When James Brady and his wife Suzanne Reynolds-Brady were looking to add to their household in Latitude Margaritaville Hilton Head, a Jimmy Buffett-themed community in Hardeeville, all they were looking for was a pet.

Instead, they unknowingly brought home a champion.

“He comes alive when in the ring,” James Brady said of the couple’s 4-year-old flat-coated retriever, Ruger, who has been competing in the dog show circuit for mere months.

Though the 67-pound dog has not competed for long, he’s already achieved at least 109 championship points, something that takes other dogs at least a year if not more to achieve, he said. Their previous dog, a beloved pet named Finn, “couldn’t even get one point.” To become a champion, the American Kennel Club requires dogs have 15 points plus two “major wins,” an accolade worth three or more championship points under at least three different judges.

“Show dogs are evaluated on how close they come to the breed standard,” Brady said. “Never having had a show dog, we knew nothing about how close Ruger’s general appearance - head, neck, topline, body, etc. came to the breed standard.”

Ruger’s competition days started shortly after the Kentucky breeder that the Bradys got him from asked to make him a champion to “improve the gene pool,” he said. With a mother that lived to be 10 years old and a grandmother who was still alive, Ruger’s pedigree, which would attract other potential breeders, was already excellent.

At his first competition at the American Kennel Club’s National Championship presented by Royal Canin in December, Ruger earned enough points in four days to become a champion. Their work seemingly done, the Bradys went home to begin their new life with Ruger.

“There was definitely a different energy and vibe in the house, a good one,” James Brady said. “Suzanne and I loved having him around and being with him and taking care of him was something positive for us to do together.”

The two got to know Ruger as a playful pup who loves to swim and can be so focused when horsing around that he doesn’t give other dogs at the park a chance with the ball. Though he’s almost 5 years old, Ruger “still acts like a puppy,” Reynolds-Brady said.

All their friends and advisors in the dog show circuit were baffled by the speed of Ruger’s wins. Some even told them that they didn’t think “the Brady’s know what they’ve got here,” they said.

“He did four days in a row and won, that’s kind of unheard of,” Reynolds-Brady said.

Despite the days spent on long walks, and playing in the dog park, the two felt like Ruger could do more.

When the Bradys took Ruger to compete for his Grand Championship, meaning he would be competing against other dogs who had become champions, in Clemson, South Carolina, the two were nervous. On the first day of the competition, Ruger took home a second-place ribbon. The next day, he won Best in Breed. From there, the wins continued piling in.

“It’s more than we could imagine,” James Brady said. “I doubted him before, but not anymore.”

Ruger went on to compete in Brooksville, Florida where he won Best in Breed the last three days. After that, he competed in Lakeland, Florida where he again won Best in Breed and, with points accumulated from both contests in Clemson and Brooksville, became a Grand Champion.

“He had no idea what he had accomplished and didn’t care,” he said. “He just wanted to play.”

Now, with those wins under his belt — or leash — Ruger’s next stop is the 146th Westminster Kennel Club dog show, a competition that brings thousands of pooches from all over the country to compete in categories such as Sporting, Hound, Working, Terrier, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding. All dogs must first compete for Best in Breed, then those winners will move up to Best in Group before competing for the coveted Best in Show.

When asked about the upcoming Westminster competition in New York, James Brady said: “Win or lose, he’s our boy, he’s our pet.”

Following the Kentucky Derby , the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is America’s second-oldest continuous sporting event. It was established in 1877 and is the oldest organization dedicated to dogs and is also the longest televised dog show in the country.

Typically, the show is held at Madison Square Garden in New York. The 146th installment of the competition had been relocated to the Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York because of the pandemic.

Saturday’s events concluded at 9 p.m. and will pick back up again Monday starting at 8 a.m. for the Masters Obedience Championship. Also being judged Monday morning is the Hound and Herding of Breeds contest. Both competitions will end at 4:30 p.m.

Tuesday, viewers can watch kids get in the ring for the Junior Showmanship Preliminaries, which shows kids acting as the dogs’ handlers starting at 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., the Hound, Toy, Non-Sporting and Herding Groups judging will take place and end at 11 p.m.

Wednesday, the final day of contests, will begin at 8 a.m. with Sporting and Working breeds and the Junior Showmanship Preliminaries. Both contests will last until 4:30 p.m. The 30-minute final round for the Junior Showmanship competition will take place at 7 p.m. Judgment for the Sporting, Working and Terrier groups takes place from 7:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. Closing out the festivities Wednesday will be Best in Show, which sees the winners from each of the seven groups compete.

