About

Memberships:

  • SBTCA  – former officers
  • NESBTC
  • PSBTC
  • SBTC (UK)
  • EASBTC (UK)

Our commitment to the Staffordshire Bull Terrier

While we have only been in this breed for just over 22 years,  we have thrown ourselves wholeheartedly into learning about Staffords. We are recognized AKC Breeders of Merit Bronze level.  We try to attend the large Specialty & Supported shows no matter how far away they are. We regularly travel to UK & sometimes Australia to attend and show at large Stafford shows, visit friends and get our hands on as many Staffords as we can. We have shown our Staffords at UK Champ shows and at Crufts. We meet as many other Stafford enthusiasts as we can and involve ourselves in education and mentoring whenever possible. Neither of us is afraid to not only ask questions or voice our opinions about the breed and its future, but we are also willing to change our minds when opened to more information that proves us wrong. We have titled many Staffords to their CH  – GCH+ and put many performance titles on all of our dogs. Our Staffords have been ‘first’ at many performance activities including Marina being inducted into the NADD Hall of Fame, 1st two SBT CAX titles earned, Along with 3 others, Marina is the 1st SBT to title with NADD, bred the 1st Stafford to place in a group at the huge January Brooksville circuit twice known for handlers, twice BOB at Montgomery County KC making the cut in both the BBE and regular Groups both years and placing 2nd in BBE group at MCKC in 2024, and much more.

We have nothing to prove – our reputation speaks for us.

     We continually study the history, structure and interpretations of the breed standard, reading all we can, interviewing those immersed in Staffords longer than us and actively making attempts at preserving its future.  Lynn is an AKC judge and has been a parent club approved mentor since 2013 and these experiences add to her knowledge of the breed.  We are students of the breed, not just breeders.

 We are involved in helping to educate and fight for our rights when it comes to our dogs, no matter the breed.

Lynn is the creator, Sr. editor & Creative Director for The Stafford Knot, Inc., an online non profit 501c3 publication promoting health testing in Staffords and which benefits SBT rescue. TSK also promotes Health Testing in Staffords and has all the information you need to find where to get your Stafford tested. TSK has donated tens of thousands to Stafford rescues worldwide, including the AKC Parent Club SBTCA. Together with Tom Jacob (Variant Staffords), who is the CTO for TSK, and Jim Caswell (Treasurer) Lynn has created The Shops at TSK which is an online ‘mall’ where original and custom Stafford specific merchandise can be purchased with proceeds going to the TSK Stafford rescue fund or sometimes to fund raisers to breed specific clubs. The designs are unique to TSK (Lynn and other guest artist constantly work to create new designs) and the quality of the ‘print-to-order’ merchandise is excellent. The Shops at TSK also does custom work and provides products for club trophies and fundraisers for any breed.

Lynn is the creator and creative director of the most comprehensive Illustrated Breed Standard here in the US which has been used at Stafford Breed Seminars in 12+ countries and translated into several languages for use around the world. This project was created by over a dozen volunteers from around the world and is a compilation of efforts edited and marketed by Lynn in partnership with Jason Nicolai (Homebrewed). There have been attempts at imitations and our text has even been used in other projects but we are the original. Even the Parent Club in UK has in the past used our project at their seminars and the AKC parent club sourced the majority of its text for their version from The Stafford Knot, Inc. 501c3.

Tremendous thank you to Maurizio Molinari for his donations of illustrations to this project along with the print and eBook versions. These are for sale thru the publisher and all profit from the sales goes to rescue. Look above at the BOOKS link to purchase.

Lynn is the current committee chair for the SBTCA Judges Education Committee which is currently in the process of creating a new Illustrated Breed Standard booklet, using past club approved text, information donated from TSK, newly written text and will also feature original drawings by Maurizio Molinari. This booklet is part of a newly designed marketing corporate identity package for SBTCA which includes newly written and designed club Seminar, Mentoring Packets, monthly newsletter to all AKC Stafford approved judges, downloadable materials on the club website, original videos and more. This huge project was the brainchild of Lorelei Craig and could not have been produced without her assistance and the hard work of the SBTCA JEC.

Lynn is an AKC Staffordshire Bull Terrier judge and is looking forward to helping shape the future of Staffords with fair and breed specific judging. Lynn enjoyed an exciting assignment in Australia and New Zealand which both received beautiful entries. She has several upcoming assignments but will not be judging full time while still showing and campaigning her own Staffords and taking care of her personal home life situation.

Lynn is also the co-founder of SBT Mentor which was an education program for Stafford enthusiasts to learn more about the breed and offer volunteer relationships for mentoring opportunities. **UPDATE** Sadly, due to lack of interest this project has been abandoned.

Lynn runs several Café Press, Spoonflower and Zazzle shops, one of which raises awareness and money to help fight unfair canine legislation. Thousands have been raised in donations to aid Stafford rescue and rehome.  Thankdog – All Breeds Equal. Wavemaker Staffords merchandise may be purchased at another website  Wavemaker Staffords Merchandise. She also creates advertisements for several canine magazines including Showsight, Staff Status, The Annual (UK) and others. She does canine photography as a hobby and is sometimes willing to do photoshoots in exchange for donations to Stafford rescue through The Stafford Knot, Inc.

     Aside from our everyday interest with our own dogs our further canine related involvements include PetPAC and American Temperament Testing Society, where Lynn was involved in the beginning stages of a Provisional Judge training program. This involves the intense study of canine behavior and temperaments.

     Lynn has completed Emergency Animal Rescue Services training where she then assisted in reuniting people and pets after Katrina and fire related disasters. While she has been specifically trained for on site temporary sheltering of animals in disaster torn areas, her main focus was computer-aided recovery.

