Chambray News Editorial Section

After 35 years of involvement in any endeavor, of considerable  acclaim (all documented of course) and success, of milestones reached and benchmarks etched, of just the sheer numbers of Labradors trained, raised, handled and championed, a person is entitled to his/her opinions.

The following articles and short stories are "One Man's Opinion".  They are a collection of subjects all related to breeding, raising, training, conditioning, handling and any other pertinent area of Labrador Retrievers. Some of the articles are very informative other very much "tongue in cheek", others you will need to "read in between the lines", some are poignant, with some there is relevancy, while others are a clumsy attempt at satirical humor.

For those of you that have been around a while, you might recognize some of the characters in some of the stories, of course the identities have been changed to protect the guilty. 

Enjoy!

• Hell Hath No Fury a "light hearted" look into the fine art of dog evaluations and how they affect those whose dogs received them.

• The 4 Elements To Success Showing Dogs   a realistic essay on how to be successful with the right dog at the dog shows.

• You Be The Judge-  is it luck or is it something else that makes some people winners, while others just don't get it?

• The Pack Experience-  my perspective in how dogs learn from each other in packs.

• What Is Show Quality  do you have what it takes to admit that your dog is not show quality

• To Coat Or To Overcoat? a touchy topic, (some pun intended) about a Labrador's coat and the current fad on judging strictly on coat!

• Judging By The Pound or maybe a better title would be
  "Fat Dogs Abound"  With the current trend of selecting breeder-judges to all-breed dog shows, we all need to fatten up our dogs to be considered for those elusive wins! Some dogs can just barely make it around the ring and their tongue will be working fulltime! The exhibitors handling some of these dogs make up all kinds of excuses as to why they move the dog so slowly.

Remember, these are my views based on my 30+ year's of involvement with just about every activity with Labradors.

More to come as the need arises.

Coming soon!

• "The Know-It-Alls Know It All"
  Notice how everyone becomes an "expert" or an "authority on the subject" in a relatively short period of time! Questions to ask a "know-it-all" like, "how many champions have you bred?" or "how many litters have you raised?" or "how many dogs have you finished?"

• "Picking The Right Judges Ensures Placements"
  Ever notice that certain exhibitors only win at certain show venues, could it be that they have a say in who the judges are for those shows? It is easy to find out, with the  dog look up system at www.infodog.com  , you can click on any dog's name from any catalog that is online at the service and presto, you have all the wins for that dog at each of the shows that it was entered in. See any trends?

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• "Why Have An Area Breed Club"
  Area breed clubs are meant to serve the local community and the dogs from the community, so what happens when the area breed club no longer serves that function? What happens when members from an area breed club start to pander to out of state breeders? What happens when judges are brought in to favor these out of state breeders? See the numbers of entries drop from one year to the next.
   

These and other topic of interest stories and more, coming soon.