Happy New Year To All
This year of 2020 I am thankful to be celebrating 50 years with Labrador Retrievers
Welcome to all those that follow us along on Facebook. Once in a while, I will direct traffic from Facebook to posts that are too long or maybe too specialized for the general population that dwells off that social media platform, so I post here for those that want to know more.
So, here it is, June 21st Father's Day 2020. 6 Months into the new normal of a pandemic-ridden world.
Yesterday, we ventured out to the first dog show activity since the closing down of the dog show world back in February.
Great gathering in Coral Springs FL Puppy/Dog Match yesterday. An awesome lineup of Labs, both babies, puppies, and adults.
Congratulation to all of the owners and breeders of those dogs. All excellent examples of the breed!
The Chambray dogs there represented all of us well. All 8 Chambray puppies have awesome show futures ahead of them.
Congratulations to Chambrays Mischa owned by the Baldwin family, for taking Best Labrador Puppy & Sporting Group 1 and having a great showing in the Best Puppy In Match.
Also, congrats to Chambrays Miss Molly May for taking Best Labrador Adult, owned by Debbie Skinner and John Menhennett.
Each of those Chambray Labs has the 'Triple Crown' that is needed to earn their birthright as Top Show Labradors which is the highest level of breed type. In other words, they each are as good as it gets as members of the most popular breed of dog on the planet, the Labrador Retriever.
They each can ascend to be AKC Champions of Record by taking advantage of the Chambray Triple Crown that each possesses.
#1 The Breeding: Through breeding, they have the correct conformation of the breed, so each starts out by being part of the upper 20% of the best that makes the lineup at any dog show. That is their birthright, which comes from my 47 years of ‘knowing’ the Right Stuff and then ‘doing’ the 'Right Thing' to produce at those heightened levels. Remember that at the AKC shows, right off the bat, once the dogs walk into the ring there are the ‘Top 20/25%ers’, there will be the ‘Middle of the Pack 50%’ and then bringing up the rear will always be the ‘Bottom 25%ers’. It is the Top 20/25% that will win the points 90% of the time!!!!!!!!!!!!
#2 The Training/Conditioning: Here is the hardest, toughest part of the Trifecta of the Triple Crown. Since I place all of our Top Show Prospect puppies, rather than me keeping the best……………..it is paramount and imperative that the owners of said dogs take advantage of our expertise in preparing those stellar examples of the breed for the eventual competitive world of showing dogs. Training and Conditioning set apart the eventual winners from the Top 20/25%!
#3 The Dog Show Management/Handling Program: Ah, the mystical and elusive ‘It Factor’ that makes Team Chambray, thus Chambray Labradors the winningest Labrador entity at the AKC dog shows.
Proven beyond any ‘questions’, ‘ands’, ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ that could arise from any knowledgeable Labrador observer, that’s 45 AKC champions since 2012! Never before, not even close to having happened in that span of time. Plus Breeder of the Year 5 different years, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, and for certain 2019*, for having the most champions that year/years!
*Pending With the AKC’s operation being semi-shutdown, there are lots of stats still off the books.
Everyone that knows a thing or two about top show Labradors knows that Chambray's breeding is tops, so is our proprietary the training, which each owner needs to take advantage of.
That then leaves the most important part of putting it all together with all the nuances of ‘how to navigate’ the competitive world of showing dogs. All the decisions that need to be made on putting the whole package together which make it all happen. Making it happen with the least amount of resistance and also minimizing the length of time to get there, this lessens the expenses as well.
So, for all these new Chambray owners, welcome to the world of showing your dog. Keep the faith and let us show you the way, which has been so successful for the vast majority that has taken advantage of the Chambray Triple Crown of producing the best, training to be even better, and creating the Winning Edge with our Show Management Program.
This match was the start back to our way of life, raising, training, and showing dogs, so a wee little step in the right direction and we are now ready for what we do best, and that provides the Triple Crown for all of our dogs and their owners.
Davie 3 Dog Shows Results
A new Silver Grand Champion
A Sporting Group 1 Placement
3 -Best Of Breeds
2 Winners Dog
1 Winners Bitch
3 Best Opposite Sex
3 Select Gr Chs
A 1 show 'Perfecta' of BOB/WD/WB/BOS/SEL/RWD/RWB
02/18/2020 ~ Because You Told Me So
I totally love it! Yep, it makes me want to pick and peck out lots more on the keyboard with more food for thought!
I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the posts that I pen and publish to Facebook or upload to my Rambling On section at the www.chambraylabradors.net website resonate with a vast majority of those that do follow along.
I know because you all tell me so.
Dozens this weekend at the Lakeland dog shows, some of those that just sit around ringside to enjoy the panoramic scenery and so too those ardent aficionado breeders that produce those exhibits on display to those that stand in the ring in the judgment of the array of dogs in front of them. You all came to me to personally attest to the ‘value’ of the time I spend conjuring up ways to compose and present the subject matter that will make sense to those reading it!
For that, I say, “Thank you all!”
Of course, the creative juices and my natural ‘wanting to share’ nature are stoked and here I am tinkering with the old CPU inside the hairless dome, nowadays probably comparable to an old Commodore 64 computer and that assuredly dates me so far back that few of those reading this offering has a clue or a semblance of what one of those was!
From all those that came to me to share or ask about something ‘Labrador’, seems that the most recent subject matter that struck a chord was about the ‘25% On Top’ posts.