Viewers can tune in on the FOX Sports App, the WKC App or at westminsterkennelclub.org.

This story was originally published June 19, 2022 12:11 PM.

Swimming coach Frankie Beatty talks about why it’s never too early — or too late — to learn how to swim.

It takes just moments for a small child to fall into a pool.

More children ages 1 to 4 die from drowning than any other cause of death except for birth defects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For every child who dies from drowning, another eight will require emergency medical care from a non-fatal drowning.

”Drowning is the No. 1 preventable cause of death for children between ages 1 and 4,’’ said Frankie Beatty, one of the directors of operations for Watermelon Swim, a swim school with locations in Lutz, Riverview, South Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

She is the daughter of owner Micha Seal, who plans to open two more locations: in Brooksville and Zephyrhills. The school’s youngest students are infants, who get acclimated to the water via the water babies classes with their parents. Then at 6 months, the kids start learning to swim.

Beatty, 27, talked with the Tampa Bay Times about teaching kids — and quite a few adults — how to swim.

What goes through your mind when you hear that a child has drowned?

Obviously, the first reaction is I’m terribly sad. And then it kind of just reminds you that it can happen to anybody. So whenever I hear about it always just makes me think, okay, what more can I communicate to the parents in my lobby, what more can I teach the little ones in our pool? And it really just pushes me and my team to be better to make sure we’re continuing to lower the statistics where we can.

Swim lessons alone, if they are consistent and formal, reduce the risk of drowning by 88% for (the youngest) children. So that’s really the biggest thing you can do, that and having just a regular at-home water safety conversation with them. Because a lot of times they just don’t know what to do if they fall in the pool. Or they don’t know what to do if their friend falls in the pool.

At what age should children start learning how to swim?

Our whole philosophy is, basically, that you’re never too young or too old to know how to swim. So we teach all ages, from as soon as the umbilical cord falls off all the way through adulthood. And we actually recommend the earlier the better. For that reason, we offer free water babies classes for children between when their umbilical cord falls off to 6 months old. The sooner the better because then they never learn to be afraid.

Babies don’t fear water at that young age?

Right. They may be a little fussy, but for the most part at that age they don’t know what’s really going on. You’re kind of introducing them to something before they have a chance to be afraid of it. That way, it’s just always something they’ve done; it’s second nature. They don’t even remember having to learn it.

Do they actually learn to swim in the water babies class?

The original water babies class … that class is actually a non-submersion class, so we don’t put them under water in that class. That class is just for them to start being comfortable with the water. They get a feeling for being in the pool, a feeling for laying on their back in the water. And also it’s a great way to introduce parents to how to work their children in the water, because they’re in the water as well.

At what age can they start learning to swim?

As soon as they turn 6 months old; that’s when the classes turn more submersion-based and that’s when we would start actually teaching them how to swim, but it is all based around their own individual development. Something we’re really big on is every child learns at a different pace. And since we do want them to be comfortable, we make sure that we respect that as well.

When they learn to swim can parents be in the water with them?

We have a couple of different options for young children. Anybody who is less than 6 months old would be in the water babies class, which is where the parent has to be in the water and that’s a free class and that’s the only option we have for children that young. Once they’re somewhere between 6 months and 2 years old then that’s where there are more options. You can go into parent-taught classes, which are group classes where the parents are still in the water, but now we’re moving on to new skills. We’re moving to going under the water, challenging them more at things like that. Or some parents opt for private lessons at that point, which would be just an instructor and the child, and that really just goes hand-in-hand with how comfortable the parent is working in the water with the child. It could be nerve-racking, especially with a little baby.

Do you have adults who have never learned to swim taking classes?

Yeah, we do. It’s actually fairly common.

That’s kind of another one of those situations where it varies a lot based on each individual. I would say that most of the time I’ll get people who are coming from out of state and they’re coming from areas where swimming wasn’t as big of a deal. And they come to Florida and there are so many water activities (and) they want to be able to participate.

Also, a lot of times people know how to swim but then they’ll send their children to us and their children will actually become stronger swimmers than they are, so they’ll enroll in lessons to make sure that they can swim well enough to keep up with their child and be able to help them if they were to get too tired in the deep end or something like that.

