Conformation

Hi, my name is Christine Klockenbrink.  I am originally from England, emigrated to Canada in 1986, and the U.S. in 2001.  I purchased my first Belgian in 1988.  I currently live in Ocala, Florida, a most lovely town, with my husband, Tom.

I am first and foremost a dog lover, (and incidentally a lover of all things French).  My passion is, and always has been breeding top quality dogs, (and learning the French language, which I speak fluently).  I have owned all four varieties of Belgian Shepherds, and have focused my breeding efforts, first on Tervuren and more recently on the Malinois.  I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time in Belgium and France with some of the top breeders, and to regularly attend the European specialties, starting in 1991.  I still attend the French National in August every year.  I am also a keen dog trainer, and regularly compete in herding (now the owner of 11 sheep), agility, obedience, dock diving as well as conformation.  I am currently very invested in learning the traditional tending style of herding with my Belgians, (or AKC Course C).

I started my breeding program in Canada, under the Klaar prefix, with my most notable U.S. export being DC Klaar Trew Charisma, purchased by Barb Peach in 1994.  I am also most proud of BISS CKC CH Klaar Perfect Grys Geest, a beautiful gray tervuren who won the Canadian national specialty in 1998.  About 15 years ago I started breeding malinois under the BelCol prefix, with a beautiful foundation bitch from France, CH Maski du van Lappeenranta Fennie.  A dog with lovely breed type and wonderful character, she is the cornerstone of my malinois breeding program, and I have continued with her daughters and granddaughters.  There are some beautiful young up-coming dogs from these lines, combined with some old French lines out of Finland.  I am most thankful for the lifetime friendships I have made because of my dogs.

In 1991 I imported a most beautiful malinois from France, Multi National BISS, sujet recommandé, AKC, CKC CH Gildas du mas des Lavandes CDX, my heart dog, who won both the ABMC and the Canadian Nationals in 1999, and the driving force behind my desire to breed quality malinois; a dog I am most humbly grateful for.  Over the years I have imported over 30 dogs from Europe in my efforts to bring over quality, typical Belgians with excellent breed type and stable temperaments.  Truly a lifetime passion and commitment.  I have taken four dogs to compete at the French National and they all obtained the prestigious “sujet recommandé” title – Gildas, Ghost, his daughter Klaar Elda, owned by Johanna Lynch of Australia who accompanied Elda, and Twinny van de Hoge Laer.

I have bred many champion dogs over the years, as well as successful performance dogs.  I judged for the United Kennel Club for many years, writing critiques and judging using assisted animation.  I started judging for the American Kennel Club in 2019.  I have been lucky enough to be invited to judge many AKC regional specialties, particularly for Sheepdogs and Tervuren, as well as a specialty show in Brisbane, Australia, with all four varieties.

Judging the National Specialty for the American Belgian Malinois Club is truly an honor, and I thank the club members for your votes that gave me this opportunity.  Being a passionate dog lover, and an exhibitor, my goal is for everyone to enjoy the experience, dogs and handler both, and for everyone to know that, no matter what, they are going home with the best dog at the show.   I love to see the good points in all the dogs, so please get ready to enjoy this annual experience everyone!  I welcome you all, and look forward to spending time with you and your dogs in May.  

Professionally, I have the CPA-CMA accounting designation from the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (now retired), and spent my professional career as a Finance Controller and Audit professional in the energy business in Calgary and Houston working for a French company.

Cathy Daugherty

My husband Bill and I began our careers in dogs with Collies and Shelties in 1978.  In 1980, we acquired our first Belgian Sheepdog and never looked back.  We began breeding under the kennel name Bel-Reve. Between 1980 and 2007, we produced over 75 AKC Champions including 2 National Specialty BOS, a National Specialty BOW, multiple National Specialty Selects, Canadian National Specialty WD and WB, National Specialty Open Dog Ex #2 in the mother country (Belgium), 3 World Champions (Argentina, Puerto Rico and most importantly Milan in 2000) as well as multiple CACIBs and RCACIBs at various specialties in Europe.  Four of our former specials are in the BSCA Hall of Fame.  During many of these years, our specials were numbered in the top 5 breed and/ or all breed. We have also taken the breed at the prestigious Westminster KC three times with three different dogs 2 of whom were owner handled.  (I would like to note here that, although we did use very talented handlers on many occasions, we handled almost all of our dogs ourselves to their championships and onto very major wins.)

As a breeder and a judge, I am a firm believer in the preservation of pure bred dogs and the various tasks for which they were created.  

I began judging in 1995 and as judging assignments increased (along with my age), breeding and showing decreased. I am sad to say we that due to traveling and judging, we no longer have any dogs, but I sorely miss my BFF Belgians.   I presently judge AKC Herding, Working and Hound groups as well as most of the Sporting group.  I have judged all over the US as well as Canada, Argentina, Belgium, China, Spain and most recently Japan and Italy. I also do a bit of writing for James Taylor’s Working/Herding Dog Digest.  

I am delighted to judge the Regional Specialty with the Malinois National.

By way of personal information, I have a Masters of Science in Immunology and Microbiology and worked for 25 years for the State of Connecticut as an Infection Control Practitioner.  

My name is April Albert and I reside in Silver Springs Florida with my husband, Andy, our two Belgian Malinois girls, Alice and Aretha and our new Lancashire Heeler, Artem.

My first real introduction to the sport of dogs was in 1996 when I met Andy in South Florida. He had Rottweilers and a strange furry black dog called a Belgian Sheepdog who’s name was Rayne. Andy asked me to show one of his dogs one day, a Belgian Sheepdog name Vynnie. We did our thing, ran around the ring and I thought I had placed 2^nd. The reality was I was actually Best Of Winners for my very first points on a dog. I was hooked !!!!

I got my start in Belgian Malinois in 2007 when we were lucky enough to purchase Ace. He forever changed the landscape for us and we became fully committed to the Belgian Malinois.

I am mostly active in herding and obedience training with Alice and show in conformation occasionally. 

We truly have the most amazing breed in the world, and I am thrilled for this judging assignment.

Thank you.

I am Tiffany Holley and I have the honor of judging Junior Showmanship at the 2025 ABMC National Specialty. My first show dog was a Pembroke Welsh Corgi that I showed in Junior Showmanship. We had a wonderful time together, while I trained K.C. how to show, she taught me self confidence and teamwork. I then started showing Belgian Tervuren with my mother, where we titled several dogs in both Conformation and Performance events.

After a brief break to complete High School, College and Graduate School, my husband, Toby, and I made the decision to enter competitive dog sports arena together. We first titled our Weimaraner Gunny, in performance events and quickly learned that this would be our hobby as adults. Over the past few years we have welcomed four Belgian Malinois to our home and we actively compete with Bishop and Bulliet.