Top Bernese Mountain Dogs and Top British Breeders of All Time

 Following last year’s article with the top dogs of the 21^st century so far, interest was expressed in extending this to cover ALL our history to find who is our (British) all time Top Dog and Top Breeder. Whilst we could argue about exactly how to assess the Top Breeder the simplest objective way is to count the number of CCs dogs bred by them have won. To give a wider impression you can add in the number of their dogs that have won those CCs and the number of Champions they have produced. This was a lengthy job and I am grateful to Helen Davenport Willis whose impressive and far reaching records filled in a few gaps I had after my collation from my own data. The information covers from the first CC to the end of 2007, that is to say the first 31 years of BMD CCs.

 History

We were first awarded CCs in 1977 the very first being at Crufts that year awarded by Mr A.J. Chandler followed by 5 more sets including the first awarded by a Breed Specialist, namely the evergreen Diana Cochrane. The number gradually grew over the years, linked to KC registration numbers of BMDs, up to the current 31 sets per year. The first CCs awarded at a club show were in 1981 at our own GB club show, then the only breed club. To the end of 2007 there have been 1484 CCs awarded (always in pairs) to our breed on 742 occasions and these CCs have been won by 437 different dogs.

Beyond the list given below there are 3 dogs on 9 CCs, 13 dogs on 8 CCs, 15 dogs on 7 CCs, 22 dogs on 6 CCs, 28 dogs on 5 CCs, 36 dogs on 4 CCs and 77 dogs have won 3 CCs. This means there have been 213 Bernese Champions made up but a further 50 dogs have had the frustration of winning 2 CCs and no more while a further 174 dogs have won a single CC although some of these still have the chance to add further awards.

Top Dogs

As most interested people, (and anyone who started from the beginning of this book), will know that writing at the end of 2007 the breed record holder is now Michelle Gurney’s Monalou Nelly Pledge (42 CCs) who in 2007 took the record from Julie Vaughan’s Carlacot Fido (34 CCs) who had held it since the early 1990s after surpassing Pam Aze’s Forgeman Footpad (30 CCs). All those dogs and bitches with 10 CCs or more can be seen in the following table.

When listing all the CCs and then listing the dogs that have won them by using the kennel name affix system it is possible to find out who has bred the most CCs. I know in the early days of our breed this system was not as cut and dried as it later became but it forms the basis of these comments. (If readers notice any errors due to the older naming system I apologise but please let me know and we’ll get these corrected).

Top Kennels

The top kennel for producing CCs is Monalou with 76 CCs to date and still rising every year. This achievement is obviously greatly helped by Nelly’s success but Michelle has also bred 12 other dogs that have won another 34 CCs between them and there are a total of 6 Monalou bred Champions.

Closely behind in second place, but having “declared” several years ago is Julie Vaughan’s Carlacot kennel with a total of 64 CCs from 11 dogs with 8 Champions. Closing the gap behind her is Julie Baldwin with 57 CCs from 9 different dogs and 8 Champions. Just behind with 54 CCs each are two top names who did much to establish the Bernese Mountain Dog as a credible show breed in Britain namely Lena Robbin’s Tarncred and Don and Brenda Griffiths’ Forgeman. Brenda’s Group Win (in the older and larger Working Group) at Crufts in 1980 was a real high for the breed at the time.

Some well known names and very successful exhibitors are perhaps further down the list than you might expect because some of their success has been with dogs not directly bred by them but in other people’s names. These might be imported dogs for example, Sonja Gorbould’s Glanzberg kennel probably being the biggest to suffer here, or dogs bred on some kind of shared arrangement so although they are shown by and associated with the well known name they aren’t registered as being bred by that kennel, probably the example most affected by this is the kennel of John and Bernice Mair and daughter Carole Hartley-Mair. Both Glanzberg and Meadowpark have won many, many more CCs than shown here but not with dogs registered as being homebred and therefore not having their kennel prefix at the front of their names, but often found at the end of the names to locate the dogs. If we were looking for the top exhibitor, rather than the top breeder, of all time then these dogs would need to be included but this could be a very difficult thing to track back in some cases.

Also some very successful breeders choose to retire dogs from the show ring shortly after making them up into Champions or alternatively after a certain number of CCs or a certain age, without this policy some other well known people would undoubtedly have figured higher in this list, Diana Cochrane’s Duntiblae probably being a good example of this with the highest number of CC winners but many of them being retired in their prime.

Other Measures of Success

The total number of CCs is maybe the main measure of success but there are other ways of looking at this and maybe the bigger picture has to be considered. If you wanted to measure success purely in the number of Champions bred then the highest number of Champions is by Meadowpark with 10 different dogs closely followed by Lena Robbins’ Tarncred with 9 and Carlacot with 8.

Some might say that the best way to measure the Top Breeder is look at the number of dogs bred by them who have won CCs. The highest number of dogs with CCs bred is by Diana Cochrane’s Duntiblae kennel with 19 closely followed by Meadowpark with 18, Monalou with 13 and five kennels on 11 dogs. As a measure of ongoing spread of quality this is possibly a legitimate measure of success or possibly you prefer to give credit to the number of years of CC successes. In this case Diana Cochrane is again the winner with an impressive 28 years spread between her first and last CCs (to date) followed by Meadowpark with 24 years and Glanzberg with 22 years.

Congratulations

Whichever way you choose to favour to judge them, congratulations are due to all the people who feature high in the list printed here, particularly, I would say, those with lots of dogs contributing. This is about more than great success with one very good dog, although sometimes this has helped significantly. All but one of the breeders in the top twenty have gained their CCs with at least 5 different dogs. As was said at the start, there is obviously more than just the breeding itself involved in winning lots of Challenge Certificates but equally obviously this forms the basis of continuing major success.

In all fields of sport and competition it is always difficult, if not impossible, to accurately compare people from different eras as there are just too many variables and different circumstances, the effects of which are impossible to assess. Overall most people would have to agree that whilst paying due respect to everyone’s efforts over the years the biggest combination of achievements belongs to Michelle Gurney and her Monalou dogs. The sheer number of CCs alone is a great achievement and she is not so far away in the other possible measures outlined above, only lagging seriously in the spread of years which serves to emphasise her other success rates. Taking most of the quantifiable things into account it is impossible to put anyone else in front so this makes Michelle our most successful breeder ever and the most logical person to congratulate as the Top British Bernese Breeder of All Time.

Steve Green