And there’s also some cases that I’ve had where they were perfectly fine swimmers and then they had some kind of traumatic incident relating to water and they kind of just have to work their way back to being able to swim comfortably.

What do you tell parents who have a swimming pool at home?

We recommend having multiple barriers. It is actually a law that you should have a barrier up around your pool. I recommend multiple barriers, so if you have a pool gate up, also put an alarm on it. Things like that, because children are really sneaky, especially when they’re at home a lot.I know when we shut down for COVID-19 we got an email from one of the parents who swam with us that they went out and their child was actually stacking up buckets to try to climb over their pool fence because they were bored. Even if they’re not figuring out their own way to do it, a lot of times they’ll watch you enough that they’ll learn how to open the gate. And so you want to have some kind of back up just to make you feel more at ease, and add that extra layer of safety. Whatever method you go with, we would recommend choosing a secondary one as well.

How did the company get the name Watermelon Swim?

It was really kind of (Micha Seal’s) idea. She was talking about what’s summery, what’s fun. She wanted to do something different, something that didn’t necessarily scream swim lessons. (Watermelon is) a summer party kind of food, you get that fun, summer all-year-round feeling. Plus they float, they grow year-round, so it kind of went hand in hand with what we do. And then we love the colors. It’s super fun and child-friendly.

For more information visit watermelonswim.com

BROOKSVILLE — The first reading of a plan to rezone about 22 acres for multifamily development breezed through the City Council on March 21.

The land is on the south side of Cortez Boulevard, west of the Broad Street intersection, and is surrounded mostly by properties with commercial zoning.

Susan Swift, a certified planner with Colliers Planning and Design, said the 360 multifamily units is below the maximum limit of the land use plan.

The developer, Arden at Brooksville LLC, is planning to leave about a quarter of the site as open space, plus a lake and a “significant” amount of recreational amenities, including pickleball and a dog park.

“We do think it’s a perfect site for multifamily,” Swift said, with access to transit and a four-lane arterial road.

In addition, the site might have carports with solar roofs, bicycle parking, and electrical charging stations for electric vehicles.

There was no public comment and the motion for approval of the first reading passed 3-0.

A second rezoning effort passed its first reading, too, but nearby residents of the Cloverleaf Farms age-restricted objected strongly to the plan, which would add 104 units and spots for more mobile homes on a site that’s being used for RV storage for the community.

It’s 30 acres on the south side of Twingate Avenue and east of Broad Street.

Residents said that more people in the community would put pressure on the amenities already there, as well as inflict more damage on their local roads, which are privately owned.

“Our infrastructure is crumbling,” said resident Andrew Zink. “Another 200 people will make it crumble quicker.”

Residents said the current management isn’t taking good care of the development now, mainly because the Chicago-based owners apparently won’t approve spending any money on improvements.

More people would impose a greater burden on the residents there, people said.

Don Lacey of Coastal Engineering said the expansion would not add to the drainage issues, and the added revenue would enable the management to address the other problems in the community.

A motion to approve the first reading with conditions passed 3-0.

• Property owners Tsai Mingwen and Robert Buckner were honored for the work on their commercial properties. Mingwen’s daughter, Mia Liu, accepted the award for 322 N. Broad St. Robert Buckner, the owner of 130, 134 and 138 Fort Dade Ave., was honored for his property but was not present. The Beautification Board takes nominations for the Beautification Award for residential and commercial properties throughout the entire year.

• The council approved an agreement with CGI Digital Showcase Video to produce five videos to showcase the city.

• The council discussed issues surrounding the use of security cameras in certain locations, including the water treatment plants, City Hall, the cemetery and Tom Varn Park. At City Hall, it was decided 3-0 that a sign would let visitors know they are going to be on camera, especially those who go to the second floor to look at the public art.

• The city has hired a community development director. Jessica Kowal will be coming from Pasco County and starting her job April 6.

• Two members of the council were absent. Mayor Pat Brayton and council member Betty Erhard were not feeling well, so Vice Mayor Blake Bell ran the meeting.

BROOKSVILLE — The city heard about applying for grants for the Community Redevelopment Area, and also heard about impact fees in the city and how the money might be used.

The city is considering applying to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity for up to $750,000 in the regular category, which is neighborhood, housing or commercial; and $1.5 million in the economic development category, according to a presentation to the CRA board.

“Specific improvements can include such activities as acquisition of real property, construction of public infrastructure such as roads, parks or sewer mains, rehabilitation of houses and commercial buildings and/or energy conservation,” the agenda memo said.

