the American Rottweiler Club’s Gold Production Award
for her 10 Champion, 2 Utility Dog Tracker, 1 Companion Dog Excellent and 5 Companion Dog
titled offspring.
Mrs. Thompson is the first breeder/owner/trainer of an AKC Utility Dog titled Rottweiler, also the
first with a Champion-Utility Dog and Champion-Utility Dog Tracker with American/Canadian CH
Von Gailingen’s Dassie Did It, UDT, Can CD and American/Bermudan CH Von Gailingen’s Dark
Delight, UDT, Bermudan CDX. Dark Delight was the number 1 ARC obedience dog for 2 years
and was highest scoring dog in trial at the ARC National Specialty. She is the first advanced
obedience titled Rottweiler in Bermuda and the first Champion with an advanced title.
Being involved is Catherine Thompson’s middle name. She is a charter member of the American
Rottweiler Club and has served on the Board of directors, including holding the office of
Treasurer, Vice-President and serving four terms as President. She chaired the Top Ten
Committee from 1978 to 2003 and the Production Awards program since its founding in 1985.
She chaired the AKC Rottweiler video committees, the Standard Revision Committee and the 2
Illustrated Standard committees. She also edited the ARC’s 4 th and 5 th Pictorials.
As for her love of obedience, she has served as President, Training Director and Show Secretary
for Bayshore Companion Dog Club of New Jersey. Mrs. Thompson has trained advanced
obedience classes for Bayshore and hosted weekly summer sessions in obedience and agility.
She has also trained classes for the local Owner/Handler Association and the County Park
system. Presently Mrs. Thompson is a 4-H advisor, holding weekly training sessions for the
children of her home county.
Besides all the club work, Mrs. Thompson is an American Kennel Club approved judge of
Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Boxers, Bullmastiffs and Mastiffs. She is also approved to
judge all levels of obedience and rally competition. She has judged Rottweilers in Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad, El Salvador, Great Britain, Sweden and the Philippines.
She judges between 30-50 obedience/rally trials per year in the USA and Canada, placing her
among the busiest 100 AKC obedience judges.
Mrs. Thompson is the only AKC breeder/judge of Rottweilers that has personally trained and titled
her Rottweilers in all AKC performance events. She has titled dogs in breed, obedience, rally,
tracking, agility and herding. When not judging or showing her own dogs, she is a sought after
speaker on the breed, giving seminars across the US. She has also given judging seminars to
various judges’ study groups and has been the co-presenter, with Linda Michels of the Breed
Study Group at the ARC National Specialty for five years. Catherine and Linda have written a
book on the Rottweiler for Howell Book House, Rottweilers: Centuries of Service.