The All Vital Puppy Evaluations

09/10/2011

 

The All-Important Puppy Evaluation Process

 

The critical evaluations performed to grade out the truly most competitive puppies from show litters is the tour de force for any breeding program where the main focus is competing at dog show events. At these highly competitive venues, winning becomes the number one agenda; it is what defines who is the top dog and all the rest blend back as part of the pack!

 

The Puppy Evaluation Process that we perform at Chambray Labradors on all of our show-bred litters has to rank as the most anticipated dog-related activity that we do. We feel that this process is what sets Chambray Labradors apart from the rest and molds the future at the dog shows with either rock solid success or for those others a string of one disappointment after another! Through the successful process we relish the continued successes we have been accustomed to for the last 16 years or more!

 

Finding out how many and which puppies have met our show expectations is paramount for the continued successes that the Chambray dogs are achieving everywhere they compete at. So, this all important sequence of events is not just for ourselves, but also for all those that are anxiously awaiting a show quality puppy from us and are counting on our expertise to deliver just that. Keeping in mind that our mission is to produce the best and then find new owners that appreciate what it takes to continuously produce at that level, thus encouraging them to become part of our ever growing Labradors Owners Community.

 

The whole purpose of our breeding program is to produce the absolute best show puppies, using the absolute best parents according to many criteria of which:

  • soundness of pedigree using in-depth knowledge of genetics,

  • clearances in health, including DNA testing, X-rays and other available procedures

  • true Labrador Retriever temperament

  • top show quality conformation that is rigidly adhered to and doggedly enforced.

 

There is so much that goes into producing and maintaining these super high standards for perpetuating the breed or as we like to state, for the “Betterment of the Breed”!

 

In some cases there are years that go into the planning of breeding one female. Stud dogs are selected for each female and then research is done to see how well each stud dog has produced with other females that have similar backgrounds as the dam to be bred has.

 

Arrangements are made well in advance setting up the breeding, with payment in full provided the stud dog owner, at times well over $1500 for just the stud dog service.

 

Finally the breeding takes place and then we anxiously await the required amount of time to pass………..that’s sixty plus days as the canine gestation period being from 60-64 days before the litter is born.

 

After the whelping of the litter, for the next four weeks there will be a bunch of fat roly-poly puppies that need constant care, feeding and cleaning after by the dam. Or so we hope that’s how it will transpire because there are those oddball situations when something goes awry and the humans end up having to do all the “birth to 4th week work”!

 

The majority of times Mother Nature provides for everything to fire on all cylinders and the mother of the puppies takes care of all the essentials as long as the owners provide plenty of high grade food and water.

 

This is the “quiet period”, where the dam provides the nourishment, the house cleaning and the social interaction with her puppies so that the human’s role is minimal, which is primarily providing a clean environment and non-stop food for the mother of the litter.

 

After the 4th week begins the weaning process where the dam’s milk begins to dry up and less nourishing by the day, meanwhile the puppies grow bigger seemingly by the hour and their desire for milk more than triples from one week to the next! Well, that’s when it comes time for the human intervention process called "weaning" to take place.

 

Since the mother’s milk no longer suffices in either quality or in quantity, special gruels are made according to different recipes that will continue to provide the highest nourishment for the puppies, very important so that they don’t go backwards. Feedings usually are every 4 to 6 hours, at times the puppies consuming half their weight in 24 hours.

 

The worst part of this period is the amount of clean up needed as the mother no longer tidies up after them creating a potential for an all out stinky mess. Besides the massive cleanup effort, the puppies now need 5 times the space. A litter of 4 weeks can dwell in the 4 X 4 whelping box, a 5 week old litter now needs a space at least 20 X 20 or about 400 square feet for a litter of 6.

 

By the 6th week, individual personalities start to emerge and great games begin to be played by the puppies. Play fighting, pulling ears, biting tails, domineering and fighting back, you name it, they go through it! The litter now needs a huge area to live and frolic in. By the time they are 6 weeks old, they should have at least a 30’ X 30’ play yard or roughly about 150 square feet per puppy.

 

By the 7th week of age, we are now ready for the all important evaluation.

This period to me is the most crucial process of all that it takes to be a successful show breeder/exhibitor! This is the one element that determines if you rise to the top or you are just part of the pack of breeders that show up at the dog shows and add numbers to the entries!

 

This is that virtuoso stroke that is the “make it or break it” process, where very few breeders of any breed ever develop the eye, the feel, the ability to project to the future what any puppy at 7 weeks will look like when it reaches a year old! This is what I term as having that special mastery of all the senses plus, the 6th sense!

