Chimera Kennels

Curious how many breeder's are currently involved in the American Sentinel program? Also, approximately how many dogs are registered with your organization?

Lee is the only one who can answer those questions.

BKeith, I was checking out your profile, u live in CA? what restrictions are you talking about in your profile as far as bulldogs are concerned? i have a buddie who loves olde's and works them and does not seem to have a problem with ownership, I live in Kern county, California City is the town I live in, I own two dogs from LGK , i am assuming u do not live in kern county, as its usally one of the other counties that throw a fit about dog breeds..... they tried to pass some restrictions up here, lol didn't even come close to happening, although I was sweating it.....   wow i wish spell check worked! 

wow that is NORTH! lol  yeh ca is not a pitbull friendly state, you can thank the diane whimple case for that one! out in Lancaster CA doesnt matter what kind of bulldog it is, even if its a bullmastiff they demand u have them fixed! lukily out in CA they can not ban a breed but can put silly restrictions on them....... 

(I removed some distracting comments in order to keep the topic as productive as possible.)

Sorry for the late response, I have been out of town. I recieved a phone call that informed me about this topic...and informed that someone with a similar name was asking the same basic question on another forum in a manner that was generally disrespectful in nature, which is why some here took offense to the post/question. I don't know the details as to what is happening on another forum, be it a post made BKeith or someone else, and while I APPRECIATE the support from our members here, I see no harm in the question here or the manner in which it is asked here. For this reason, I would prefer our members to treat him/her respectfully. Thank you. That said, let me again say I appreciate the support of our members and I hope I do NOT offend my supporters by removing their comments towards BKeith.

People are more important than dogs, so let's give the guy the benefit of doubt in case it is just someone asking a sincere question.

We have registered two "levels" of dogs. Those involved in the Swinford program had their dogs registered as Swinfords. Any other bandog the SSDA has registered has only been registered as a general (and non-specific) "Bandog" and is not part of the "Swinford" studbook. So, the two types of registries we have done are...

1. Swinfords types (pursing a pure breed dog with consistent type and ability).

2. Other bandog types using the broader "bandog" designation for a less specific type, we have registered some Bandogs that have nothing to do with the Swinford program.  I really didn't want to get into handling but have been repeatedly asked by others if we could register their dogs for various reasons; so, in order to help others, we reluctantly registered such dogs as "Bandogs" as I do have a general desire for others to do well with their goals. Now, that said, I am going to mention a few other things about this group and why we no longer register "Bandogs" in general. Normally I may not get into this topic so much here, but I was informed by one of our supporters that one particular "Bandog" person that asked me to register his dog (I am not going to expose this person here, so I will refer to this person as Mr. T) with us has recently displayed a tendency to backstab various people in the dog community, including his "friends" and various members at their own "training club."  Years ago, "Mr. T" asked me to register his dog in order to improve his chances of titling his "bandog," as he was interested in titling his dog with an organization that required his dog to be registered, but he had not been able to obtain registry on his dog elsewhere. Unfortunately, recently this person has tried to suggest to one of our supporters and to others at his "training club" that we sought him out to bring status to the Swinford and the SSDA. This is obviously a complete misrepresentation on his part, as one could simply look at their paperwork and see their dog is NOT listed as a Swinford, but only as a generic "Bandog." Common sense would clearly reveal that I would have nothing to gain by helping this individual obtain a title on a non-Swinford Bandog...and if one sees his paperwork, they will see the dog is NOT listed as a Swinford, but only as a generic "bandog." In fact, one could see it as "shooting myself in my own foot" to help him, as I would actually be helping someone else put a spotlight on a "Bandog" of someone else's origin by helping them obtain a title, but honestly, I am not concerned about that. I feel our program speaks for itself so I was willing to help this guy do his own thing if I could...as it wasn't much trouble. Later, I even sent this guy a paying client in order to help him with his goals of opening a training facility. Even though Mr. T spoke highly of the client's dog, his misrepresentations as to his association with us did get back to me...and unfortunately, I discovered Mr. T did indeed GROSSLY misrepresent some things...things that one could say are minor, but once I found out he was misrepresenting things I chose to cut my ties with him only because I have better things to do than help those that are going to lie about our association. If I am going to help people, I would rather it be honest people of good character. So, even though I knew others in his area that were interested in training, I chose to send them elsewhere and no longer have any association with this one individual. For the record, Mr. T sought me out, not the other way around. Second, I had nothing to gain from him. He was given a "step up" by us in order to help him obtain his goals...and I personally had nothing to gain from him. Any objective person can see this, and while it really doesn't matter, I suppose it should be mentioned as to why we registered "Bandogs" in the past and why we no longer do that at this time.

Fortuntately, I only registered a few non-Swinford type bandogs, and did this for a only a few people that asked me if I could help them, it was something we basically did in passing. I only did it as a favor to help them pursue their titles even though nothing was in it for me. Now, I should also mention some of these people are/were really good people that have been very productive (such as Leri H...who has since obtained a few titles), but typically this type of registry turned out to be more of a distraction and a complete waste of my time. There is only so much time we are given and with my many distractions I need to maximize my efficiency. Again, Leri H was/is an exception to this and I would gladly help her anytime I can.  Also, Johnny of LGK has been completely stand up as well, but we never had to register any of his non-Swinford type Bandogs because he has his own registry. Johnny is a very productive person.

So, back to the original question...

At this point, there are only about a half a dozen breeders, and over the last decade over 200 Swinfords have been registered.

Thank you very much for the response sir, I appreciate it. I respect the fact that your organization requires the dogs to display a proven stable working temperament before they can be registered, and was simply curious as to the number of breeders and dogs currently involved. Do you still register dogs that meet the foundational, physical, and mental requirements of your organization that aren't from American Sentinel breedings as American Sentinels? If I were to get any Bandogs, the goals and philosophy of the American Sentinel program would be something I would like to work toward and your organization would be an organization I wouldn't be embarassed to support. Thanks Again, Bryan Keith.

Bryan, if you have the right foundations, do the work to test the dogs in accordance with the American Sentinel breed standard, select the ones that perform the best and stick to it...it is certainly possible. Give me a call if you are seriously interested.