A very prominent judge agreed wholeheartedly with my theory about being able to sort out the ‘better’ 25%, the ‘average’ 50% and the ‘subpar’ 25% at the bottom, different terminology, but the same consensus of ‘quality downwards’ as expressed by the dictums of the written bible for Labradors, the Labrador Retriever Breed Standard.
Having personal implications with their dogs in mind were more than a dozen owners, most of those from Chambray’s Owners Programs that are intrigued if their dogs were among those comprising that 25% Top Tier status.
The simple answer to that query is, “Your dog wouldn’t make the starting day roster for Chambray if they were not within that Top Tier 25%!”
No way, Jose, Joseph, Guiseppe or Dzho that a Chambray dog, managed by us, handled by Team Chambray will enter the ring unless it will be among the dogs that can win 90% of the time! That prize goes to the top 25% of the dogs that comprise any starting day roster at any dog show in the country!
Now you know because I am telling you so.
For those Chambray owners and others that are part of our management program, take a gander at the Master Handling Form that I email out a couple of weeks before the deadline for each show.
You will notice 12 class males and 12 class females that are on that list. Those are the dogs that are currently in that Dog Show 25% Top Tier status. Those are the ones that I stake our name on, my 50 years with the breed, put our Top Breeder Status in the country on the line for. Any and all of those dogs, I will personally walk into the ring with, stand 5’6” tall and gladly vie against any top professional, any Labrador breeder worth their salts, anyone that has any claims of virtuosity about Labradors………………ALL COMERS, LET’S GET IT ON!
Now, here is the gravy on the mashed potatoes, we have the extreme luxury of having 3 times as many dogs back in their homes sitting on the sidelines, playing the waiting game to be added to that elite list!
Yes, lots more where the Top Tier dogs came from that are currently at the dog shows representing Chambray right at this moment in time. The majority of those dogs/owners patiently or impatiently awaiting their turn are chafing at the bit to come on board and either come back into the fold or to make their debut at the dog shows.
Plus, besides the class dogs, we also have several champions waiting for their time to become our specials in the Best Of Breed competition as soon as those now in the Top Spots as champions have reached their mission and goal as our flag bearers at the dog shows.
As Marvin Gaye would sing, "Let's get it on!"
The Difference Between
A 'BIS Champ' & A 'BS Chump'
A 'BIS', if it isn’t at an AKC All-Breed Dog Show, it’s not the real deal!
A real, honest to goodness, non-fake news, authentic Best In Show winning Labrador Retriever is so rare of a happening…….in fact, out of over 3000 AKC All-Breed dog shows per year throughout the good old USA, there may only be ONE in ONE YEAR’S TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, yes, you read right, left, up and down, and catty-cornered or however, you go about reading things!
As a matter of fact, right here in sunny Florida, up until 2008, there had never ever been a Labrador Retriever bred and born in the state that had gone on to win one of them rarest of rosettes!
NOT A SINGLE one before BBE Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff “Hogan” became the first Florida-bred/born Labrador Retriever to be able to adorn his AKC registered name with the 'BIS' abbreviation for a bona fide AKC All-Breed Best In Show!
Then to make it a twice in a lifetime hootenanny, in 2012, BBE Ch Chambrays Celestial N Counter “Kika,” at another AKC All-Breed dog show, joined that elite company of ONE, to become the 2nd Labrador Retriever alongside her GrandSire, Hogan to win that MOST COVETED award of AKC BIS Champion!
Since then, no other Florida breeder has been able to make the claim of having bred a dog that has gone on to win a BIS, not a single one. In fact, very few have even won a Sporting Group One to be able to even compete at the end of the day for Best In Show at an AKC All-Breed dog show against the other 6 Group One Winners!
The above means that maybe thousands of Florida breeders in the last 80 years of AKC shows, with great dogs from their breeding programs, never ever were able to capture that most elusive of wins at an AKC All-Breed Dog Show with their home-bred Labrador Retrievers.
Okay, so the above are the facts ma’am and nothing but the facts!
So, besides the one and only AKC, there are other 'lesser' outfits that put on dog shows, in fact, Chambray even patronizes a few of those other organizations in order to train and develop our puppies, youngsters and novice dogs coming up through our Labrador Management Programs.
Of course, none of those other entities are the 'big time', they don't make it to the status of the 'Major Leagues', they don't qualify for that stellar position equal to the NFL of the dog show world, as there is only one 'top dog' of show events and that is the AKC!
All others are considered minor leagues and even lower, 'little league' in stature. So much so that we don’t ever take our top champion dogs to compete at those venues, only the puppies and young dogs are showcased there for training and experience.
There are also matches, sweepstakes and trial runs that may be sanctioned by the AKC, where once again, novice dogs are brought out for training, but once again, those are not the REAL DEAL venues that have the full implications to boast and brag about winning a Best In Anything award!
Those are not AKC All-Breed Dog Shows……………..NOT EVEN CLOSE By A Country Mile!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Recently, a person contacted me wanting to obtain a puppy from me, telling me she had SEVEN Best In Show winning Labradors right here in Florida!
Boy was she ever spouting blasphemy!
Whoa Nelly, or whatever her name was, don’t be tossing around unearned platitudes especially with someone, the ONLY SOMEONE that has the lifetime-earned right to make those claims.
