A Record for All Seasons
By Laura Barmore

Champion Aquarius Centercourt Delight has had an unparalleled career. No wonder there has been so much buzz about this yellow Lab. Even back in his early puppy days, Kathy Sneider, his co-owner had a good feeling about this young lad. “When he would stop and stare, he was four-square, totally stacked and looking very proud. He was a very pretty picture at 8-10 weeks,” Kathy explains. In fact, at his very first show, Kathy had a pretty good hint of the successes to come. Buzz was entered in the New Brunswick Kennel Club show along with 173 others and was awarded Reserve Winners Dog at just 6 months and the judge, renowned Lab breeder Sally Bell, wanted to buy him!









Potomac Lab Specialty considered by most to be the largest Labrador Specialty show in the world with roughly 1000 Labs entered. It was clear from that point that it was time to take him to the next level. Relatively few Lab owners take their dog’s show career to the National level, known as being “Specialed,” but Kathy and Julie MacKinnon both co-owners of Buzz knew the time had come to campaign Buzz against the best of the best.

They sought out Joy Quallenberg a professional handler who specializes in Labradors and already had 3 Best in Shows under her belt. Ironically, it was Joy who predicted Buzz’s success. When Joy was offered the position she told Kathy, “I will put a Best in Show on that dog” walked away and then came back and said, “as a matter of fact, I’ll put more than one Best in Show on this dog!” “Little did we know” said Kathy, “we thought we were talking about two.” For the record, Buzz finished his career with an astounding 22 Best in Shows, ten more than the prior record holder.

To put it in perspective, the prior record of twelve Best in Shows by a Lab took place over a 4 year period in the early 80’s. This record held until June 6th of 2004 when Buzz won at the Longshore South Port Kennel Club. He attained his 13 wins in just 1 ½ years, quite a feat for a Labrador Retriever. To understand this, even though the Labrador Retriever is the number one dog owned in the country they usually aren’t the winniest dog against all the other breeds.

“This was a real learning experience for both of us, (Kathy & Joy) because it is different competing at that level. There is a lot of strategy involved-where to go, what shows to enter. You need to know where the competition is and Joy had to do a lot of homework on the other dogs,” Kathy stated. “It was the first time that other handlers would come up to Joy and ask her where she was going next, people were avoiding her!” Kathy laughs.

Even though Buzz is structurally great, it is his personality that kept him at that level. “He’s quite the act in the Group Ring, and the Group Ring is quite stuffy,” said Kathy. “He and Joy would play ball in the ring and half the time the ball would go flying. He also took down a couple of fences. He’s such a Labrador.” Kathy laughs. “One time another handler had to show him and Buzz was a difficult dog to handle because of his enthusiasm, Buzz wouldn’t allow the judge to look at his mouth and the judge just said ‘It’s a Labrador!’ Life is fun. He never took seriously showing in his life.” Kathy explains. When asked what dog was Buzz’s hardest competition in the Group Ring, Kathy stated Carly the German Shorthair Pointer that got Best in Show last year at Westminster.

Earlier this year Buzz was entered in the Westminster Dog Show. He had already received 2 Judges of Merits there, one in 2003 and one in 2005. This was going to be his retirement show. Needless to say it was a retirement to remember as Buzz received Best of Breed. This was the only large prestigious show he had not previously won. He had won the Potomac Lab Specialty in 2002 and the Eukanuba National Championship in 2005 but here he was going up against 31 other best of the best. When Kathy was asked if this was a dream come true? Her reply, “I never even dreamt that!”

Looking back on his career it is important to note that Buzz won 8 Labrador Specialties all across the country, the furthest west was in Texas with the toughest judging on the East and West Coast. “Most of his wins were done in his own backyard which is hard to do on the East Coast with the quality of the competition. He was the top 5 Sporting Dog for two years-that’s more than a short while.” Kathy explains. “Not to take anything away, but the prior record holder’s wins were all done in the Midwest. Buzz has attained a record that we might not see broken in our life time!”

For a Lab that had such a tough entry into the world this singleton has made an incredible mark on Lab history. At 7 ½ years old, Buzz is now home living with 3 Lab friends, 20 Golden Retrievers, 5 Gypsy Cobb horses and 4 cats. He’s starting to get into field training because as Kathy explains, “He’s not a sit at home kind of guy.” Congratulations Buzz on a job well done! To see more of Buzz's winning photos, go to www.aquariuslabradors.com.

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