ABOUT THE JUDGES

DIANE KAISER ALL.NUMAS (USA)

Diane lives in the woodlands of Newton,New Jersey.She's been involved in newfoundlands since purchasing her first dog in 1976... She started breeding using the kennel name NUMA NEWFOUNDLANDS in 1978.  She has bred and shown some of her Champions... Diane has 3 ROM and dogs that went on to win at National and REgional Specialties. One of her proudest moments was winning the 2000 National Specialty with "NUMA'S HAD TO BE POUCH COVE" HARRISON..

Diane has been an active member of the Bear Mountain Newfoundland Club and held numerous board positions, including President for over 20 years. She is a member of New-Pen-Del and threw the years has helped with the Water Activies... She also did Breed Mentoring for the NCA.. Diane was also honored with the Gaines Medal For Good Sportsmanship by the Bear Mountain Newfoundland Club.
 

MR.BURTON J. YAMADA

My wife, Ellen and I started in dogs with the purchase of a pet for our children in 1967.  We got the last puppy from a litter of Standard Schnauzers and Heidi became our first champion and obedience dog. She later became the top producing brood bitch in the breed with 20 Champions, a record that lasted for many years.  We consider ourselves very lucky because we had an excellent start in dogs due to her quality background. 

 I started showing in Obedience in 1968 and was encouraged to show in conformation, too.  Heidi finished her CD in a few shows and her Championship in 12 shows in spite of her novice owner’s grooming and handling.   This meant a lot to us because I was just learning to handle and Ellen was learning to groom and we finished with 4 majors.  Since that time, almost all of our 75 champions have been owner handled to their titles and 25 of them finished from the Bred by Exhibitor class.  I encourage and help other novice owners to do the same.

 I first started judging in 1989 with 5 breeds: Standard Schnauzer, Miniature Schnauzer, Giant Schnauzer, Great Dane and Akita. A few years later, I was licensed to judge the Working Group, Junior Showmanship, and Best in Show.  As a judge, I have traveled all over the USA, judged internationally and enjoy it all.  I have been honored to judge at Westminster five times, doing the Working Group in 2003, Best in Show in 2004 and judged some breeds again in February 2008.  The Westminster “Best in Show” resulted in interviews on ABC, HBO, ESPN and I was named ABC’s “Person of the Week” on the Peter Jennings Show.  I have also judged working breeds at the AKC National Invitational in 2003.

 Internationally, I have judged All Breeds in Japan (Chiba, Okayama and Nagoya-City), Taiwan (Taipei three times), Costa Rica (San Jose two times), Australia (Melbourne and Sydney), Shanghai, China, Mexico City, Mexico (two times) and Italy (Purina Breeder’s Cup Shows in Cremona and Pavia, Italy).  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed judging and seeing the dogs in other countries, especially the dogs we do not see in the USA.  We have also given many seminars in the USA and Internationally on the three Schnauzers and also seminars on Grooming, Breeding Programs and Genetics that were well received.  My wife, Ellen has a Master’s degree in Biology and does most of the speaking on genetics, anatomy, breeding and grooming.  I speak on evaluating breeding stock, conditioning, handling and judging.

 In the 37 years in dogs, I have been active in breed and all-breed clubs and have served as President and Director for the Standard Schnauzer Club of America, the Standard Schnauzer Club of Southern California and Orange Empire Dog Club (OEDC), where I serve as a Group Director, Show Chairman and AKC Delegate.  I am also active in Rio Hondo Kennel Club.

 I was born and raised in the farm country town of Lodi, which is near Sacramento, California.  For the past 34 years, I’ve lived in Lake Arrowhead, a mile high mountain resort community in Southern California.  A University of California, Berkeley graduate and an engineer by education, I have been involved in developing various systems for space and defense.  Before I retired, I was the Director of Missile Engineering Center for Northrop Grumman.  My organization was a large group of scientists and engineers who developed new systems and managed existing projects for the Defense Industry.   We have two children, a daughter Michele, a dentist in San Diego and a son, Bradford, a partner of Argos Wealth Advisors LLC in San Francisco.  Ellen and I enjoy traveling the world and recently, added farming to our activities.  We are having fun learning about growing avocados.  Farming has ups and downs like dog shows: one year you lose and have a poor crop and the next year the avocados make it up and have a big winning year.