Questioning where her dogs had won a Best In Show, she mentioned 1 UKC show, 3 ICE shows (same dog against the same competition at 2 days with 4 show weekend and at a local match!!!!!!!!!!
Did I mention minor leagues and little league?
However, those are not the only faux pas titles being used as subterfuge by the shameless, the shifty shysters with shenanigans up their sleeves that have!
None, never ever, have won a real AKC BIS award.
So, here is a list of the pseudo claims out there by the ‘wannabee BIS winners’.
A Best In Match
A Best In Sweepstakes
A Best In IABCA Show
A Best In Grand Prix Show
A Best in Purina Showcase
A Best in UKC Show
A Best In International Show
A Best In ICE Show
A Best In WKC Show
Then there is this new Owner/Handler thing being promoted by the AKC! Where an amateur owner-handler, without winning Winners Dog, or a Winners Bitch, or a BOS, or a BOB, gets to compete against another amateur owner/handler whose dogs more than likely didn't win any award of consequence from that breed ring, will go head to head in a sideshow ring and be given a rosette for the Best Owner/Handler in Show. But that doesn't make that award, by no stretch of any non-delusional imagination a REAL BIS win.
Owner/Handled is a limited competition by non-professional handlers competing against other amateurs with dogs they own and maybe even bred. The majority of the time, those dogs don't ever win anything from the regular breed competition, yet they move on because they were the last ones standing in the ring that were owner handled!
Bottom line, if it wasn’t a Best In Show award at an AKC All-Breed Show, then that BIS abbreviation in front of the dog’s name, is just good as a ‘BS’ would be, which would translate into a male cow knee-deep in cow pie!
Inquiring Minds Want To Always Know, So Know The Following:
01/28/2020
There are TYPICAL owners, and there are A-TYPICAL owners.
Which one are you?
Chambrays Black Diamond Queen Of The Ruff ‘Leyla’ is owned by Tony Alonso. She just won Winners Bitch & Best Of Opposite Sex over 20 class females for a 3-pt major, and over an entry of six bitch specials, she was awarded Best Of Opposite Sex! A major-pointed win and then adding the champion females she went over with the BOS, it missed a 4-pointer by 1 absent female!
Interesting enough, Tony Alonso is a typical owner, but guess what, he is also atypical too!!!!!!!!!!!!
He’s ‘typical’ because he was elated to hear the latest update from the Ocala dog shows! All Chambray owners rejoice when their dogs win points! Heck, I wouldn’t have it any other way because I hoot and holler all by my lonesome back here at Chambray Acres, where I await the results from each ring that Team Chambray is competing at. Of course, the excitement for me has triple value when I get the call, and the reporting is about the Labs winning!
However, the ‘typical owner’ will also invariably ask “Why didn’t my dog win?” when their dogs don't win and unfortunately only the judge for the day has that specific answer and to be politically correct at the AKC shows, you shouldn’t burden the judge with such questions because they really don’t have the time, nor inclination to be answering each and every person whose dogs didn’t win! Keep in mind that if there are 25 Class Males and only one is the winner, there could be 24 owners lined up outside the ring wanting to know why their dog didn’t win!
So Tony is ‘typical’ because he is elated when his dog wins, and he is also ‘atypical’ because when Leyla doesn’t win, he never asks “Why didn’t my dog win,” nope that would be the typical lament/query from the majority of owners, he instead asks me, “What can I do to make her perform better?”
TYPICAL: Yes sir, with Tony, I celebrate just as I do each and every time one of the other owner’s dogs win!
ATYPICAL: When his dog doesn’t win, there is no consoling needed on my part, instead; there is planning for the next time in the ring!
Let’s go back a moment and go over something that might not be obvious to most reading this post, asking me, “Why didn’t my dog win?” has no valid answer from me! None at all. In fact, the only legit answer is, “Because another dog won!”
But to me, ‘because another dog won,’ suggests that there is something we could do better the next time around! Since the object under consideration for winning are the dogs themselves, if the dog didn’t win, then there must be something we can do to enhance the dog’s chances of winning.
The Triple Crown that is vital for dogs to be successful as show dogs are (1) Conformation, (2) Training/Conditioning and (3) Presentation (handling)!
So, to increase a dog’s chances of winning, working on one or all of the prior mentioned agendas’ will go a long ways in achieving success.
In a previous post right here on Facebook, I disclosed how any number of dogs entered at a dog show naturally gets subdivided into 3 distinct groups based on Conformational Value. There will always be the top-breed type examples and those will comprise roughly 25% of the entries. Then there are those dogs that are more of the average-looking dogs, and that usually adds up to about 50% and bringing up the rear is always about another 25% that will qualify as sub-par or mediocre.
Our goal at Chambray is to always bring out the most competitive dogs from our specially chosen pool of superior breed type-dogs. By evaluating what the competition brings out to the shows, we strive to bring the best of the best from our large conglomerate of dogs in our management and development programs.
Unlike other breeders and exhibitors that may only have one or a couple of dogs that can slot into the top tier, best of the best 25%ers, our program at any given point in time works with over a dozen dogs that each will enter at the highest levels of show competition and win at the highest percentages from that elite group of dogs at the dog shows.
What gels the whole enchilada for our efforts with the breed at dog shows, is the ability to consistently have the Triple Crown of, superior breed types, the best trained and conditioned dogs and provide unparalleled handling and along with that to have owners that appreciate how the whole operation works and is dependent on each owner to do what it takes to make sure their dogs are following our guidelines to keep them in that Top 25% of the best of the best.
