Ms. Lynn Caswell

I began my involvement in the dog showing world as a child with my father who owned a Kerry Blue, a Rough Collie and several Miniature Schnauzers. My step-father showed, bred and hunted Standard Poodles (under the affix Caramac). My earliest memories of dog shows are of the Louisville, Kentucky shows when it was benched. I spent all day going from bench to bench admiring all the lovely purebred dogs and talking (bothering) the people grooming them. When I moved out on my own I owned several APBT, an American Staffordshire Terrier and also began my involvement with bull breed rescue.

I got my first Stafford in 2003 and thus began my love affair with this breed. I began getting involved fighting Breed Specific Legislation and also teaching classes on responsible dog ownership for people living in downtown high rises big cities. As an artist, I also began my appreciation for structure, balance and movement and how dogs are put together.

I have enjoyed many wonderful successes with Staffords under the affix Wavemaker and have enjoyed being a big part of the Stafford community. I served on over a dozen show committees for SBTCA National Specialties for the last 23 years and also on show committees for the Southeast Regional Specialty for SBTCA Area 2 for at least that long. I was responsible for paperwork, fund raising, hospitality, graphics, education, meet the breeds, trophies, member recruitment and more.

I have been a member of SBTCA as well as NESBTC and PSBTC, I am a member of SBTCA Judges Education Committee and have been a club approved mentor since 2013. I belong to several overseas Stafford clubs and have shown one of my Staffords in the UK including at Crufts. I have a great deal of respect for the history and traditions of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

I also have served on many SBTCA committees as member, chairman and on the Board of Directors as an officer as Corresponding and Recording Secretary. I created a forum for SBTCA during my tenure in the days after Yahoo boards but before FaceBook. I also taught ringcraft and enjoyed running fun matches.

I am currently the Chairman of the SBTCA Judge Education Committee. We have revamped the education program for the breed which includes production of several educational videos. One of those was the recipient of the AKC Eddy Award. I am recreating our Visualization of the Staffordshire Bull Terrier (the new Illustrated Breed Standard), created At-a-Glance cards for judges, revamped the breed seminar (which I have given several times over the years) and also created a new club approved ringside mentor program. I write and send monthly judge newsletters which goes out to all judges approved for the breed, and I post monthly blog articles on our club website.

My involvement with my own dogs includes performance sports and conformation, both of which I have enjoyed incredible success. I bred and own the only Stafford who was inducted into the Dock Diving Hall of Fame and along the way helped introduce the sport to the breed. My dogs each have earned many titles on both ends of their names and have enjoyed being at the top of both Conformation and Sports for over twenty years consistently. I do not breed often but always enjoy mentoring others and also helping to bring new people into the breed.

For several years I ran SBT Mentor which was a database driven program designed to unite those seeking mentorship in any dog related topic and those willing to volunteer their time mentoring. I also send out Stafford health surveys every couple years and keep statistics on the breeds health data.

I created a small 501(c)(3) non-profit called The Stafford Knot, Inc. which raises funding for Stafford rescue, offers education about the breed, focuses on health testing and published a magazine for years. I edited and co-wrote a book called The Staffordshire Bull Terrier Interpretation & Illustration of the Written Breed Standard which has been used worldwide for judging seminars and has also been converted into several languages. This project was recently used as the text basis and source material for the SBTCA Illustrated Breed Standard project which is now the official one used by the AKC parent club for the breed.