Our dogs, and dogs we have bred,  have earned American Kennel Club Championships & Grand Championships, United Kennel Club Championships & Grand Championships, AKC Star Puppy, AKC Canine Good Citizen Awards, ATTS TT titles, AKC and UKC Rally Obedience titles, Weight Pull & Lure Coursing (1st two CAX in the breed), Barn Hunt, Dock Diving titles (many 1sts in the breed including 1st DMX title, 1st AJX title) one NADD Hall of Fame inductee and are in ongoing training for Agility, Rally, Scent Work, Obedience, Medical Alert, Service & Therapy training & show handling. One of our Staffords is one of the only AKC Breed Ambassadors. This involved visiting schools, libraries and groups of children in order for them to read to her, and learn about appropriate dog/child interactions. Three of our Staffords work as medical alert dogs. We have earned close to twenty Crufts qualifying certificates and took advantage of one by showing Marina there.

As you can see, Stafford are very much a part of our lives and have been for over two decades.

Our Staffords have truly been an inspiration in our lives and to a fault, our obsession!

  • Further Involvement:
  • Creator, Senior Editor, Creative Director for ‘The Stafford Knot” online publication – a 501c3 non profit
  • Created, designed and edited currently used TSK Stafford Judge & Breeder Education Seminar used worldwide
  • Taught and organized Responsible Dog Ownership (RDO) events utilizing AKC handouts & information
  • Worked with legislators to assist in writing better canine laws
  • Studied information on Breed Specific Legislation (BSL), dog laws, canine education & writing letters & speeches, as well as forwarding information & helping others fight unfair canine legislation. (Most statistics the media quotes is not accurate and since Lynn worked in the media and is very involved in canine legislation, she is the perfect candidate to assist in researching the truth and educating those who ask.)
  • Designed and raised funding for Stafford specific sculptures, collars, bracelets, ornaments, drawings and more used a trophies and fundraisers
  • Hosted and organized numerous RDO, obedience demonstrations and Breed booths at public events with & without other bull breed club members.
  • Served on the Legislative committee for SBTCA
  • Served on the Rescue committee for SBTCA
  • Served on the Staff Status committee for SBTCA
  • Created the Sunshine  committee for SBTCA 
  • Served on JEC (currently)
  • Served on National and Regional Specialty Committees where she designed logos, banners, trophies and more. Also was responsible for all marketing materials, social media marketing, fundraising and more.
  • Lynn has raised several tens of thousands for SBTCA Specialty shows by creating fundraisers and Social media pages promoting the shows and the breed.
  • Worked on several constituent committees to advise Georgia Representatives on updating Georgia and Alabama canine laws
  • Wrote monthly newsletter for Spire Midtown dog owners which focuses on living with dogs in city and high rise living, etiquette, training & socialization issues.
  • Spoke at hearings & trials for canine legislative issues in GA & Alabama
  • Served as ring steward for Dixie Stewards in Rally & Obedience. Served as Ring Steward at conformation Specialties and Supported shows and at several all breed clusters
  • Judged puppy and veteran sweepstakes at several specialty shows over the past 15 years
  • Judged supported, all breed and Specialty shows, including the 2022 Montgomery KC show and GWTA show
  • Served on SBTCA committees for Judge Selection, Regional & National Specialty shows
  • Designed logos for specialty shows across the country including Great Western Terrier and also designed for other breeds shows, SBTCA, Area 2 SBTCA, PSBTC, NESBTC and the Fresno club.
  • Run several Café Press shops which raise money to help educate Responsible Dog Ownership & write better canine legislation
  • Personally raised tens of thousands of dollars for SBTCA in several cpacities from rescue, donations for TSK efforts and for show fundraisers
  • Social media director on IG for SBTCA, TSK and WVMKR
  • Active support for Stafford rescue including breed identification, transport, spay/neuter & rescue placement for SBTCA, fund raising & foster care.
  • Lynn was former Secretary for SBTCA Board of Directors
  • Jim was former Area 2 Director for SBTCA Board of Directors
  • Hosted several rescue fund raisers – Stafftoberfest
  • In the past was in charge of marketing for SBTCA

Felix is the first Stafford to be BREEDER OWNER HANDLED (with the short exception of an injury preventing Lynn from entering the ring and her friends came through to help) to the AKC number one breed position. He was number one Stafford AKC several times, Top Stafford USA and Top Conformation Stafford for SBTCA.

Schooner (agility), Felix (conformation) and Sage (flyball) were each number one at the same time – another first for Wavemaker Staffords!

NEALIE, MARINA, BAY & FELIX become the first four Staffords to earn the AKC Virtual Home Manners Adult titles and the new Virtual Scentwork titles and Felix is among the first Staffords to earn a FIT Gold level title. Wavemaker Staffords continue to hold the record for Staffords earning more firsts in the breed from the aforementioned titles to CAX and Hall of Fame recognition.

Staffords are a huge part of our lives, but breeding them was never how we paid our bills like some other breeders. That works for them but we like to keep it smaller and our buyers become like family. We usually only breed when we are seeking a new Stafford for ourselves or if we feel strongly about a special match. When we sell a Stafford puppy we are there with our buyers for the life of that Stafford for support and mentorship. We do not sell for breeding purposes, but prefer companion, enrichment and performance homes seeking a naturally bred, raw fed and health tested puppy. We recommend when looking for a puppy look for those who follow enrichment protocols and have a similar value system to the above scenario. Be prepared to wait for the right puppy from a trusted breeder. Be sure they are quite clear and open about the type of homes their dogs are sold to. A good breeder will prefer homes which help their dogs succeed in life not just in a ring.