Ch Meghan The Guardman's Punch, CROM....our first bullmastiff.
(1990-2000)
Sharing pictures and information of influential dogs in our pedigrees serve as a memorial to them, and provides others interested in our line with important factual information.
The most influential foundation bullmastiff for Guardman's was our first bullmastiff, selected as a 6 week old pup from a litter of seven, in 1990...she grew up to become Ch Meghan The Guardman's Punch CROM and the ABA's Top Producing Dam in 1996.
Meghan was truly born to show, and she and my daughter Cindy did just that very successfully for 10 years in Northern California.
Meghan was bred 3 times, produced 18 total get....8 became Champions, with several others major pointed.
She was a terrific ambassador for the bullmastiff breed on the west coast in the 90's, and was never defeated in the Veteran Classes... right up to winning Best Veteran at her last specialty show just before her 10th birthday in Southern Calif.
You can see from the above photo that Meghan was very compact, and had an exceptional head and topline.
What you can't see is she was poetry in motion, and blessed us with an incredibly outgoing, sweet, and stable temperament, and she consistently passed these traits on to her get.
Her first born was a dark red fawn son, Ch Guardman's Tower Of Power, OFA hips Good & Elbows, born in 1993.
"Radar" was a superb show dog and companion.....a more gentle boy would be impossible to find.
He blessed our family for 8 1/2 years, and was the first bullmastiff Dr Larry exhibited to his Ch title. His sister Tootie also was a special dog in our home, najor pointed, and obtained OFA Good hips at 5.5 yrs of age. The third dog in this litter was a very important dog named Tonopah, for Jim & Sheila Polk of TriIvory bullmastiffs.
Ch Guardman's Tower Of Power, OFA Hips GOOD, Elbows Normal, Thyroid normal
Radar, in very limitted breeding (2 litters USA, 1 in Finland), produced 4 Ch's in the states, and several in Europe.
His fawn daughter, Ch Guardman's Taken By The Wind, OFA Hips & Elbows aka "Rhiannon", is his pup we kept to go forward with....and what a terrific girl she was.
Rhiannon peacefully passed over to Rainbow Bridge in Dec 2011, at over 12 years of age, and like her grandmom "Meghan", "Rhiannon" was a show dog the minute she was born, and she and Cindy and those who saw them had many special show memories and fun at the shows... she moved as if taken by the wind!
Rhi and Cindy won Best Veteran at the 2007 CNBC January Specialty in Portland, Oregon, and several more times between 2007 and 2011. Her zest for life and showing were amazing.
Ch Guardman's Taken By The Wind (Rhiannon): Oct 2, 1999-Dec 16, 2011
Her son ("Thunder") and daughter ("Gale") were sired by Sara Gonzalez's amazing "Angus"- Ch Tondra's Here's The Beef.
"Thunder" & "Gale" are also OFA Hips GOOD/ Elbows NORMAL. We lost Gale unexpectedly at age 7, but Thunder just celebrated his 8th birthday and is doing very well. He and Slash are forever best friends.
Other dogs you see in our pedigrees are Meghan sons Capone ( Ch Guardman's Gaffs Ca Capone, OFA), as well as Ch Guardman's Crazy Horse, aka "Morgan"
Ch Guardman's Crazy Horse
Morgan's littersister Petra, Ch Guardman's Petra Of Lone Pine, can be found in several other lines, but we bred Morgan just once, and we kept his son "Bailey", Ch Guardman's Bratle Bailey, OFA, who lived to 11 years, and has not yet been bred, but from which we have frozen semen stored.
Capone was bred once by us with our brindle girl Yanni ( Irongate's Guardman's Yanni), to produce a litter from which we kept a very pretty red daughter...Guardman's Red Tiara, who also looked much like her father Capone, and gramma Meghan.
Tiara was also bred just once in 2003, to Ch DOX Hickory Chip, OFA and produced a lovely litter of seven born Jan 10, 2004.
Guardman's Red Tiara
Her son Guardman's Stormy Weather, OFA was a Top 10 ranked show Bullmastiff in 2006, and is owned, loved, trained, shown, and specialed by our good Calif friends Bev & Butch Gariano.
The photo below shows Ch Guardman's Stormy Weather, OFA hips & elb (on the left), and Ch Briana A Guardman's Blessing, OFA hips & Elbows (on the right), both owned by Bev & Butch Gariano, taking BOB/BOS at the benched Cow Palace show....these two were produced from different litters, and have not been bred, but Stormy's semen is also frozen.
As you can see, we don't breed our dogs unless we feel we can improve upon what we already have produced and when we have a need of our own to fill. By freezing the semen of our top males, we always have the ability to utilize them when the time is right, and not just because they are finished and can be used for making nice babies. That's how we roll here!
Anybody can breed dogs, but in my opinion the true skill of a breeder is best measured by the ability to consistently produce high quality get from generation to generation, with as few litters hitting the ground as possible.
The more animals we breed, the more likely it is for our dogs to end up in rescue situations,no matter how careful we are screening homes and placing our pups...this is the reality of breeding which many breeders sadly ignore in their quest for their next champion titled dog, and in the quest to produce litter after litter.
It is my hope that someday soon all breeders will permanently identify all of their pups with microchipping linked to them as well as their owner, and stand behind them, and limit their breedings to produce top quality bullmastiffs, so as to be part of the rescue solution, and not the problem as concerns bullmastiffs surrendered to shelters by owners that should never have been sold a bullmastiff in the first place, from litters that never should have been conceived in the first place.
Our bullmastiffs deserve at least that kind of commitment from their owners...more is NOT better. Better is producing well with less numbers.
Ch Guardman's Stormy Weather & Ch Briana A Guardman's Blessing
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Ch Guardman's Beatle Bailey
A special thank you to all our dogs past and present, show and non-show, and to all our extended Guardman's bullmastiff family of friends and fanciers....thanks so much for the love and memories, now and in the future!
