8th Week Final Evaluation For Connie X Hogan Litter
The first “benchmark” evaluation for all puppies comes at 8 weeks of age. There seems to be a “window of opportunity” at this age where all the body parts seem to come together for a brief period of time and for the trained eye it provides a snapshot of what the dog might turn out to be like in the future.
Once again, I refer to the validity of this process as a “guestimate”, for there are no givens when dealing with genetics and living things. Nothing is etched in stone and traits and characteristics can and will change seemingly overnight! Some puppies and dogs will get better with time, while the bottom seems to drop out of a great percentage.
However, this timely evaluation process is extremely critical because most puppies are placed with their new owners at 8 weeks of age and decisions have to be made as to which puppy is indeed show quality and which puppy will be placed on Limited Registrations as pets.
Although we first analyze puppies at 35 days old and then again at 45 to 49 days of age, the final “first verdict” comes right at 8 weeks of age when they can trot at show gait and the evaluation will take movement along with conformation into account.
For Connie and Hogan’s puppies, the 8-week mark had been highly anticipated for us as breeders and for those on the show waiting list, for right from the start these 4 puppies had displayed some of the highest preliminary scores ever for puppies their age.
The female in the litter who had been nicked-named Charm, had actually scored the highest of any puppy at 45 days of age surpassing her grandmother Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chisholm Chancey.
Also at the 45-day mark, the 3 males in the litter had scores that would place them in the top 5 male puppies all times, ahead of dogs that went on to compete at Westminster, that had achieved national status with ranking in the Top 10 and also with males that had made it into the Best In Show ring!
So here we were at the critical window of opportunity, the 8-week evaluation for the Fantastic Four litter. How had they faired from the 45-day scores with movement added into the equation? Would those extreme scores stand up to the critical eye now with added considerations?
Would the combined scores of the litter maintain its status as the highest rated litter ever, out of hundreds of litters assessed in 37 years with Labradors?
Well the answer soon became apparent as each puppy would pass the muster and register zenith-like ratings. So, yes, yes, yes and yes to all 4 of the puppies achieving stellar scores. Charm would hold unto the highest scoring puppy of all time’s acclaim, with a mind boggling 97.37 score or 1.16 higher than the previous high score set by her grandmother Chancey (96.21). That astronomical score was also 4 points higher than her mother Connie (93.3) had scored at the same age.
Here is the Top 7 Females All Times
1. Charm 97.37 at 8 month's of age has won 2 Winners Bitch for a total of 5 points and 1 major (Nov 2007)
2. Chancey 96.21 (Charm’s grandmother) Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chisholm Chancey won 9 Best Of Breeds, 5 Group Placements, 2 Best In Show Veteran and dam of 4 champions
3. Summer (1990) 95.58 (Chancey’s grandmother) Am Ch Chambrays Indian Summer achieved her AKC champion's title in 12 shows and is the dam of 1 champion
4. Karley 94.7 (Chancey’s daughter) Am/Int Ch Chambrays Twist Of Fate won 15 Best Of Breeds, 4 Group Placements and was the 22 Labrador USA in 2004, #1 Labrador in Florida in 2004 and competed at the 2005 Eukanuba Championsips
5. Summer Arrogance 94 (Hogan's sister) Int Ch Chambray Summer Arrogance is retired temporarily from showing due to an injury after winning 3 Winners Bitch for 5 points
6. Maddie 93.8 (Chancey’s daughter) Am/Int Ch Chambrays Mad About Madeline winner of 17 Best Of Breeds, numerous Group Placements including 2 Group 1's
7. Connie 93.3 (Chancey’s daughter and Charm’s mother) Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter BOB winner, Best Puppy In Show,
The boys also set some new records in the ratings. Benny, now named Bailey would climb up the charts to the 2nd highest score ever with a 96.96 right behind his sister Charm, becoming the highest rated male puppy ever ahead of the previous high, Gandalf at 96.1
The other 2 males also would rank into the Top 5 with a 95.78 for Bubba, now named Rocky and a 95.67 for Hogie, now named Georgie.
So with the inclusion of the 3 males from Connie and Hogan’s litter, the ranking would look like this for Top 10 Male Puppies of All Times.