The Winning Follows Along!
January 18th, 2020
Okay, okay, many of our Facebook followers have been emailing me, requesting ‘real names’ for the dogs that we are handling at the dog shows. Some asked who the owners are, and there were a few that asked why we were showing dogs that we didn’t breed, so to quench the thirst or is it satiate the hunger, here is a load of information to savor at your leisure.
Q. First, to answer the burning bush question, “Why do you show dogs that are not from your breeding?”
A. Our motto is ‘For the betterment of the breed,’ that includes any and all Labradors that are a credit to the breed, and that may be able to pass on those outstanding traits that make them legit, correct breed type!
So, we welcome anyone with a Labrador to come and take advantage of our programs for ALL LABRADORS.
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Those programs include MENTORSHIP of the breed, in any way, and form beneficial to the mentoree!
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Training & Conditioning & Rehab (if needed). We handle professionally at the dog shows when there are shows; we training, condition, and rehab 24/7. This is what we do as love, passion and as a way to make a living. We are professionals in each and every aspect when working with dogs. We are Professional Canine Services Inc. (PCS Inc.) which is one of three entities that comprise our professional handling business. Besides PCS Inc., there is XClusive K9 Services Inc. that is owned by Jessica Herzon and Ryte On Point K9 Services Inc. owned by Ryan Herzon.
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Puppy Placement Program. This is the breeding program where we as co-breeders all of our litters, work with chosen owners, that we trust to the NTH degree, that will be the co-owners and custodians of each and every litter we are involved with.
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Stud Service Program. All of the males that are part of our breeding program are owned privately by their owners and we incorporate them into our breeding program; besides using them with our females, we oversee their stud service to outside females as well.
So, any Labrador not bred by us that is on any or all of our programs have been vetted and welcomed for any and all those programs that they qualify for. They are given the exact attention, just as any Chambray-bred dog is.
NAMES, NAMES, What’s in a NAME?
These are the Chambray-bred dogs and others that are active dogs at the dog shows for 2020
Well, here we go: Numbers in parenthesis is the number of years with Chambray
Our Super Stars first: The champions, the specials that are being campaigned for higher levels of achievements:
Tank’d ~ Silver GrCh Chambrays Tank’d On The Boulevard JAMS JAMSS (Royal Canin & Westminster) owned by Cindy Ceballos (25yrs)Miami. Chambray owner, co-owner, co-breeder of 2 champions with us.
TC ~ RBIS Bronze GrCh Chambrays The Tradition Continues CGC Carol & Chip Wilkening. Chambray owner and Stud Dog Owner (Jericho) (9yrs). Fripp Island SC
Molly ~ BOSS Bronze GrCh Chambrays Miss Molly May. Chambray owners Debbie Skinner & John Menhennett Ft Lauderdale (2 ½ years)
Pepper ~ Gr Ch Southern Palms Shut Up And Kiss Me. Former owner Scott Armstrong (5yrs), Pepper now in syndicated ownership between Chambray, S. Armstrong, Juan Marrero and multiple ‘silent’ backer partners, for the betterment of the breed.
Next, the Class Dogs: Showing in 2020. Brackets {# of Pts}
Skylar ~ Chambrays Champagne Caviar And Cabaret {12pts 1Maj} Danna Mosely CA. Chambray owner (3+yrs)
Quincy ~ Chambrays Quincy Nichols {11pts 2Majs) Chambrays owners, the Nichols family of Aventura Fl
Leenda ~ Chambrays Secret Surprise {11pts 2 Majs) The Marrero family Chambray owners, co-owners, co-breeders (10 years) having produced 12 co-bred champions under the name Chambray with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Axel ~ Chambrays Axel Avella {10pts 1 Mj} Diana Rojas and Luis Avella of Miami
Cali ~ Chambrays Silent Bit O Honey {10pts 1Mj} Donna and Andrew Bershaw Orlando FL
Clover ~ Chambrays Four Leaf Clover Of Kychel {7Pts} James Cutcher, Orlando FL
Rita ~ Chambrays Rhythmic N Counter {6pts} Juan Marrero Miami Fl
Navy ~ Southern Palms Chambray Navy {5pts 1maj} The LaSorsa family, Lighthouse Pt, FL
Molly ~ Chambrays Summer Sunshine {5pts 1maj} Fr Darrell Venters Fancy Farm KY
Leyla ~ Chambrays Black Diamond Queen Of The Ruff {5pts} the Alonso family Miami
Czar ~ Chambrays Czar Demitri Iglesias {4pts 1Mj} the Iglesias family of Miami
Bliss ~ Chambrays You Had Me At Hello {3ptMaj} Jill Smith, Pt Orange Fl
Max ~ Chambrays Max Tucker Shwab {3-Pt Maj} Milla Shwab Miami
Shelby ~ Passports Fast And Furious Shelby At Mystic Falls {3pts} Clarissa Ferrer Orlando Fl
Those in the hunt for their first points.
