How Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue Came to Be

Rescue

In the latter part of the 1980s, a young woman named Dale Gordon had an idea that would impact the lives of thousands of dogs and eventually become the rescue organization known as Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue.

An Idea to Help Shelters and the Dogs (and People) they Served

For decades, Dale Gordon had been deeply involved in the Seattle area dog community. She began as an instructor at Canine College, teaching obedience and handling classes while developing a clientele with interests in a wide variety of breeds.

Her love of Airedales led her to volunteer at local animal shelters, where she would identify dogs of this breed, groom those who were in less than ideal condition for adoption, and foster them whenever she could. She quickly discovered that many shelters didn’t quite know what to do with this particular breed, or how best to place them into new adoptive homes.

Dale realized how much it would benefit shelters and the dogs to gather individuals with breed-specific knowledge—those who were familiar with the breed's unique characteristics, and would know how to make the breed adoptable and placed into appropriate homes—into a new type of rescue organization.

One evening after dog training class, she and a student named Dixie Tenny (Lehmann) sat down in a small office and pondered how such an organization could offset the number of dogs dying in shelters. Dale’s desire to rescue additional breeds fit neatly with Dixie’s prior rescue experience, and together, the result of that initial conversation was the formation of Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue ("SPDR").

Where there had previously only been many individual breed rescues, they envisioned SPDR as a community of various breed rescuers under one roof, allowing better access to the dog-loving community and a sharing of resources and talents.

At the time, the very idea of dog rescue was scoffed at. Many breed clubs were unwilling to become involved, and local shelters were leery of SPDR’s intent. It took persistent hard work to find individuals who shared the belief that the community would be better off with an all-breed dog rescue than without, and Dale accomplished much of this task through her contacts in the dog community and her steadfast belief in the concept.

Fortunately, the philosophy of rescue changed dramatically over the next few years, from an idea much maligned to one much more benevolent.

Dale Gordon had a terrific idea almost 40 years ago. With the help of Dixie Tenny (Lehmann), she made it work. Thousands of dogs and as many grateful owners have benefitted from these two women who believed in an idea and put forth the hard work and persistence to make it a reality.

On January 15, 2025, Dale Gordon passed away. We are sad that she is gone, but will be forever grateful for the enduring legacy she left behind in SPDR.

After years of working as a trainer, Dale started the Northwest Dog Training School. She taught nearly all breeds, while owning Airedales and Irish Terriers herself. When she started teaching, very few people were working terriers in obedience, and this was an area of particular interest to her. She was active in the Airedale and Irish Terrier national breed clubs as well as the Washington State Obedience Training Club.