Partners Program At Work
12/27/2005
The Partners Program At Work
A day does not go by that I do not receive an email or a phone call asking about how the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed works!
Of course there are no pat answers, since there are so many aspects and variations within the framework of this ambitious, unique and exclusive project. This article deals with several dogs that are part of the program and their participation will answer some of those questions posed by interested parties. Keep in mind that each and every associate and Partner within the Program has a totally unique working agreement that is custom suited for their individual’s needs and their dog’s needs also.
There are currently 50 or so Labradors that comprise the Partners Program. Their owners’ range from Labrador breeders with established kennels to single dog owners, some are very heavy into the world of show dogs, while others show a passive interest into the inner workings of dogdom. They all have several things in common,
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they love Labrador Retrievers
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and they want to do what's best for the breed
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they appreciate our contributions to the Labrador Retriever community
The following is one particular arrangement with a Partners Program associate.
At the most recent dog show in Miami on December 11th, Int Ch Carmays Duststorm At Chambray won Winners Dog for 2 points and was also awarded Best of Winners and also Best of Breed. Dusty is a prime example of the complexities of the Partners Program. To begin with, he is a product of a co-bred litter between one of the top Labrador kennels in the country, Dovetail Labradors together with Carmay Labradors of Georgia who owned the female. Carmay selected Dusty as the pick show male puppy; Chambray Labradors subsequently obtained him for Development and for eventual placement through the Placement Program. Dusty is now also part of the Stud Dog Program.
Let’s back up a bit here and explain some of the preceding.
- Two Labradors kennels join in on a breeding to produce top quality puppies from a top producing stud dog, in this case Ch Dovetails Walk Th Walk or better known in the fancy as “Walker”.
- The bitch’s owner keeps the best male puppy from the litter and decides to place him into Chambray’s Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed. By placing him into the most successful training/conditioning/handling program, the dog is ensured the absolute best chances of reaching his full potential as a show dog.
- Recognizing the tremendous value of this breeding, Chambray Labradors actively pursues this pick puppy and 5 months later eventually succeeds in obtaining ownership. Dusty was placed into the Development Program immediately and socialization, conditioning and training became a daily thing for him.
- From the Potential Show Client’s list, Renee Brillembourg is contacted and offered a co-ownership in Dusty. He defers to his sister Tanya and a partnership is formed with her to develop Dusty for show and possible stud service use.
Today, Dusty is a success story, having won his first AKC points on his 1st birthday, back in April 2005 and now at 20 months old, wins his first Best of Breed at the most recent Miami Dog Show in December. In the meantime, he earned his International Championship in October at the Orlando International Dog Shows and was trained and passed his Canine Good Citizen test.
Dusty is now standing at stud through the Stud Dog Program to quality bitches and has already sired a litter with Greenhead Rumba, a daughter of the 2002 Eukanuba Best of Breed Winner, Am/Nat Ch Little Rivers Ophir Calvin. These quality puppies will be placed through the Partners Placement Program to further perpetuate the system. The top, show quality puppy’s new owners will enter into the Partners Program and will benefit from all the guarantees, amenities and training offered through the New Owner’s Partner Program. These new puppies then become the next level of the Partners Programs workings.
So we have a dog from two outside kennels, come into the system and given the best of our services, then he is placed and co-owned with a new partner. He is developed, trained and handled to success and also managed for stud service where he is bred with another partner’s bitch and produces great puppies where some eventually will continue with their new owners into the program to perpetuate the betterment of the breed.
As the beer commercial says “brilliant”.
Here is another scenario with another dog in the Partners Program; her name is Int Baby/Jr Ch WinQuest Chambray Some Like It Hot. At the time of this writing “Sammie” is 10 months old and lives with her owner, Jessica Peeples of Floral City Fl.
Let’s back up one whole year and start with Sammie’s parents. Her mother is Am/Int Ch Surry’s Obscured By Clouds (Bella) owned by Geraldo De Souza of WinQuest Labradors (a Partners Program associate) and Elizabeth Wenner of Surry Labradors in South Carolina. WinQuest and Surry Labradors co-breed a litter using one of the top producing stud dogs in the country, BISS Ch Lobuff’s Bobwhite at Chucklebrook with Bella and produce an outstanding litter with several top-notch, show quality puppies.