Whiskey ~ Chambrays Herbu Zadora Whiskey Makes Em Friskie, Winter Garden Fl Jill Van Houten
Zeke ~ Southern Palms Chambrays Ezekiel The Great, Scott Armstrong St Augustine FL
Kiki ~ Chambrays Bella Mare A Star Is Born At Iconic, Jill Smith
Jojo ~ Chambrays Bella Mare Rising Star, Clarissa Ferrer Orlando FL
Sparkle ~ Zinfndel Sparkle Simmer And Shine At Iconic, Jill Smith
Callie ~ Chambrays Calypso’s Banana Boat, Jill and Jerry Sweeney, Allover USA
Oliver ~ Chambrays Oliver Without A Twist, Nina Otto Boca Raton Fl
January 3rd, 2020. A little rah-rah offering to get the New Year off to a rollicking start come tomorrow at the first dog show weekend of the year!
It was the very first show of the year in 2013 at Brooksville when a breeder of another breed of dog approached me and stated, “You must be down to your bare cupboards starting the New Year, after having finished 6 champions in 2012!”
Of course, the conventional wisdom was solidly on his side, since any breeder would be down to slim pickings after having titled in one year all those top dogs from their kennel. Logical thinking would have it totally right in assuming that the best dogs were no longer vying for those champion’s points and what would be left to show for would be the ‘lesser’ dogs, the second and third stringers to shore up the load and be competing against the best that other breeders would be fielding!
What that person had not yet come to a realization with us, Chambray Labradors and the Owner’s Program, was that we didn’t do things the usual, traditional, old fashion way. He had no inkling how our raising/training/conditioning/placing/management program worked, nope, not in the least bit!
In fact, par for the course, not many others had opened up their eyes and seen what was transpiring with us since 1990 with our ‘placing the best, then mentoring those owners/dogs all the way to the top’ program!
Of course, the big reason being is that it had never been done before, for those doing it the ‘way it was’ it was always the same, year after year, decades, scores and more since the beginning of the dog show world, same old, same old.
Breeders bred dogs, kept the best for themselves, and then did it the time-honored traditional way from whelping box to AKC champion’s titles, the same old, same old.
What we had been doing was something totally ‘bass-ackwards,’ for those looking in from the outside, it was not worth considering according to conventional wisdom, so we, as in Chambray Labradors and all those that had been contributing along the way, had been blown off by the ‘establishment’ for 22 years and not been given much thought, concern or consideration.
That is until all of a sudden, 2012 comes along, and there it was, most champions in that year by a breeder, 6 new titled dogs in 1 year, bingo, Labrador Breeder of the Year!
Ding, ding, ding, the alarm bells go off, and a few take notice, while others see it as a freak show that won’t last the 15 minutes of fame!
Fast forward to the recent past year of 2019……………………….which now amounts to 45 new champions since that ‘clamoring wake up call year of 2012’!
Every year, since then, year after year, stellar numbers being put up with no end in sight for our ‘now not so new way of doing things.’ One year, well yes, that is certainly an anomaly, 2 years in a row, well, lucky things come in twos at times, however, 8 years running the gauntlet, raising the bar to where it had never been hoisted before, well you get the picture!
The nearsighted, the far-sighted and even the no-sighted could see by now,
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that Labrador Breeder of the Year (LBY) for 2012 with 6 champions,
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a good year for 2013 with 5 new champions,
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LBY again for 2014 with 6 more new ones,
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back-to-back LBY for 2015 with 6 more as that seems to be the charm number
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and a Three-Peat for 2016 with yet another LBY with 6 new AKC titled dogs
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then 5 new champions in 2017,
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4 in 2018,
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and 7 new Labs championed in 2019 for a grand total of 45 new AKC champion-titled-dogs in that span, numbers that no other breeder has ever posted before in that short period of time!
So, I had to chuckle a bit yesterday when an Interview for a top show prospect puppy asks me if I am not concerned having just finished 7 new dogs for the year, as the person stated: “Those being your top class dogs and now you must rely on a bunch of youngsters to go head to head against whatever the top professional handlers and other show breeders will be bringing to the shows to compete against you”!
I would have thought by now that the majority of exhibitors, breeders and handlers would get the picture, yes the big panoramic scene that has been playing out in wide-screen for all to watch and witness that no sooner has a Chambray dog championed that there maybe two or three ready and eager to take their place on the front lines!
So, too is 2020 waiting for us with once again a great lineup of young new faces chomping at the bit to come out roaring. In fact, we have such a deep troupe that they will be coming out, alternating from venue to venue, giving us a glimpse to see which are the more deserving at the moment and which will make their move in the months to come.
The old traditional way of doing things versus the way we do things……………….. I think I will just keep doing it our way!
Stay tuned for the results from the year's first skirmishes at the three days of shows right here in our own backyard this weekend coming up.
Let’s see which of our dogs takes the early lead for the New Year?
10/29/2019
jigsaw puzzle noun
a puzzle in which the player has to reassemble
a picture that has been mounted on a wooden or
cardboard base and cut into a large number of
irregularly shaped interlocking pieces.
Imagine a giant jigsaw puzzle! Where each piece must be inserted precisely where it goes, otherwise the picture that forms will be wackadoodle! Now, imagine the subject of that puzzle to be put together to be a Labrador Retriever!
In any puzzle, there are a rhyme and reason for every little section to fit into the next one and then into the following and so on until the whole kit and caboodle is put together correctly and voila, there you will have a photograph or picture of a beautiful, glimmering ocean view or maybe a majestic rainbow-hued sunset or a poppy filled field with, lilies and daisies added for extra ‘American pie’ effects!
For your’s truly, a well-bred, conformationally correct Labrador Retriever is one of the most beautiful pictures that can ever be imagined! Each time I see such a specimen that exemplifies the breed, it takes my breath away!