After staff review of the projects within the CRA, the staff is seeking approval of the projects selected to include:

Street paving: $300,000

Street lighting: $200,000

Sidewalk repair: $100,000

Fire hydrants: $20,000

Grant administration: $50,000

Project leverage: $50,000

The city would need plans and specifications ready to proceed.

The total above would leave about $160,000 for other projects.

Points are assigned for city financial contributions and readiness to conduct the projects.

City manager Ron Snowberger said there is some sidewalk work that needs to be done to make the sidewalks compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and old “two-hole” fire hydrants that need to be replaced.

Corbett Alday, of Guardian Community Resource Management Inc. in Dade City, said the city would have to pay for engineering up-front, and couldn’t use the leftover money.

Mayor Pat Brayton said they could pay for the engineering from the CRA’s funds.

In economic development, the maximum is $1.5 million, Alday said, and the city would need a business partner. It would pay for infrastructure for water, sewer, turn lanes and more in exchange for jobs.

The business would have to be any private business in the CRA that is expanding and creating jobs.

In the next couple of months, Alday said, there would be a second public hearing.

The vote to approve moving forward was 5-0.

Director of Public Works Paul Booth said one area that needs to be assessed is the sidewalks and ramps at crossings. ADA requirements have changed regarding ramps, and they need to be wider.

“By doing a complete ADA assessment, we will know exactly which ramps we need to improve, which areas of sidewalks may need improvement, there have been some questions raised with ADA regarding brick pavers for sidewalks,” he said. “In one case you’ll hear, ‘Yes, they’re fine,’ and in another you’ll hear they’re not because of the cracking the brick pavers cause.”

He asked the CRA board to fund the assessment for $28,770.

Without grant funding, they could look at other options.

Booth said they hoped to have the assessment finished by the end of February.

The motion to approve the staff recommendation passed 5-0.

Sitting as the city council, members saw a presentation on a new study on city impact fees and received an update on the law. House Bill 337, last year, placed limits on impact fees and increases.

The purpose was to develop city impact fees for Fire-Rescue, public buildings, parks and recreation, and multimodal transportation, and gave an update on what the city has now.

The study finds that at present the total city fees for a single-family home of 2,000 square feet are $4,842 for the city and $4,671 for the county, for a total of $9,513. What’s being collected in the city is more like $5,800.

An increase over four years would have a total city and county impact fee of $7,200.

Council member Robert Battista said the city hasn’t added any road capacity since he became associated with the city in 1995. Almost everything they do with roads is repair and replacement.

“I don’t want to get the money if I can’t spend it,” he said.

He added he didn’t see any population growth happening in the next five years.

The presentation was for information only, and the only action taken was to approve the report on a 5-0 vote.

BROOKSVILLE — Several years ago, during a Manatee County Commission meeting to approve the conversion of a golf course to a residential zoning, protests erupted from people in nearby subdivisions over the addition of another housing development in the area.

Resident after resident spoke out during public comment against the change, claiming it would increase traffic, crowd the public schools, worsen drainage issues and even possibly destroy their community.

Then-commissioner Donna Hayes, who retired in 2012, didn’t help her cause when she told residents that she had been on the commission years ago when the development and construction of their subdivisions had been protested by previous residents who made the same claims.

In Hernando County, Commissioner Wayne Dukes often remarks that he remembers when Spring Hill was a tiny place in the 1960s, and there are people in the county now who — he said — feel that now that they have a home in the community, it’s time to stop others from having one.

But even Dukes can be persuaded to see the side of those opposed to development, as was shown in a recent debate over a subdivision in a rural part of Hernando County.

Encore Capital Management was seeking to rezone 50 acres near the intersection of Old Trilby Lane and Lockhart Road.

It’s south of Cortez Boulevard and west of I-75, across Lockhart Road from the Trilby Crossing subdivision.

Trilby Crossing has all the hallmarks of a new Florida subdivision, and it’s not hard to see why its residents might feel they’re living in paradise despite the small lots, winding suburban streets and the prospect of lots of construction noise in the future as the rest of the houses are built.

Prices start at nearly $300,000.

All around the borders are farms and land uses that symbolize the rural lifestyle. The new homeowners might not even realize that the “open” land they see is private property.

It’s to the west, beyond the berm that shades the development from Lockhart Road, that saw the items on the Nov. 16 County Commission agenda become another battle over growth and development.

