06/29/2026
WAYNE CAVANAUGH - 2026 BCA National Specialty Judge
Wayne Cavanaugh is a third-generation dog fancier. His grandfather, John Cavanaugh, bred Kerry Blue Terriers. Along with his father, Raymond Cavanaugh, Wayne bred English Setters and Beagles. Wayne and his wife Cheryl bred and exhibited top winning and top producing Pointers. He finished his first beagle as a young child, competed in Juniors with English Setters, won his first Pointer National in 1980 and owned the Top Producing Pointer and Sporting Dam of the Year in 2001. He has also owned English Toy Spaniels, an Irish Wolfhound, Clumber Spaniel, American English Coonhound, and Border Terrier. Wayne has judged sporting and hound breeds in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Japan, and Mexico. Assignments have included Westminster, the AKC Irish Setter, English Setter, and Gordon Setter National Specialties, and the AKC Pointer National. In addition to AKC events, he’s judged the Irish Kennel Club Saint Patrick’s show, the Irish Gundog Field and Show Society show, UKC’s 50 th Anniversary Autumn Oaks bench show, the largest in Coonhound history, and the Bryn Mawr Hound Show, the most prestigious foxhound event in America which has been held at the Radnor Hunt Club since 1914.
Wayne served as a Vice President of the American Kennel Club and President of the United Kennel Club. He was a Charter Board Member of the AKC Canine Health Foundation and presented for the AKC at the World Congress of Kennel Clubs in Bermuda and Ireland. For more than 35 years, he appeared as a television commentator in the USA and England at major dog events including Crufts for the BBC and the Animal Planet National Dog Championship television series. He wrote and consulted for several dog-related television series, including Animal Planet’s Breed All About It. Wayne currently writes a monthly column, and hosts a podcast, for The Canine Chronicle. He and his wife Cheryl live in Michigan with a beagle and an English Toy Spaniel. Their son, Brody, represents the fourth generation of Cavanaughs with his Onsage Pointers.