Watch and listen to our litter evaluations! Try as hard as I do, each and every time Jessie props one of those picture-perfect puppies on the table, I let the cat out of the bag by gasping or exclaiming under my breath “omg” or “wow” or another dead giveaway that I am looking at is one of those beautiful God-painted sunrises that show all the glory in the world.
How does one of those puppies get to be that perfect that when you see it, you gasp, stealing the breath right out of your soul, and you know it when you see it?
Well, that’s when all the little pieces of the puzzle come perfectly together and form that pretty picture.
When each individual part of the puppy/dog fits together as the script calls for, that text, of course, being the written breed standard and following it to a T, will produce that perfect jigsaw solved painted puzzle.
For me, it all starts with the Front End Assembly of the dog!
Here are the pieces that comprise the Front End Assembly, the Withers, the Shoulder Blades, the Point Of Shoulder, The Upper Arm, the Elbows, the Lower Leg, and the Pasterns down to the Front Feet.
When ideally put together, the Withers to the Point of Shoulder to the Elbows show forms a perfect Special Right Triangle.
That type of triangle has 2 equal sides, one of those lines would be the Point of Shoulders to the Withers and the other same length side is the Point of Shoulders to the back of the Elbows and then the 3rd leg of the triangle, the hypotenuse which is the long side from the Withers down to the backside of the Elbows is the 3rd member of the triad.
Now to make it as complete as can be, that long side of that triangle, from Withers to Elbows, also forms a perpendicular line from the Withers through the back of the Elbow and continues down to the ground.
That perpendicular line from the ground to withers creates the height of the dog. Furthermore, at the halfway mark of that long vertical line is the elbow, where the upper arm meets the long bone of the front leg! That divides the dog’s height in half so that a dog that is 24 inches tall to the withers will be 12 inches high to the midpoint of the elbows, 12 inches from the ground and 12 inches from the elbow to the withers!
Remember the Special Triangle formed by the 3 sides from above, well the long side of the triangle, the one that goes up and down from the withers to the elbows is half the height of the dog! So, on a 24-inch tall dog, the halfway mark would be 12 inches. This guy named Pythagoras way back a million years ago or less, came up with a bunch of ways of figuring angles, lengths, and ratios and lo and behold a unique right triangle with 2 equal sides with a 90 degrees where they meet on the front of the dog’s chest, and the long side measures 12 inches from the withers down to the elbow, will make the 2 equal sides around 8.5 inches long!
So, there you go for all those that have been clamoring for actual lengths that the Breed Standard does not provide, and these are exact sizes brought about by the actual dictums of the breed standards, not whims and preferences of mine!
So, regardless of what anyone breeding ‘prefers,’ if any of those lengths and angles and ratios are seriously off, then the whole puzzle becomes catawampus, topsy-turvey, askance, or every which way and loose to boot!
Those that harp, “I prefer deeper shoulders” or ‘point of shoulders that stick way out in front of the dog’ like a cowcatcher protrudes in front of a locomotive, the Pythagorean Theorem is going to teach you a lesson in Trigonometry!
But oh my, when it is right on the snoot when the pieces have been located precisely where they should be, and each piece is the size, the right angle, the corresponding ratio that is described, then ‘Houston, we no longer have a problem!’
Wow, the pieces of the puzzle are magically coming to form an OMG moment, when one knows how to fit the correct pieces together!
Let’s start at the Withers, where the shoulder blades are at the highest most point on the shoulders, from there, the neck rising strongly from the shoulders with a moderate arch up to that kind, stately Labrador Retriever head. The top of the head and the muzzle are of about equal length and on parallel planes.
Then moving back from the Front End Assembly at the Withers, the flow goes Level and smoothly backward long the Topline/loin to the Croup, where the Point of Hip starts the Rear End Assembly section. The pieces of the Rear End Assembly are the Point of Hip, the Croup, the Pelvis, the Point of Buttock, the Upper Leg, the Stifle, the Lower Leg, the Hock down to the Feet.
So, now we have the pieces that go from the head, down the strong rising and moderately arched neck, to the Withers, then a smooth level Topline to the beginning of the Rear End Assembly starting at the Croup, which dips slightly to the Tail Set and with a flowing line the distinctive Otter tail follows either standing or moving about!
That is quite a pretty picture composed of a whole bunch of correctly sized pieces, all coming together as dictated by the Breed Standard, and the puzzle is breathtaking once it is completed.
The correct Front End Assembly is comprised of the golden triangle that starts at the Point Of Shoulder, which is the forward-most point on the front of the Chest. From there, it runs back and upwards at a 45 degrees angle up to the Withers, which is the highest-most point where the shoulder blades meet, which is also the beginning of the Topline of the dog. Also, from the Point Of Shoulder at the front of the chest, another line runs back and downwards 45 degrees along the Upper Arm towards the back of the Elbow. So, there is a 90-degree angle at the Point Of Shoulder, with one Equal length line towards the Withers and another Equal length line to the back of the Elbows.
Since the shoulder blade (scapula) should be set at 45 degrees from the Withers down towards the Point of Shoulders this then is the termed the correct ‘Layback’ of shoulders for Labradors.
So far, all the pieces are fitting in perfectly, so let’s complete the triangle by dropping a line straight vertically down from the Withers to the back of the Elbows. If the first two lines are equal length as they should be and their junction at the Point Of Shoulder forms 90 degrees, then there will be two 45 degrees formed by the long leg of the triangle where it meets both equal length lines that travel to the point of shoulder in the front of the dog’s chest.
