Rena Fucillo participated in obedience for over five decades and was a familiar figure inside and along side the ring. During those years she trained with the South Shore, Weston, New England, and Charles River Dog Training Clubs. She was an excellent competitor and an accomplished handler. With her beautiful Miniature Poodles, Clemmie among them, she won multiple HITs, 200s, and too many titles to remember when asked a few years ago. She had a great sense of humor, was fun to compete with, fun to judge, fun to be with. She was intensely interested in obedience and after she stopped competing, continued to attend most of the obedience trials in southeastern New England. One of the best ways to learn was to set up your chair next to hers at a trial and just listen.

In the 1980s she began teaching at CRDTC. She loved it, and her enthusiasm was infectious. She had a keen, fresh eye for dogs and handlers, and she viewed every team as a unique challenge. She was unusual and open-minded in her ability to learn and to adapt and blend new and old methods. Though she had not used them herself, she accepted pinch collars, food, whatever worked. Her high-pitched, exhorting “Wheeee!” was a familiar sound on Monday nights. She delighted in her students. She kept an eye on the beginner classes, and when someone caught her eye, she plucked them out and into her advanced class. Such was her love of teaching that she never missed a Monday night. Sick or not she’d show up with a “Just let me get out on the floor — I’ll be fine.” When her knees began to give out, she carried on from a chair at center-floor. Rena’s training, enthusiasm, and encouragement got many of us into the obedience ring and kept us there. We miss her presence.

The above is drawn from words of Sally Jean Alexander, Ellen Brinker, Susan Conant, Betty Dannewitz, Roseann Mandell, Geoff Stern, Margaret Stubbs, and Brucie Witthoft.