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08/20/2010
Dear
Mr. Herzon
First
of all, this is an unsolicited account to what I have experienced in the
last 5 years of observations about
Labrador Retrievers in the Texas,
Alabama and Florida show dog scene.
Second,
I don’t own a Labrador, so as of this writing I am not in any way
connected to any Labrador breeder.
I have been a frequent visitor and sometimes exhibitor at the dog shows
with a Beagle that I acquired while
living in Texas.
I did
develop an interest in obtaining a Labrador for my children to raise and
to follow up in Junior handling,
therapy dog and maybe service dog activities at the dog shows and
through the Future Farmers of America and
4-H club that we all take part in as a family. Since my kids are still
toddlers, I figured I had plenty of time to get the facts!
Knowing
the early-on mistakes I made when acquiring my first-ever Beagle, I
vowed to be more studious and more
cautious in searching out a good breeder of Labradors so that I could
compare and decide from. Obviously I didn’t
want to make the same mistakes I made when I purchased my first dogs.
I first
started my investigations for a show prospect Labrador while we were
living in Texas and continued that when
we lived in Alabama, then followed that up with our stay in Florida.
Of
course, the first and most overwhelming examples of Labradors in Florida
are those from Chambray Labradors.
There are twice as many showing at the dog shows and they are there with
their owners making that group even more
obvious from their great numbers. Follow that up with a search at any of
the search engines; overwhelmingly all the
first results come up with the same breeder and kennel at the top of the
result’s page.
Being a
Labrador outsider at the dog shows, I would talk to those around the
ring that were outsiders as well and
I immediately became a “skeptic” because of the negatives being spread
by the few not part of the seemingly “in crowd”.
Whenever I could, I would go watch the going’s on at the Labrador ring
and would stand outside the ring and
observe the dogs in the ring and also the owners and breeders outside
the ring.
Over
and over again, the results were the same, weekend in weekend out, month
after month and several years
later as well! The dogs from this breeder were always in the ribbons and
in the winners circle as well, to the point
of it becoming overbearing for some of the other Florida breeders to
deal with. According to many of those other
breeders they’d just dropped out rather than compete with this breeder’s
dogs or “wait” until some of “his” dogs
would finish out their championship.
At the
same time, the Chambray owners also grew in numbers with new owners
joining in with brand new puppies
every season and their ranks around ringside grew to a very noticeable
size as recognized by breeders and owners
of other breeds as well.
I
talked to Labrador breeders in Florida and corresponded with Labrador
breeders across the country in my attempt
at learning and deciding which breeder to obtain my puppy from.
Too
often I received the brush off in an attempt at having a top show
prospect placed with me. Most questioned my
integrity and motives for owning a dog on full registration, many
required co-ownerships with breeding restrictions galore,
others would withhold the AKC papers until I had “proved myself worthy”!
It
seemed that obtaining a quality show Labrador was much more difficult
than I first imagined. There were so many
hoops to jump through, with “interviews” and personality questionnaires
to fill out, pre-requisites and requirements and
of course almost all the better breeders placing their show puppies on
“Limited Registration”, so I just kept biding my time.
Standing on the sidelines at the dog shows gave me a great perspective
of what was occurring right here where I lived.
As time passed by, I began to converse with some of the Chambray owners
as the breeders themselves always seemed
to have a full plate in front of them at the dog shows with all their
owners and dogs that they handled.
The
owners that I spoke to were always gracious and extremely happy with
their dogs and with all they received from
the breeder. They all seemed to have a great relationship among
themselves even though their dogs were competing
against each other in the ring! Many that I spoke to shared with me that
they even had developed friendships outside
of the dog shows.
From
the dozens that I spoke to, it was almost like having two polar-opposite
versions of reality, a huge majority sang
the praises and a few outsiders were always harping!
The
more I talked to the dog’s owners, the better a picture that emerged
from their experiences. Most encouraged me to
“speak” to the Herzons or to “check out the website that is full of
information”!
Still
intimidated to actually say more than “Hi, how are you” to the Herzons,
I dove head first into the “fully loaded”
website!
Whoa! I
was overwhelmed with all the different programs, training, sponsorships,
guarantees and most of all, their
willingness to mentor someone new to the breed!
The
written articles were illuminating to say the least, so well-written and
expertly versed in all aspects of the breed.
Their entire philosophy on breeding, training and exhibiting became
crystal clear!
My
parents always cautioned me about, “If something sounds too good to be
true, it probably is!
So,
testing the waters came next! I sent an email without really identifying
myself as an already existing show person.
I asked the usual puppy searcher's questions and immediately received a
very in-depth reply that actually answered all
my “novice” questions! Very thorough and very professional and to the
point, however also encouraging me to ask
more questions if I needed!
For the
first time, a top breeder actually answered my questions and didn’t set
up a major roadblock in front of me
to get more information from them!
In an
emailed that followed the first, I provided more information about
myself without actually let them know
who I was, but I let them know that I want to show the dog, but more
importantly, I wanted my kids to become active in other activities with
the dog, plus eventually we may also breed the dog if it passed its
clearances.