Geraldo had previously participated in the Program with a co-bred litter from another bitch he owned, Int Ch Blade N Bays Spice Girl Affair and all those puppies were placed through the Partners Placement Program. He decides to have his share of Bella’s puppies placed through the system also. He keeps a female puppy, a second female is sent to Surry Labradors and the third is placed with a new Partners Program associate, Jessie Peeples.
Jessie had spent over a year researching and visiting Labrador breeders in Florida and beyond. She chose to join Chambray and the Partners Program to take advantage of all the amenities, guarantees and training that comes with each puppy placed through the system. She also was interested in the mentorship and lifetime support that comes with joining the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed. Once she made the commitment to wait for that “special” puppy from the program, it became a waiting game for the “right” puppy. Several litters were passed up and the weeks turned into months, as almost a year was to go by until the “right” puppy was to arrive.
The rest is now in the record books, as Jessie and Sammie have become integral members of the program for the betterment of the breed. Sammie has shown stellar quality by winning an unprecedented three Best In Show Puppy at the International Dog Shows. She was won numerous Best Puppy In Match and also become the second youngest Labrador from Chambray and the Partners Program to be AKC champion-pointed at the age of 6 ˝ months old, winning a Winners Bitch and Best of Winners, Best of Opposite Sex over ranked bitches.
To further the Partner Program, Jessie Peeples has been contracted under our tutelage to condition and train dogs for the program at her Ocala farm. She has already worked with 2 of our Labradors with great success. Chambrays Summer Arrogance was sent to Jessie after Summer sustained injuries from one of the hurricanes that hit Chambray Farms. Summer lived with Jessie for a month and showed great improvement. WinQuest-Chambrays MoTown Luiggi has recently been placed with Jessie for training and conditioning and in less than 2 weeks at Jessie’s Ocala farm has already shown great strides forward, so much so that he has been placed permanently with Jessie and her family as their second Labrador from the Partners Program.
As can be seen from the above two examples of how the Partners Program works for different people, there are many variations from people to people and even from dog to dog. What every single working agreement has in common is that there is a game plan for the future, the Betterment of the Breed!
The first level of the program was to bring together into a working relationship outstanding, world-class specimens of the breed to augment the existing Chambray Labradors breeding program, now well into the 6th generation. Most of the Chambray dogs not living at our kennel, were owned by Chambray associates who were already into a working agreement with co-ownerships and co-breeding and stud dog participation.
The point of entry for outside dogs was varied to say the least. The largest group of the program at its inception was dogs recruited from other kennels because of their pedigrees and potential for the Betterment of the Breed. Most of these dogs were brought into the Development Program and kept at Chambray Farms for training and conditioning. Once here, some were offered to existing Chambray associates, others were placed with new prospective show owners.
There were other dogs already owned by breeders, exhibitors and owners and these were offered the many amenities offered by the Partners Program for their eventual contributions to the program.
As the number of participants grew, so did the quality of the dogs entering the program. The success of the program was apparent by the record number of dogs winning and receiving their AKC champion’s title in the last 5 years since the inception of the Partners Program.
The next objective or level of the program was in breeding these same dogs that were now part of a fast growing and very successful venture. As top-notch breedings took place and world-class puppies were being born into the program, the third level was placing these outstanding future champions with potential new and with existing associates and Partners.
This third level of the program is what the 2006 show season will witness, puppies born into the system and placed with owners, breeders and exhibitors that were able to foresee the benefits of working with the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed.
- Level 1 great outside Labradors now firmly entrenched,
- Level two, the breeding of those outside dogs plus the continued contributions of the existing Chambray lines
- Both of those levels working smoothly have brought in level three, new associates for the Betterment of the breed with superb puppies from the product of the Partners Program.
- Now all three levels are operational and contributing on a perpetual basis, which brings us to level four.
Level four is the master link to the whole process, for it ties together each of the preceding levels into a working community of world-class Labradors and owners that are highly appreciative of the inner workings of the project. All of the dogs from the different associates and Partners are pooled in creating one of the most formidable breeding, raising, training, conditioning and handling ensemble of its kind, the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed.
The continuing success story with 2 other Partners Program dogs.
The Partners Program At Work Part 2 2006
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