 

There are people that have developed this “6th sense”, such as Pat Hastings with her “Puppy Puzzle” books, videos and seminars; with this know-how she possesses, together with the accruements she has put together, Hastings now makes a living mentoring thousands on how to evaluate a litter. So important is this process that when I was president of the Greater Miami Dog Club, I sponsored for Pat Hastings to put on a seminar on how to do just that!

 

Well, not boasting or bragging and not taking it to the grandeur level that Ms. Hasting has done, I too have developed the extra sensory capability to evaluate a litter of Labrador Retriever puppies and select out those individuals that have the highest potential to be successful at the dog show venues!

 

Being able to create the product that will forge out into the competitive venues such as the dog shows is paramount, however having the ability to “see” those future gladiators that will be on the frontlines and then stride forward on a consistent basis into the winners circle is just as crucial as producing them. The ability to do both, produce and select is a winning combination that not many ever master completely let alone savor occasionally.

 

At Chambray Labradors, the proof is in the pudding with etched in stone results at the dog shows in Florida and more recently dozens of other states where our dogs have traveled to. The overwhelming successes, where 1 breeder wins more than all the other breeders put together is a product of the ability to “produce and then see” top show quality at that period of time when the evaluations are performed.

 

That period is a window of opportunity that only exists for a few days between the 7th and 8th week of age! Not before and certainly not a week or two after; it is a very precise period of time and very few breeders ever develop the knack to get it right on a consistent basis.

 

That is the difference in

  • being the #1 breeder for winning consistently 10 years in a row,

  • breeding the most champions in state history,

  • the most grand-champions as well,

 

So just what is this process and how detailed does it get?

 

There are several steps to the process as follows:

 

  1. First there is a general observation of the whole litter in a natural setting by my daughter Jessie and I. We are looking to see which puppy stands out in that natural setting. If we agree on one puppy in particular, that will be the first one that goes on the table with Jessie working her magic at “table work”! If we don’t agree, we start with the one that she likes best.
     

  2. Whichever puppy goes first on the table, will now be scrutinized by touch with Jessie performing that task while I observe several feet away and take photos of every section of the puppy. I will detail that procedure shortly.
     

  3. Once the process is finished on the 1st puppy, that puppy is put away and then the 2nd impressive puppy is worked on the table and photographed. All the while I take in-depth notes of all observations made of each puppy by the two of us. During the process on the 2nd puppy takes place we discuss how it compares to the 1st puppy.
     

  4. The same procedure continues until all the puppies have gone through the process, with discussions taking place between us as to how each puppy compares to the rest.
     

  5. Of course if any single item is found that would prevent a puppy from being show quality, the procedure stops for that puppy and it is put away as a “pet puppy”. More on that to come!

 

The hands on table work, discussions between us and photographing of the litter may last a couple of hours. Several puppies may be brought back on the table to compare and to examine further.

 

We create an order as to which is the 1st pick, 2nd pick and so on. At times there is no clear cut consensus as to which is the pick puppy in a litter, as each of us may have a different order.

 

That’s when an arbitrator is brought in to tilt the scales towards one or the other of the puppies in question. That job is left for my wife Johanna. She is the one with the most cut and dry, no emotions displayed, critical eye for evaluations. It is a done deal when she chooses as that becomes the tie breaker.

 

After this entire hands one, dickering, consulting and deliberating is done, then the 2nd crucial element of the evaluations takes place, this is the process that takes the present litter and compares it to the last 10 year’s worth of litter evaluations using hundred if not thousands of photos taken in that time span!

 

Using all the photos taken of this litter, I then sit in front of my computer and analyze every single photo of each puppy. First I compare each and every aspect as to how it compares to the written breed standard for Labradors. Then the puppies that have received the highest evaluation are compared to the top puppies from litters up to 10 years back!

 

Here is how we categorize each puppy using a breakdown of certain traits that make a Labrador appear to look great. Using the following scale, we are able to come up with a ranking of how any puppy stacks up with top puppies from previous years that went on to become great show dogs.

 

  • At the very top of the scale would be the designation Superb Show Quality and those would get a ranking from 95 to 99.

Below is a representation of puppies that were rated as Superb Show Quality and where each ascended to: All of the following scored a 95 in every category = 5 Stars

 

    • AKC Gr Ch/UKC BIS Ch/Int BIS Ch Chambrays Charmed N Counter (Highest Chambray rated puppy ever 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011 Eukanuba qualifier)
       

    • AKC Ch/UKC BIS Ch/Int BIS Ch  Chambrays Bailey On The Rocks (Highest Chambray rated male puppy ever and 2011 & 2012 Eukanuba qualifier)
       

    • AKC Gr Ch/UKC BIS Gr Ch/Int BIS Ch Chambrays And The Beat Goes On (Florida’s #1 Grand Champion and 2011 & 2012 Eukanuba qualifier)
       

    • AKC Gr Ch/Int BIS Ch WinQuest Chambrays Cadbury (Purina’s 2011 Best Labrador Adult and 2011 Eukanuba qualifier)

 

 

  • Top Show Quality 90 to 94 is an individual that definitely is destined for their AKC champion’s title. Our greatest producer, the only Chambray dog to ever win an AKC Best In Show, BIS Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff was from this designation. He has gone on to produce numerous offspring in the Superb Show Quality range.
     