Since the breed standard calls for the height at the withers to be the same height of the topline, since the reading of the written dictums of the breed tells us that the Top Line is level from the Withers to the Croup, therefore the height at the Withers is the same as the height at where the Topline meets the beginning of the Croup.
There are other dictums to follow to build the breed-correct dog, and all of them contribute to what would succeed in producing what a well-bred Labrador should look like. So, I will leave this rendering at this location for now.
Now, go back to your Facebook page and LIKE, SHARE, FOLLOW, COMMENT and whatever it takes to get the correct word out about our breed of dog!
Updated 11/01/2019 to reflect additions to the numbers story.
Numbers tell an irrefutable story!
So, I have a ‘whopper of an irrefutable tale to tell you!
The email comes in with a semi-challenging air to it! “So, what’s up with all the numbers?”
The above statement made to more or less protest my posting of so many numbers we as a breeder/kennel/show management team have accumulated, achieved, accrued, ascended to for 30+ years of breeding Labradors for conformation.
Now, these three decades later, with most of those amassed awards, we are sitting pretty at the very top with many of the categories.
Numbers tell the most accurate story, a million times better than words do!
Numbers are precise and exact, and there is absolutely no room for interpretations. There is no way that a five can be slanted, skewed, sliced, sauced, or screwed around with to be a 3 or an 8!
Numbers don’t lie, they don’t embellish, nor do they align politically, they tell the truth and speak nothing but the truth, just the fact’s ma’am!
A 10 is a ten in Florida, California, and Wyoming in fact in all 50 states! It doesn’t matter what font size it is, it is still the same digit, no matter how aggrandized someone wants to make it, it is always that number.
Without addition, subtraction, division or multiplication, a number will stay constant and not grow or diminish, nor will it replicate or reproduce, it will just always be that number if left alone!
You can’t make a number any bigger unless there is another number added to it. Can’t stretch a number or blow it up, because, in the end, it is still the same number.
One is the loneliest number until another one comes around, and then a 3rd number becomes a crowd!
By adding on to established digits, a one grows to become a two and then 1.2.3. into Buzz Lightyear infinity.
The only way to top a number is to raise that number with a higher one, two or more!
In every endeavor or sport and particularly with breeding and showing dogs, the more wins, the more titles, and awards, the more accolades, and achievements, the more numbers add up taking the achiever to higher levels.
That’s how to grow in the eyes of the beholders who are sighted, you take a number and you add to it and they see the new number and know that it has been added to!
A person that proves to have bred one champion is considered an ‘AKC Champion Breeder of Record,’ and that is a considerable accomplishment as not many ever reach those heights!
The more that a person adds to their resume in the form of those augmented numbers of champions, the higher that person rises through the ranks of all those thousands and thousands of people that breed Labradors. From those thousands, there will be almost as many thousands that will never, ever produce one single champion!
There are untold numbers of aficionados that have been into breeding for many years and have accomplished zippo to zero as far as producing a single champion!
Myriads that have dabbled hard and long and may only have achieved a lonely one to show for their efforts!
Since the AKC’s inception of the Grand Champion’s level of titles in 2010, the AKC has kept a running record of the number of those Grand Champions produced.
Anyone can take a gander at all of those Labradors that have ascended to that mark of Grand Champion and also those that have gone beyond to the other levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold and one dedicated achiever that is at the Mt Everest ascension of Platinum Grand Champion!
Every year since the inception of the Grand Champion’s titles, an average of 94 dogs per year have reached the summit at the first level of Grand Champion.
Here is the breakdown of those memorialized gallant dogs that have risen to those plateaus that are etched in stone, actually that AKC site mentioned above. Numbers that prove or disprove any claims by ‘real deals’ or by those that wish upon a star hoping to one day be among those that can boast about their stardom accomplishments.
Total NUMBER of AKC Grand Champions since 2010:
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Platinum/Gold/Silver/Bronze/Gr Ch – 2 at Platinum
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Gold/Silver/Bronze/Gr Ch – 13 at Gold
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Silver/Bronze/Gr Ch- 47 at Silver
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Bronze/Gr Chs – 118 at Bronze
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Grand Chs – 1015 total achievers to that ‘beyond’ champion’s title of Grand Champion.
I love numbers because you heard me say it once and a million times again, numbers tell a story, the most accurate, Greatest ‘real’ Story ever told. Especially if it is verifiable and validatable with 100% authentic, direct from the source facts in the form of unalterable numbers!
So this Bud’s for those that have never perused through the AKC’s Grand Champions Listings
Let’s add some ‘personal’ numbers to form a picture that even a 5th grader can decipher.
The following are the different levels of Grand Champions and how many points to acquire that title:
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Platinum = like a gazillion pts needed!
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Gold = 400 Points
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Silver = 200 Points
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Bronze = 100 Points
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Gr Ch = 25 Pts, 3 Majors 3 Wins Over Competition
Out of the 1015 total grand champions, there were a total of 449 different kennel names!
Which of course means that multiples of those breeders have two or more of their bred-by Grand champion-titled dogs on the illustrious list.
In actuality, there are thousands and thousands of breeders competing for the Best Of Breeds/Best Of Opposite and Select Grand Champion’s awards that are needed to make it to the first level of Grand Champion.