Trilby Crossing is in a rural area but less than a mile from the I-75 interchange with Cortez Boulevard, where there’s a Winn-Dixie, a Burger King, a Taco Bell, a McDonald’s, a RaceTrac and more.

Signs telling of the proposed comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning still rest against the fence at the corner of Old Trilby Lane and Lockhart Road. In the distance on the property, cattle graze and all seems quaint and peaceful.

But residents in the area who don’t live in Trilby Crossing — and several who spoke said they had opposed that development — said they can see the end of their rural Florida dream in sight, and it’s in the plans for this piece of property. A few of them came to the meeting eager to set the County Commission straight on what a second subdivision across the street would do to their lifestyles.

The weight of construction trucks and traffic have had a terrible effect on Lockhart Road, residents said at the meeting, though a few congratulated the county on sending someone out to patch the road recently.

The completion of Trilby Crossing plus the new subdivision across the street would be a disaster, even if it becomes a four-lane road, they said.

Cliff Manuel, president of Coastal Engineering and a representative of the petitioner seeking the comprehensive plan amendment and zoning change, contended that the county has planned for growth in that area for years, with a wastewater treatment plant completed and a water plant in the works on Lockhart Road.

“This type of development in this area of Hernando County is appropriate,” Manuel said. “It was always anticipated to be a major growth area of the county. That’s why the county is expending large amounts of money on common infrastructure.”

The new development would be consistent with Trilby Crossing, he said, and there would be buffers with the rural areas.

He said they agreed to pay their fair share of impact fees and build the infrastructure for future growth.

That was the rub for the rural residents who came out in opposition. For them, future growth means an encroachment on their lifestyle and businesses.

“I feel for these people,” said Commissioner John Allocco. “They have rural living; on the other side I know it’s dense. My concern is how we do that transition so it doesn’t destroy what they have, but obviously fits in with 50 feet across the road on Lockhart, and that’s the challenge that this board has when we have any of these developments.”

Stephanie Crossman spoke eloquently about her love of the area and presented petitions from about 100 residents who didn’t want the changes that would lead to another development in the area.

“I moved to Hernando County five years ago,” she said, but had begun visiting nine years ago.

“It is a beautiful county. It does not look like other parts of Florida. People come to Hernando County and go, ‘We can’t believe this is part of Florida because we’ve got hills and hardwood trees and open space.’”

Lockhart Road is “abysmal,” she said, and wouldn’t even get its improvements until Trilby Crossing is finished.

“What they are doing with Trilby Crossing, it’s there. We can’t stop it. But they’ve taken a beautiful, hilly area and they’ve turned it into a flat spot. We’re very much not in agreement with that,” she said.

Sindra Ridge raised the issue of her school taxes, which have risen even though she and her neighbors don’t have children in the school system.

“I would ask the honorable board to consider that this development is premature,” she said.

“Protect the people who have made decisions to buy land in an agriculture area. We’ve invested our life savings. I built a home. I’ve lived there since 1988, and yes, ‘Not In My Backyard,’ we hear it all the time, but I do believe that citizens have a right to depend on your comprehensive plan when we make decisions about building, residing and developing in a certain place.”

Brittany Walters, who lives off Siesta Road, a private road, said she’s had to cope with people driving down the road who are just exploring the area, especially with Trilby Crossing there.

“God only created so much land. How many houses are we going to allow to be built here?” she asked. “This place is beautiful, because of the fact that it wasn’t Pasco, it wasn’t Tampa, it’s what we all came here for.”

Several others spoke, bringing up similar issues, and finally Commission Chairman Steve Champion brought it back to the board.

A debate over transitions and buffers ensued, and lot sizes, too, though this item was about the comprehensive plan; the rest would be in the later item.

“We need to either approve residential for this parcel, or deny,” Champion said.

Allocco finally made the motion to approve the change, but then voted against it.

The final vote was 4-1 against the change, with Commissioner Jeff Holcomb dissenting. A later vote for a zoning change went down 5-0.

The residents cheered the decision, a rare rejection by the Hernando County Commission of a development plan, and Dukes had the last word.

“I’ll let you folks know that’s the first time I’ve done that in my career,” he said.

Undoubtedly, the developers will be back before the commission with a modified plan, and the residents will be back, too, when that happens.

NEXT WEEK: Development on Anderson Snow Road turns into fight over road access