Biography

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CLEMENCIA SAAVEDRA - BIO 

In 1991, Clemencia purchased her first English Springer Spaniel. Since then, with her husband, she has been breeding ESS selectively and exclusively under the Wallylama kennel name. They have successfully bred dogs that have become champions in the US, Canada, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and India. Across these countries, their dogs have won a total of 60 BIS awards at All-Breed dog shows, including a couple of BISs in Canada, as well as more than a hundred BIGs. 

Their dog, Multi Ch Chejov Ulysses de Wallylama, won the Group at the World Dog Show in Brazil in 2004 to become a World Champion. After twenty years of breeding with American bloodlines, they purchased their first English female from the world-famous kennel, Mompesson, and have been working with European bloodlines for the last 13 years to make up a cumulative thirty three years in the breed. They have owned both American and English-bred Springers, but their preference is for the English-bred dog after learning more about the breed.

Clemencia became an ESS FCI judge in 1998. She has judged in South America, Canada, the USA, and Australia. She attended the ESS Symposium in Santa Rosa, California, in 2009 and has given conferences about ESS type and proportions and how to judge them in local Kennel Clubs. She was invited by the ESS International Symposium to be a panelist in 2014 when it was held in Finland alongside the World Dog Show, where she discussed the breed and the differences between American and English dogs. In the late 1990s, before moving with her family back to Uruguay, the country of her birth, she served as a member of the Board of the ACCC Kennel Club in Colombia, both as a member of the Show Committee and as Chairwoman of the Public Relations Committee. 

As an owner-handler, she has learned how to show, trim, and groom both American and European styles. Showing internationally under different judges from across the globe, she has developed a grooming style that suits most preferences. She has exhibited her home-bred dogs at many prestigious shows such as the Eukanuba National Dog Show (invitational), the Westminster Kennel Club show, the National Dog Show where she won BOB, and the World Dog Shows in Argentina and Brazil. She has shown springers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, including specialty shows in the USA, Denmark, and Finland and All-breed shows in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay. It was in Uruguay that she bred and showed the top-winning All Breeds Dog in 2005, CH Wallylama´s Grandslam. In 2008, he became the most winning ESS of all time in South America, as well as the #1 ESS in Canada. Clemencia has also bred many dogs that have gone on to win the English Springer Spaniel of the Year awards in India, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. 

In 2014, Clemencia moved to the USA and  began showing GCH Wallylama’s Behind The Scenes, her first springer bred with one hundred percent European bloodlines and went on to win BOB several times. In 2015, she won BOS with her at the Eastern English Springer Spaniel Club, the second-largest specialty show in the USA. That same year, she also won BOG 3 at the New England Sporting Group Association, the first in the history of these two clubs to win with an owner-handled, imported English looking ESS. Clemencia finished her championship in four months, setting the record as the first imported English-style ESS to finish in the USA with an owner-handler. In 2016, she won BOS at the Westminster Kennel Club, a historic win as, yet again, she was the first imported, undocked, and ‘ticked’ ESS in the history of this club to achieve this. In 2023, she won Best Veteran in Show at the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Georgia, at 10 years old. Clemencia was a member of the Eastern English Springer Spaniel Club, where she served as vice president (2017- 2018). She is a member of the Parent Club,  English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association, where she served as Regional Governor (2019-2022). When she moved to Georgia in 2022, she resigned from the Eastern English Springer Spaniel Club to join the Chattahoochee English Springer Spaniel Club of Greater Atlanta. That same year, while being a board member of the Parent Club, she proposed a motion to change the standard to include natural tails. As the chair of the English Springer Spaniel standard change, along with her committee, she helped to write the change regarding the natural tail. In 2023 she won the specialty held in Georgia organized by CESSGA with GCH Wallylama’s I’ve Got the Look, along with Best of Breed at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, being the first English Springer with a natural tail to win BOB at both shows. After showing her occasionally during 2023, she ended up being the #4 female (13thESS) and #2 owner-handled female (8th ESS).