The Top Twenty Showcase celebrates the achievements of the year’s highest-ranked Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and the dedicated owners, breeders, and handlers who have contributed to their success. In addition to the Showcase exhibition itself, participants can commemorate this prestigious event through a variety of awards, keepsakes, and collectibles that recognize excellence and preserve memories of the occasion. Spectators can also take home a commemorative Catalog featuring the year’s qualifiers; a valuable resource for exploring pedigrees, evaluating breeding prospects, and reflecting on the dogs and bloodlines that have helped shape the breed’s legacy.
From commemorative catalogs featuring the year’s qualifiers to exclusive challenge coins and award rosettes, these items recognize excellence, preserve memories, and honor the accomplishments of the dogs and exhibitors who make the Top Twenty Showcase a premier event for the breed.
Each year’s commemorative event catalog is designed as both a keepsake and a celebration of the Top Twenty experience. While content may vary from year to year, the catalog typically includes an introduction to the Showcase, a complete list of qualified invitees, descriptions of the event rosettes and challenge coins, ring procedures, and the official running order with page references for each entry.
One of the catalog’s most anticipated features is the two-page spread dedicated to each entered dog. These profiles include the dog’s registered name and titles, call name, color, sex, AKC number, date of birth, and qualifying categories. Entrants may also provide up to four notable accomplishments, a personalized biography, breeder and owner information, a professional or stacked photograph, and a three-generation pedigree. Additional details, such as the dog’s handler and selected theme song, may also be included, creating a lasting tribute to each qualifier and its achievements.
All information appearing in an entry’s profile is submitted directly by the entrant. This allows exhibitors to personalize their presentation and share their dog’s story, accomplishments, and legacy in their own words.
Challenge coins have long been a tradition in the American military, symbolizing excellence, unity, and shared achievement. The Top Twenty Committee adopted this tradition to recognize the owners, breeders, and handlers of dogs that achieve Top Twenty status and represent the highest standards of the breed.
Each challenge coin is a meaningful keepsake awarded exclusively to Showcase participants. The coins are unique to both the qualification year and the National Specialty at which they are presented, with only 80 produced each year.
Crafted in brushed antique gold (brass) with soft enamel accents, each coin features a braided rope border on both sides. The rope reflects the Chesapeake Bay Retriever’s maritime heritage as the “Sailor Breed” and symbolizes strength, teamwork, and unity. These qualities are shared not only by each dog-and-handler team, but also throughout the Chesapeake Bay Retriever community.
The obverse (front) side of the coin typically incorporates a design element from the presentation year’s National Specialty logo. The reverse (back) displays the National Specialty year overlaid on the outline of the host state, creating a distinctive memento of that year’s event.
Every NOHS, Breed, and All-Breed Top Twenty qualifier that enters the Showcase receives a challenge coin corresponding to the year the dog qualified. Because each design is produced only once, the coins have become both meaningful keepsakes and highly collectible reminders of a dog’s accomplishment. When available, additional coins may be purchased for co-owners, breeders, handlers, and other individuals who contributed to the qualified dog’s success.
Since its inaugural year, the Top Twenty Committee has embraced a tradition of designing rosettes that are more than awards. Each set is thoughtfully crafted to reflect the host region, celebrate American culture and history, and honor the Chesapeake Bay Retriever’s enduring character, versatility, and spirit. Through carefully selected colors, textures, materials, and symbolism, each year’s rosettes tells a unique story while remaining connected to the breed’s broader identity as “An American Breed.”
From the Southwestern earth tones, turquoise, leather, and patriotic Americana themes of the 2022 inaugural Showcase, to the rugged ranch and cowboy-inspired craftsmanship of the QY2023 rosettes, and the lush tropical florals of the vibrant QY2024 design, each year’s awards are created as meaningful keepsakes that celebrate both the host region and the dogs who earn them. Every rosette is custom-crafted, personalized for the recipient dog, and designed to be a one-of-a-kind tribute to excellence, heritage, and the timeless spirit of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