  • Show Quality 85 to 89 are dogs well-equipped to finish their championship. From our 28 Florida state record bred by champions, 13 were from this classification.

 

Anything less than an 84, although possessing those qualities that would make it a contender at the dog shows, enough to be a champion…………would now a days be placed as pet quality with us! There were 3 of our champions from the past that were from this classification.

 

The following are the 5 areas that the puppies are evaluated on and then all the numbers are crunched and an average is figured out.

 

1.      Overall Type ~ this is a look at the dog from the side view, looking at the whole dog and how all the parts fit together according to the breed standard.

2.      Head ~ the head structure is a hallmark of the breed, especially with the males.

3.      Fronts ~ both as seen from a front view and also the front assembly as seen from the side

4.      Rears ~ Oh boy, don’t get me started on rears………….just suffice to say that no one, absolutely no breeder produces rears as the Chambray dogs possess! Once again, rear view and side view of the rear assembly, which by the way includes the tail set.

5.      MOVEMENT! ~ Yep, you guessed it, another of my OCD areas!!!!!!!

 

A puppy that scores a 95+ in all 5 areas above is termed a 5-STAR Puppy.

 

More proof is in the pudding, all of the following dogs were 5-STAR Puppies from their litters, scoring +95 on all of the above criteria:

 

  • Ch Chambrays Dakota On Deck 2010
     

  • Ch Chambrays Hogan’s Hero Rocky (Purina’s 2009 Best Labrador Adult & Purina’s 2007 Best Labrador Puppy)
     

  • Ch Chambrays Scarlet Of The Ribbons (Purina’s Best Labrador Adult 2010)

 

Recent puppies, young dogs and adults that are at the top of the charts winning Best Of Breeds, Groups and Major-points from the classes at the dog shows all scored 5-STAR as well:

  • Chambrays Hanna (12 pts, 1 major, 2 BOBs, 1 AKC Best In Show Bred-By)
     

  • Chambrays Sir Aslan (9 pts, 1 BOB, 1 Group)
     

  • Chambrays Rum Tum Tugger (8 pts, 3 BOBs, 2 Groups)
     

  • WinQuest Chambray Jake (6 pts, 1 major, 2 BOBs) (Purina’s Best Labrador Puppy 2011)
     

  • Chambrays Emmie (15 points, 1 major, 1 BOB, 1 AKC Best Puppy In Show)
     

  • Chambrays Harley (6pts) (Purina’s Best Labrador Puppy 2010)

 

There are numerous other dogs that have scored as the previous mentioned dogs, too many to mention here that have scored in these heightened levels and there are new puppies and young dogs that will shortly make their dog show debut that have posted very impressive scores in their evaluations ranging from Top Show quality to some scoring Superb Show Quality 5-Star.

 

The adamant adherence to only selecting the absolute best through the most in-depth evaluations creates the most successful show placement program in existence today.

 

All of the above dogs (with the exception of Charm*) were placed with people that wanted to be part of the complete dog owner’s experience with Chambray Labradors Owners Community. Where as the vast majority of show breeders “Keep The Best and Sell The Rest”, at Chambray Labradors “We Place the Best in the Best Situation to Perpetuate the Great Qualities of the Breed to the Next Generation”.

*Charm was selected from her litter to be placed with one of our owners and to be kept for an extra 4 weeks and be taken home at 12 weeks of age. Due to owner's uncertainty of residence 12 weeks turned into 6 month's of age and Charm was to stay at Chambray. 

 

  • The best part of the preceding is that it is all “Guaranteed In Writing”!

 

That is our Pay It Forward mission and mentality. If we have succeeded in breeding the best, we owe it to the breed to take those outstanding individuals and use them to produce the next great generation of puppies to share with new owners that appreciate the successes and goals that have been accomplished by all those that have been participating with the one of a kind program with the betterment of the breed in mind.

 

Oh, by the way, those puppies that do not meet the high standards for show or for eventual breeding are designated as Pet Quality and are placed with the hundreds that inquire about owning a puppy from the top show breeder, yet they are not at all interested in showing or breeding. Mission accomplished all the way around!

 

 

 

 

 


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