Dixie Howell-Hirsch’s lifelong association with purebred dogs began with Irish Setters and her family’s interest in game bird hunting while she was still a young girl in Idaho. The family began traveling extensively during Mrs. Howell-Hirsch’s high school years and she had to be content with a family pet rather than a field dog until she began raising her own family years later. While married to her first husband, Dixie began breeding Doberman Pinchers for the guard dog industry and Toy Poodles for the society crowd; both breeds were quite sought after in the mid-1960's Divorce and subsequent relocation and remarriage brought Mrs. Howell-Hirsch to the Irish Wolfhound breed and lure coursing. Her success in breeding, showing, and coursing since the late 1970's has garnered over 60 home-bred conformation champions, over 30 coursing champions and motivated her to become a Lure Field Trial Judge in 1978 for the American Sighthound Field Association. Her license was grandfathered into the AKC Lure Coursing program (1988) at that program’s inception. Two of her home-bred hounds have the distinction of being the first Irish Wolfhound to earn an AKC Field Champion title and the first bitch to earn an AKC Dual Championship -- field and bench. Many others have subsequently followed to Dual Championships. Mrs. Howell-Hirsch is a Charter member of the AKC Lure Coursing Advisory Committee; National Chairman of the highly acclaimed AKC National Lure Coursing Championship in 1995; founder of the South Counties Irish Wolfhound Fanciers Society, a social organization for the breed; member and Breed Referral Chairman for the Inland Empire Hound Group Club, since 1984; member and Hospitality Chairman for the Irish Wolfhound Association of the West Coast, 1994-95-96; 1999-2000 Delegate to the AKC; Junior Showmanship judge; symposium speaker, author and lecturer on the Sighthound Conditioning for Coursing and Conformation; author of numerous articles on Coursing and Conditioning for such magazines as Dogs International. Mrs. Howell-Hirsch has produced top winning sighthounds for exhibitors in many countries around the world, and bred, owned and exhibited one of her hounds to 12 international titles in 9 countries (besides the U.S.), who became the world’s most Internationally titled Irish Wolfhound PLUS holding a lure coursing championship, and another home-bred hound had 9 titles from 5 countries PLUS an AKC Dual Championship. She became an AKC licensed judge eventually and has judged Internationally.

Mrs. Howell-Hirsch promotes a strong commitment to functionality in the sighthound and the duality of purpose where the form follows the function in a natural evolution. It is this commitment which motivates her in applying for a license to judge the twelve sighthounds. Her more than 30 years of field experience, from the required hands-on inspection process to the judging and scoring procedures, proves Mrs. Howell-Hirsch to be eminently qualified in the field. Her numerous assignments as Sweepstakes judge for most of the sighthounds, sporting, terriers and working breeds attests to her knowledge, experience and peer acceptance. She is currently fully licensed to judge Basenjis, Borzoi, Irish Wolfhounds, Pharaoh Hounds, Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Border Terriers, as well as Junior Showmanship, and Provisional License applied for in Rottweilers, Bassets, Greyhounds, Scottish Deerhounds, Whippets and Ibizan Hounds, for AKC sanctioned conformation shows. Mrs. Howell-Hirsch is a recognized breeder-judge in five of her chosen licensed sighthound breeds and has the distinction of being breeder-handler on her Champion Irish Wolfhounds, Borzoi, Basenjis and Rhodesians in three countries (US, Canada, Mexico). As such an authority, Mrs. Howell-Hirsch judged at the 1999 World Show in Mexico City, along with 60 other eminent International judges.

SUNSTAG is a registered kennel name with Canada (CKC Permanent), the United States (AKC Renewable), and is recognized world-wide as the prefix of sound, functional sighthounds. In January 2011, AKC recognized and awarded Dixie Howell-Hirsch as a Breeder of Merit.