February 9th

What's In Your Background?

Hi, Sandy.

I loved reading about Jericho again. Maybe it would help people understand what goes into breeding by talking about the pedigree of the dogs and that it isn't just the sire and dam, but the coming together of all the dogs that came before them. If someone is comparing Hogan and Jericho you should tell them it is coming together of both of them. Just a thought.

CW

 

Hi Sandy you talk about produce and get and prepotent and other terms that may not be understood by the lay person. Maybe it would help some of you explained those terms to all of us.

DL

 

Dear Sandy

You always do such a great job in teaching people about Labradors. You seem to make each dog come alive by giving it so much attention and value to the breed. Keep up the great work.

NP

 

 

Thank you all for the input. It’s good to know that there are so many that still keep up with my ramblings, musings, diatribes, lectures, dissertations, boastings & bragging and general sounding off moments. I will keep them up as long as there is some value to anyone that takes the time to visit the website.

 

First and foremost I want to reiterate that everything I do with Labradors is about the dogs themselves. They come first, first and first……………………..the fact that I derive great satisfaction from what I do and also make a living from my involvement with dogs comes in way back in line somewhere.

 

The added bonus of being extremely successful in the dog show world, specifically the Labrador Retriever realm as a breeder, as a trainer and then topping it all off as a handler just sweetens the royal jelly that much more. I love what I do and I am blessed that I can still do most of the task that are needed to keep the whole ball of wax going into the 46th year with Labradors.

 

I have a tremendous group of people that are very involved with making sure that the end product is as good as it gets.

 

My wife and daughter, Johanna and Jessie are on the front lines of the family run dog-related business on a daily, fulltime basis. We have assistants, interns, apprentices and aids that all take part throughout the year with the different aspects of raising, training, conditioning, and well-care of the puppies/dogs here at Chambray Acres.

 

We also employ great, caring professionals that take care of our dogs for medical needs. We provide ‘clinics’ right here at Chambray Acres for radiology for hips and elbows every 2 to 3 months, where the vets come in their mobile units and spend the day here at Chambray with state of the art, digital x-rays to be submitted to OFA for the many dogs that participate in our breeding program.

 

We also have aligned ourselves with several vet specialists to ‘take care’ of our owner’s dogs for specific surgeries at major discounted fees. Just recently, one of our owners was looking into an $8000 surgical fee for both knees ACL operations…………………………..through our connections, a savings’ of over $3500!

 

Lower cost spay and neuters are also arranged for those dogs that medically need those procedures………………….keep in mind that the mindless spaying and neutering for no medical reason puts are dogs at major risk for cancer and for early onset arthritis and auto-immune disease {Google search UC Davis study on neutering and spaying}.

 

I also volunteer my services for performing DNA testing for all available conditions that can be tested by using buccal swabs. The dog owner orders the kits and then they come here where I make the time to do the procedure at no cost.

 

The largest group of contributors to the ongoing successes for our various dog-related businesses is our dog owners and all those others that came on board with dogs from elsewhere, that are now considered to be part of our Chambray family.

 

Once they choose to be part of our collective……………….they enter into our consortium for the betterment of the breed. Some will be co-owners with their dogs, some will be co-breeders with their females, some with be part of the stud dog program, some will be more or less independents as breeders and exhibitors and most will be totally dependent on us for everything Labrador-related. All will benefit from their experiences, learning in our mentoring environment.

 

The biggest winners are the dogs because this is all about the dogs, first and foremost!

 

 

 

 

Get, Produce and Prepotent.

 

A stud dog that passes on his outstanding qualities to future generations is said to be prepotent. The further away from him that his descendants still appreciate his affects, the more prepotent he is considered to be. That is what has made some of the dogs of the past become great contributors as stud dogs because 3, 4, 5 and even some well into the 8th generations in our present dogs can lay claim to being the ones responsible for a certain trait or look.

 

So, the better a certain dog ‘combines’ with other great producers, the better that dog’s chances of becoming known to be a top prepotent producer for the breed.

 

It really bodes well for a breeder as myself to have known which dogs of the past have combined well with other dogs…………………….that is what makes studying pedigrees so important. It is not just merely reciting a 5 generation pedigree of Joe Blow that makes someone knowledgeable of the breed and the pedigrees behind the really great dogs…………………it’s knowing what those dogs produced that will make a person savvy about using pedigrees to build up their own great dogs.

 

I always derive amusement when I see in someone’s website that they claim to spend loads of times…………….in some cases I have seen where some yokel claim in their resumes ‘years of studying pedigrees’ and they think that time qualifies them as some sort of expert. That’s like someone claiming they spent 10 years in primary school when they usual fare is 5 years and wanting other yokels to think that they are smarter than the average 5th grader!

 

It’s not the time that will tell in this case…………………..it’s the results of the time invested!

 

For those that are a bit more aware of past prepotent dogs, for Chambray Labradors the magic mix in the formula to our successes has been the original investment back in 1988 into Receiver of Cranspire bred to the Canadian lines from Ebonylane Labradors, in specific Ebonylanes Aslan. These two dogs were the founding stud dogs to the Chambray lines in the late 1980’s. The fact that both dogs in subsequent years came to be known as great prepotent dogs gave me some credibility as a wise investor.

 

Receiver has contributed the great heads that the Chambray lines are noted for. Aslan gave us the coats and super classis Labrador facial expression.

 

The continued delving into those dogs that were consistently producing at a higher rate than others led to the inclusion of other dogs that came along that would augment the Chambray lines.

 

Monarch’s Black Arrogance ‘Gunner’ was such a dog. I was able to obtain a grandson from this awesome dog. Gunner gave the Chambray lines the awesome movement that our dogs display in the show ring.

 

Langshott’s Gale Force From Kimvalley ‘Garry’ (Hogan’s grandsire) would contribute greatly to our trademark ‘perfect rears’ and otter tails………………..of course as opposed to the dastardly cow-hocked rears seen in abundance in the ring against our superior rears!

 

So, heads from Receiver, expression from Aslan, movement from Gunner and rears/tail from Garry……………..as the Guinness Beer commercials would say ‘brilliant’!

 

Looking at our 10th and 11th generation of production, I still see each of those great dogs from the 80’s and 90’s in these 2016 dogs of today.

 

When I mention a present day dog such as Hogan or Jericho, I know what’s behind each and I know from all the ‘real’ pedigree knowledge that I use and put into play that it is the propentency of all the great dogs in their background that they themselves possess that will ultimately raise them to that great level of being considered prepotent themselves!