1. Bailey* 96.96
2. Gandalf 96.1 (2004) from Bobwhite X Bella)
3. Caleb 95.8 Champion #9 USA Lab 1995 Westminster
4. Rocky* 95.78
5. Georgie* 95.67
6. Franco 95.3 (1996) Champion 9 BOBs Group 1
7. Lance 93.2 (2003) Champion 3 BOBS
8. Hogan 92.8 (2004) Champion 11 BOBS
9. Chase 92.78 (1995) Champion 5 BOBS, Group Winner
10. Chief 91.9 (2005) (2005 Bobwhite X Bella)
As the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed fulfills the mission of producing top-notch conformation with each succeeding generation, conceivably the evaluations scores will continue to rise both on an individual basis for puppies and on a whole litter basis also.
This has become quite apparent in the 2007 litters with other puppies from the other litters achieving high scores that would place them into the top part of the charts.
The litter of Connie and Hogan is not the only litter with high score setters, as Chambrays Prissy Woman from Chambrays Midnight Lady and Carmays Duststorm At Chambray clocked in at 95.24, placing her in 4th place on the girls Top 10 chart. Chambrays Making Waves (Trinity) came in at 93.37, giving her a 7th place on the charts with WinQuest-Chambray Jewel In The Ruff scoring a 93.1 and in 9th place and Chambrays Good Golly Miss Molly taking over 10th place with a 92.92.
NEW TOP 11 FEMALE LIST @ 8 WEEK'S OF AGE with 2007 puppies in bold/blue (as of July 2007)
1. Charm 97.37
2. Chancey 96.21 (Charm’s grandmother)
3. Summer (1990) 95.58 (Chancey’s grandmother)
4. Prissy 95.24
5. Karley 94.7 (Chancey’s daughter)
6. Summer Arrogance 94 (Hogan's sister)
7. Maddie 93.8 (Chancey’s daughter)
8. Trinity 93.37 (Chancey's granddaughter)
9. Connie 93.3 (Chancey’s daughter and Charm’s mother)
10. Jewel 93.1 (Bella X Louie)
11. Molly 92.92 (Chancey's granddaughter)
* There are 2 female puppies from Dusty X Onyx that were born in Atlanta that also ranked high at 8 weeks, unfortunately I was not able to perform the evaluation at that time.
Several males from other litters have made their way into the Top 10 Males, ousting some of the previous rank holders. Moving into the Top 10 at new # 7 is WinQuest-Chambray Bella’s Son Sonny with a 94.49. Another male puppy moving into 8th place is Chambrays Barefoot Buddy with a 94.04. There are some more puppies that received 90+ scores from these January and February litters and we hope to see those join us at the training classes in the coming months.
NEW TOP 13 MALE LIST @ 8 WEEK'S OF AGE with 2007* puppies in bold/blue
1. Bailey 96.96 (Connie x Hogan)
2. Gandalf 96.1 (2004Bobwhite X Bella)
3. Caleb 95.8 Champion #9 USA Lab 1995 Westminster
4. Rocky 95.78 (Connie x Hogan)
5. Georgie 95.67 (Connie x Hogan)
6. Franco 95.3 (1996) Champion 9 BOBs Group 1
7. Sonny 94.49 (Bella x Louie)
8. Buddy 94.04 (Dusty X Merengue)
9. Master 94.01 (Dusty X Merengue)
10. Lance 93.2 (2003) Champion 3 BOBS
11. Hogan 92.8 (2004) Champion 7 BOBS so far!
12. Chase 92.78 (1995) Champion 5 BOBS
13. Chief 91.9 (2005 Bobwhite X Bella)
* There are several more 2007 male puppies who's scores were comparable to the scores within 7th to 13th place, however they have not been part of our training/handling program and we have not been able to keep up with their development. We hope that they join us in the near future and that they too may contribute to the betterment of the breed.
In previous years a score of 90 for any given puppy would have been the highest scores for any litter at that time. With the strict breeding practices now in play for our kennel and for the Partners Program, breeding the absolute best males to our absolute best females, can and will produce scores of these higher magnitudes with each pairing made.
How will this Class of 2007 puppies fair at their next scheduled evaluation? Will they maintain these lofty numbers or will we see a tumbling effect as they grow and the assessments become more arduous?
Dealing with these ratings is somewhat new to the scheme of things and there is no track record available to look back on to compare to. The next pit stop evaluation is at 6 month’s of age, for some of these puppies it will come at the end of July and for a others, the beginning of August of 2007.
Stay tuned for the next installment for the Class of 2007 at 6 month's of age!
Now below!
Prelude To The 6 Month Evaluation The 2007 Puppies
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