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Claudia Orlandi's Bio
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Claudia Orlandi has been involved in the dog fancy for over 60 years and has successfully bred Basset Hounds for over 35 years under the Topsfield prefix. She is dedicated to preservation breeding and to producing champion dogs for the bench and field. The Orlandi’s kennel is located on 200 acres in northern Vermont and has produced over 225 champions. Topsfield Bassets have won more than 150 Bests in Show, over 500 Group Firsts, numerous Bests in Specialty, including 6 BHCA National Specialty Bests of Breed, and as of October 2024 have been Number One Breed and/or All Breed Basset Hound for 17 out of the last 21 years. Topsfield holds a number of Breed and All-Breed records.
Claudia’s enthusiasm for breeding is matched only by her passion for teaching and working with other breeders. She is a lay expert and her ABCs of Dog Breeding Home Study Program is based on the enthusiastic response to her educational seminars on breeding, which teach that breeding success depends as much on understanding canine structure and developing an eye for a dog as it does on applying rules of genetics.
Knowledge, coupled with integrity and honesty about health, are cornerstones of her breeding and teaching philosophy. For many years she chaired the Basset Hound Club of America’s Judges and Breeders Education Committees for which she developed an educational concept called Basset Hound University, whose course designs are available for parent clubs to use as templates. She has spoken at over 150 dog clubs and AKC/CHF Breeder’s Symposia. Claudia judges Basset Hounds, Dachshunds, PBGV’s, Beagles, Basenjis, Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Junior Showmanship.
She is the 2009 American Kennel Club Breeder of the Year, the 2018 American Kennel Club Lifetime Achievement Award Winner in Conformation and a 2024 recipient of the AKC Pat Laurans Making A Difference Award. In addition to being a lifetime member of the Basset Hound Club of America, Claudia has been honored by Dog Fancy Magazine (March 2015) as one of the “45 People Who Changed the Dog World” by helping to improve dog breeding and making canine genetics easier to understand.
- ABC's of Dog Breeding +