At that first totem pole mark of Grand Champion, Chambray Labradors have the distinction of accomplishing the most! 26 of them!
Yes, that is the first of several #1 designations by being the leader of that category.
26 Grand Champions to be precise gives us a commanding claim to the #1 breeder of Grand Champions.
Interesting enough, from the top-level conformation breeders in the country, alongside Chambray, there are only three other Labrador show breeders that account for 10 or more Grand Champions.
The current 2nd place breeder has 19 and the other two tied at 3rd place with ten each.
Numbers, numbers, and more numbers tell a story!
The AKC also keeps rankings for the Top 100 Grand Champions from that cadre of 1000+.
Here is another boast, Chambray also leads that elite marquee with 6 Grand Champions on that list of the top 100!
More numbers are telling a story.
So, score two of the boastful achievement levels as an answer to the sweltering question from the introductory paragraph atop this post, “So, what’s up with all the numbers?”
Hey, with the going so good, let’s keep it going some more!
We also lead the Bonze Grand Champions tally with 14 out of the 118 Bronze title holders.
So, #1 with the most Grand Champions, #1 with the most in the Top 100 and # 1 with the most Bronze Grand Champions.
But wait, there’s more, we are also on top of the list for Silver Grand Champions with 5 out of the 47 Silver achievers in the country!
Those ‘telling’ numbers are the best answer to anyone wanting to know what’s what as far as who are the top breeders in the country.
Oh, by the way, we just posted the 45th new AKC champion in the last seven years!!!!!!!!!!
That’s another ‘one of a kind number,’ 45 home-bred champions in 7 years is a new benchmark.
One of those, ‘never been done before’ in that span!
There are more ‘numerically enhanced’ milestones; in those seven years, specifically 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Chambray was the #1 Labrador breeder for the year with six new champions each of those years.
Right now, it’s starting to look like Christmas for 2019 with five new champion title-achievers so far for the year and the likelihood of maybe two or more to add up to that Lucky Seven numbers destination! With the way things are developing, there could be 8 or more.
Numbers tell an iron-clad, authentic, and irrefutable story and that’s why I love numbers so much, of course, it sure is a lot easier loving numbers when they paint a pretty picture of your achievements as they have ours!
May 23rd 2019
Guess What?
It's Major Boasting & Bragging Time, 200 Times Worth!
What does it take to go 200 consecutive dog show weekends and come out winning:
• Winners Dog & Winners Bitch for points for their AKC champion’s title…………..
• Best Of Breeds for National Breed Ranking, National All-Breed Rankings, AKC Grand Champion points……………….
• Select Grand Champion male & Select Grand Champion female for AKC Grand Champion Points??????????
Well, you start 7 years ago, yep, the first weekend of dog shows at the Florida Winter Circuit in January of 2012 and you win points there……………….then as a team, you traipse all over the southern states of this great country of ours………………..in our home state of Florida to every dog show from Miami to Jacksonville, Gainesville and Tallahassee……………………….all of them, every weekend there was a dog show in all of those cities and everything in between.
We skip some of the Panhandle shows because it is way too far to travel to for the small shows worth 1 point.
For Florida, that includes every Eukanuba & Royal Canin weeks of shows come December……………………..then in January every Florida Winter Circuit (2 weekends worth every year) from 2012 to 2019……………..add the LRC Labrador specialties at each of the Eukanuba/Royal Canin events…………………..out of Florida, we then load up and put some serious miles on the vans, 15 hours to the outer westward reaches of Louisianna, Mississippi, and Alabama, every time we drove there we came back with a bushel full of winning points.
We also head due north to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and every trip that way produced those lucrative and rewarding winning points…………………not missing a beat no matter which way we traveled as Team Chambray!
Someone asked, so I answered them as I am now……………..no, we don’t include all those weekends where Chambray-bred dogs won points in all those other states where they were handled by their owners or by the professionals hired to make it happen.
The Gallant 200 only includes those winning weekends where the warrior on the front line was Team Chambray!
What has all those wins produced along the way?
Sit a spell and let me spin a true-blue yarn for you.
41 Brand New Labrador AKC Champions in that time! Now that’s an eye-opening, back-slapping, hoot hollering number that I really, really have never heard done before by any breeder/handler…………….of course forget about any breeder/handler group winning back-to-back-to-back-200-times in a row of winning weekends…….it just doesn’t happen!
New champions that are truly great then turn into Grand Champions under great training, conditioning, and handling and that’s what 25 of them have done!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s a National Record, the most AKC Lifetime Grand Champions by any breeder/handler in that measly span of time……………………….but wait, there’s more…………..buy one and get two……………………..how about the most Lifetime Bronze Grand Champions produced in the country with 11 of them…………………the most Lifetime Silver Grand Champions as well w/4…………………plus a real proudful number, 11 Bred-By-Exhibitor Champions produced and to add major icing on the pineapple cake, the most Grand Champions at the AKC’s Top 100 Lifetime Grand Champions with 5!
That’s what it takes and that’s what it will produce by going 200 Dog Show Weekends without a losing weekend!
If you run into me at any show or anywhere for that matter, ask me how proud I am of Team Chambray.......the dogs, the breeding program, the Owner's Program, the handlers, the assistants, the trainers and conditioners back at Chambray Acres, all for the Betterment of the Breed........................ask me and for sure you well get an earful of pride and then some!