Havanese Club of America - National Specialty Dogs, Friday, July 22

Judge:  James Reynolds
Mr. Reynolds judged as he always does, consistently.  Whether he picks you or not, you can tell what he likes and he sticks with it all of the way through.


An entry of 43 dogs.


That's The Notorious Defender, aka Mason (Perry Mason).  Owned by Connie Rousch and Kathy Kosich.  A beautiful Desi - Godiva (Roche's sister) boy.  Mason Won the BBE Class (the class with the largest entry) and unfortunately continued his RESERVE WINNERS DOG streak.  But we must say that we are proud of the little bugger.  He is turning into quite the showman and we are happy with him.


Congratulations to the puppy that took Winners Dog today.  He is quite a lovely boy and I am anxious to follow his career. 

Havanese Club of America - National Specialty Sweepstakes, Friday

That's The Notorious Defender, aka Mason (Perry Mason).  Owned by Connie Rousch and Kathy Kosich, was 3rd in his class in Sweepstakes today.   Mason's grand sire, Desi's sire, MBISS AM GCH CAN GCH Sonrisa's Tiny Thomas was in rare form, moving and looking as good, if not better than, he did for those numerous Bests In Show.  This old gentleman, looked fabulous and was walked.  Sad.

HCA Sweepstakes Judge:  Linda Cosner

http://www.kimbrielkennels.com/

I tried to find out some more on the sweepstakes Judge.  There was no bio on the HCA website.  I found her website, (link above), and went to her "About Us" page.  On an about us page, you would hope to find names and a bit of history about the people who want you to buy a dog from them, but not here.  This is the entirety of the text that was on that page.  I have highlighted the lines that peaked my interest and may yours. 

From:  http://www.kimbrielkennels.com/about_us.html

Havanese, Papillons | Kimbriel Kennels

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, and your dog. You are his life, his love, and his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion. Dogs are linked to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring, it was peace. "

At Kimbriel Kennels we strive to purchase good quality, healthy parents to use in our breeding program, and see that all puppies are well socialized.

We currently know of no problems associated with any puppies that have come from me although studies have proven that regular checkups and vaccinations and a proper, healthy, veterinarian recommended diet can make all the difference in the quality of a pet's life.

That is all that is on her About Us page.  What did you learn?

UPDATE:  Of the few dogs on her website that have any OFFA certifications at all, many (even a 7 year old) had their tests done in March.  Ya think someone said, "Hey you are a member of the HCA and Judging at Nationals, maybe you should do some health certifications."  ???

Havanese Club of America - Regional Specialty Thursday, July 21, 2011

Judge - Ann Hearn

MBIS AM GCH CAN CH Adorabull That's Better Than Sex

Roché was awarded an Award of Merit.

That's The Notorious Defender, aka Mason (Perry Mason).  Owned by Connie Rousch and Kathy Kosich.  A beautiful Desi - Godiva (Roche's sister) boy.  An entry of 39 dogs, Mason, Won the BBE Class (tied with the puppy class for the largest number of entries).  We were hoping to break his Reserve streak, but that didn't happen today.  Maybe tomorrow?

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Not just my opinion:

Not consistent Judging today, but Congratulations to the Winners.  There seemed to be some confusion when it came to awarding Awards of Merit and Select.  The two last dogs in her line-up were awarded Select points.  The dogs that she chose first, were given Awards of Merit and therefore no points towards their Grand Championship rankings.  Before all the Grand Champion points, if we couldn't win BOB or BOS, then we wanted that first AOM.  We should still want that spot but it should be worth something other than bragging rights.  According to the following information from the AKC, Selects are to be placed first behind BOS, then AOMs, or they can be placed and awarded in conjunction with each other. 

Our judges have been advised on numerous occasions the relationship between Selects and Award of Merits at specialty shows.  Following is one example of the information that has been given to the judging community regarding this relationship:

                Awards of Merit are a club award, the restrictions and /or guideline in regard to the eligibility and number awarded are at the discretion of the event hosting club. 

Unless specified otherwise, it is at the discretion of the judge whether to award Selects and AOMs independently or to have the Selects also recipients of an Award of Merit.  Regardless, since the Select is an AKC award, it is of greater significance than the Award of Merit.  In other words, if the judge should choose to award them independently, the judge would select BOB, BOW, BOS, Select Dog, Select Bitch AND THEN their Awards of Merit from the remaining entries in the ring.  If they were to choose to overlap them, the Selects would be the highest Award of Merit that was eligible to receive a Select.

We have seen this happen time and time again.  At the Bichon regional in conjuction with the National last year, the judge actually announced that she wasn't sure how to place them so what did we (the exhibitors) want her to do?  We, the exhibitors, just want them to do it right, no matter who they place, just know the breed, be consistent, and do it the way it is supposed to be done. 

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