I have been around and trained dogs the majority of my life, I’ve had just about every breed out there including a couple of mutts,  I’ve trained and competed coon hounds. I made one of them a Night Champion in four hunts; two of them were World qualifying hunts. I’ve trained bird dogs and have trained police K-9S for several years; I was a police officer for 30 years and served in the K-9 division several years.

 

This story is not about the dogs and it is not about me, but it is about the people you run into while dealing with the dogs. My experience with people who deal with and sell dogs are less than honest, I have returned many dogs that were portrayed to be more than what they really were.

 

After retiring from the police department I quit hunting dogs. My wife and I decided to just have a pet, that’s when we were introduced to the Labrador retriever, we obtained a chocolate lab and had him for nine years. After nine years he had to be put down because of cancer. It was very traumatic on me in fact I lost 63 pounds in four months, I really loved that dog.

 

My wife DeLynn (dee dee) could see how much I was suffering due to the loss of my dog, she was on me for over a year to get another Labrador but I refused to even talk about it. She then very smartly tried another approach, she suggested that we go to a local dog show and that’s what this story is all about.

 

I told her that we would go to the dog show however; I wasn’t going to get another dog.  We eventually split up, while at the dogs show and as I was watching the show dogs doing their thing, when dee dee came up to me with an unknown woman. My wife told me that the woman by the name of Betty Mayer who knew a guy who trained and rasied Labrador Retrievers and took us over to a guy by the name of Sandy Herzon who owned Chambray Labrador Kennels located in Miami, Florida. Mr. Herzon took a great deal of time talking to us about such things as his partners program and the amenities package that came with one of his show quality dogs, which was unbelievable in itself. I wasn’t rude to Mr. Herzon, however having heard these type of stories before I didn’t hold back any questions either. I told him that if I were to get another dog it had to be a male, show quality, pick of the litter and owned solely by me. We talked about yellow, black or chocolate. He told me that the best showing dog was the yellow lab, (something about percentages and judge's preferences).  Then the real shocker, he told me that he would not only give me the pick of the litter, but that he would give me a world class pick of the litter. Little did I know that during the time that we were talking he was sizing me up also, I noticed he was asking me questions during our conversation. I asked him if he needed a deposit and he stuck out his hand to shake mine and stated “your word and handshake is good enough for me”.

 

We left the dog show, I figured we would never see or talk to him again. However, sometime later to my surprise I received a telephone call from him saying that he just had a litter of pups and that there were several good ones, but that none of them were World class. We started going to dog shows again and not only did we meet Sandy again, but we met his wife Joann and his son and daughter Ryan and Jesse all of which are involved in handling the dogs in the ring. My wife and I really fell in love with them, and it wasn’t hard to do.

 

To make a long story short, after going through litter after litter of Labs and Sandy telling me that none of the puppies in those litters was the one, some two and a half year's later from our initial contact, Sandy called me and said that he had a litter of yellow labs with two males, and that one of them was the World class puppy we had been waiting for. He said that he would continue to monitor the one puppy and make the final decision when it was almost 8 weeks old. This was on 11-10-2005. He told me about six weeks later that I could pick the puppy up at 8 weeks of age, because this was definitely the one! On Jan.10, 2006 I drove to Miami, FL from Astor, FL and back to pick up the impossible dream.

 

This article will be continued at a later date on the Chambray experience and my dog chief, Who is now known as;

INTL CH WINQUEST-CHAMBRAYS CHIEF STROUP CGC (AKC Reserve Winners Dog to a 4-point major his last time out)