The
answer just about floored me because it was the exact opposite of what I
have been receiving from
other show breeders. “I have a litter from my top show dog of all
times and I will keep you in mind when
I evaluate this litter for the top show prospect puppy” was the
word for word answer from the breeder!
I sent
another email asking if I could visit and see the whole litter before
they were placed with the waiting
new owners.
A
bigger surprise reply, as once again not the typical answer from the
breeder, “Even better!”
was the reply……… “Come down and be part of the evaluation with the
whole litter!” more of the
email read “See if you can pick out the pick puppy from the
litter!” It ended up with instructions on how
to get to the “farm’.
Needless to say, I made arrangements to take the day off from work and
head over the 2 ˝ hours from
north of Ft Myers to be there and observe a 7-week old puppy evaluation.
Does
the “too good to be real” saying come to mind?
To say
I was blown away with the expertise of the breed that Mr. Herzon has is
mildly stating it.
His 21-year daughter, Jessica is totally gifted in her knowledge and
handling of puppies, what a joy it is
to watch the two of them working together as a team with a litter of
puppies.
Mr.
Herzon uses the phrase “priceless” throughout many of his articles and
this truly was indeed a “priceless moment”
to be part of! From one extreme to the other, both of them go over each
and every puppy all the while both of
them offering their individual take on the puppy being evaluated!
Actually it is his daughter that manipulates each
puppy on the table and Mr. Herzon offers a running commentary of each
part of each puppy while Jessie offers what
she is experiencing with her hands-on action.
I
learned more about structure in the 40 minute evaluation of 7 puppies
than in my last 9 years with show dogs!
The ground work part of the evaluation with the puppies moving back and
forth and with side gait gave me a
true appreciation of true structural movement that I had never “seen”
before.
Although I was ready and willing to snatch up any of the best puppies
from this litter, Mr. Herzon stated that
none of the puppies had scored high enough for someone that really
wanted to be competitive at the dog shows!
He
stated that none of the puppies showed any flaws or faults to render
them not being show quality, however
he did state that none had that O.M.G. or WOW Factor! In other words, he
wasn’t willing to back any of them with his “ironclad’ show guarantee!
He stated that he may place the best puppy out of the 7 as show quality,
but that he would rather I wait for
something to “really work with!”
Well,
so much for those that say he sells all his puppies as show quality!!!!
I
really had my eye on one of the puppies and he stood fast in his
assessment and guaranteed me a world class show
prospect if I was willing to wait until it materialized and that I could
also be part of that litter’s evaluation process again.
“I guarantee that 100%” was
Mr. Herzon’s reply.
I now
100% anxiously wait that moment to become reality as I have no
reservations whatsoever that I too will be
singing the praises of owning a Chambray show puppy in the near future.
That “too good to be real” saying has a
huge “an exception to the rule”!
B.O.
Editors Note: Wow! Thank you B.O…………………….just what the doctor ordered!
Super well written,
I think that I will hire you to write articles for the website. I love
your style and ability to express your thoughts.
I
love getting all these great testimonials from our “now” owners, from
“old time” owners and from
“new-to-be” owners as well. It sets everything I do in the right
perspective so that anyone and everyone
out there can make a wisened and educated decision based on hard facts
and true reality of what’s what!
Of course we always have to take into account that there are many among
us that are cumbersome clueless
and others stark delusional! Thank goodness for the awesome 98% that are
"right on"!
B.O
asked to be anonymous until further notice so that she may still be able
to “roam” the sidelines at the
dog shows without being identified or labeled by anyone until she
becomes a Chambray dog owner! That is
fine by me, as I don’t ever get involved in telling people who they can
be friends with or who they can talk to
or not talk to! Besides I am way too busy taking care of all of our
owners and their dogs, not to mention my
family at the dog shows to get involved in all the childish play of the
two or three sad sack, unhappy campers!
Amended Editor's Note
08/23/2010: It seems that this submission and the 2 offerings right
before this one have hit a
major chord with many of our readers (Thanking It Backwards 08/15/2010
& Beyond Winning Points & Titles
08/14/2010 ) I have received
numerous unsolicited accounts & testimonials so similar to the above
where hobbyist are searching for better quality Labrador and are being
shown the door without being given a chance.
I
constantly hear that some of these so called "top breeders" claim that
they are protecting "their lines" or protecting
the "breed" by only placing their puppies on limited registration. Many
state that they don't want someone else
benefiting from the "good"
that they have done to their lines or to the breed!
That is as small minded thinking as can happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That
mentality (or lack of mentality) will actually
create a greater gulf between those producing the best and those trying
their best to do better! Closing the doors on
future hobbyist will most definitely create a small gene pool of
elitist-bred Labradors that will become deadlocked with genetic problems
beyond comprehensible ways and means!!!!!Instead of protecting
individual lines and the breed as a whole, these close-minded, elite
gene pool line
bred Labradors will be riddled with gene pool problems; evident the many
that are already dealing with the tip
of the iceberg with PRA, EIC, TVD, and several other inherited
conditions brought about by breeding in a very tight gene pool.
My philosophy is simple, let's open up and bring on board as many
newcomers as wish to be mentored so that they will not make as many
mistakes as we all did when we were beginners ourselves!
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