Chambray Labradors  Sandy Herzon

Florida's Top Champion Labrador Retriever Breeder

 

 

Please visit our Chambray Labradors website at

www.chambraylabradors.com

You may also contact us at info@labradorwell.com or call 305 232-5227

We currently have several expected litters of yellows and blacks
and are also waiting to breed our top chocolate female for puppies in the fall and winter of 2009

We breed exclusively for show purposes, producing
the absolute best and most competitive show puppies in all of Florida.

All of our puppies come with an extensive training package for free.

Those puppies that do not have the competitiveness for show,
are placed as Pets and come with the

  • 12 Week Puppy Primer Training Classes

  • plus 4 private training sessions

Show Quality Puppies come with

  • Unlimited free Thursday Night class training for the lifetime of the dog

  • Unlimited free private training by appointment for the lifetime of the dog

  • Lifetime Support System via email and phone

  • Participation in the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed


Please use info@labradorwell.com to email us or call 305 232-5227 for information about Chambray Labradors

1) What is your kennel name?...............Chambray Labradors

2) How long have your been breeding Labradors?.............I got my first Labrador back in 1970 and had my first litter in 1973 right here at my present home, farm and kennel. I bought my first "show" Lab in 1987 and had my first "show" litter in 1990. It is now 2009, so that makes 39 years with this wonderful breed.

3) How and when did your kennel name originate?..................My wife, Johanna had a fashion clothes business and the word "chambray" is used in weaving fabrics with different shades of thread color to create different patterns and hues. If you take a solid black cloth and add 3% white thread, it will give the solid cloth a different shade or hue. I fell in love with the yellow Labradors and the infinite shades that they come in, thus the name Chambray Labradors was coined in 1987.

4) What Labrador activities do you participate in and what dog clubs/organizations do you belong to?................

  • We are very active in conformation and obedience training.

  • We conduct training classes for puppies,

  • for Junior handlers,

  • for Conformation, for Handlers,

  • for Obedience both Basic and Advanced.

  • We run the Obedience Training Classes and Show Handling & Conformation Classes for the Greater Miami Dog Club.

  • We are  AKC Certified CGC Trainers and Evaluators.

  • We also conduct all day handlers workshops.

  • We participate in several Dog Walk-A-Tons with the Parks Dept.

  • We currently attend 18 to 20 weekends of dogs shows a year . My wife, and I enjoy handling in the conformation ring, as does my daughter Jessie, who also was awesome in Junior Handling and now as a professional handler, handles most of our top dogs. My 15 year old son, Ryan is also very active in handling and training.

I was one of the founders of the South Florida Labrador Retriever Club back in 1989 and today I manage the Partners Program for the Betterment of the Breed, which is the largest Labrador owners community in existence in the country. We are very involved with the oldest all-breed club in South Florida, the Greater Miami Dog Club. My wife was the president of  GMDC for 2006 & 2007 and I am currently serving in that capacity right now. 

I am involved in any activity that benefits Labradors and their owners.

5) How many champions have you bred?..............22 to date. These champions were bred by Chambray. There have been 11 other champions that were either purchased by us or came into the Partners Program and were titled by us.
This is probably the most asked question that I receive at my LabWell business Website. It seems that people use this question as a "benchmark" for rating a kennel. As breeders, we take great pride in the Bred-By dogs, these are the ones that were bred by us and there have been 22 AKC champions that carried the Chambray name. The first Chambray dog finished in 1993 and the 22nd is  AKC Ch/UKC Gd Ch/Int BIS Ch Chambrays Rocky. As far as I know, we have owner/handled more bred-by Labrador champions than any other kennel in Florida history and we are very proud of this distinction. In addition to the 22 home-bred AKC champions, we have finished another 11 dogs from other kennels. To date we also have championed 62 International Champion dogs.

6) Which has been your best dog ever and why?................Another "benchmark" question that repeats itself almost weekly. This is a tough question as I feel that I have been really blessed with some great dogs. I can narrow it down to 7 out of our 22 bred-by champions. Each one had something very special.

Ch. Chambrays Catch Me If U Can CGC (Chase), owned by Nancy Lord is as perfect a specimen as they get. Perfect 10 rear and front, head to die for.

Ch. Chambrays Franco CGC moves like no other, perfect coming and going and not many dogs can side gait like him. This boy has 10 speeds and each one is as smooth as fresh churned butter.

Ch. Chambrays Caleb, a 3rd generation Chambray Lab was the most famous, reaching #9 in the USA in 1995, he went to Westminster and made the cut in 1996. He was the most impressive in the show ring of all the Chambray dogs.

Ch. Chambrays Chisholm Chancey CGC, a 5th generation Chambray Lab, has to have my nod for my female ever. Not only was she a super star in the show ring, racking up 9 Best of Breeds and 7 Group Placements, she was awarded a Judges Award of Merit at the inaugural SFLRC Specialty in 2001. As great a show girl that she was, her legacy will be her offspring, for following in her footsteps are her 3 daughters from her first litter,  Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter CGC and Am/Nat Ch Chambrays Twist of Fate and the third daughter,  Am/Int Ch Chambrays Mad About Madeline CGC . All three girls are have already taken Best of Breeds with Karley (16) and Maddie (18). Chancey was bred one last time to Ch. Little Rivers Ophir Calvin (Best of Breed winner at the 2002 Eukanuba Champions Invitational) and had a wonderful litter of 4 boys and 1 girl. One of the males from that litter is Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chisholm Sir Lancelot CGC

Am/Nat Ch Chambrays Twist of Fate took the Florida shows by storm since winning her title in September 2003. She was ranked the #1 Labradors from the state of Florida in the AKC rankings for the Eukanuba Championship Invitational and ranked #22 USA for the 2004 year. Karley had 1 litter for Chambrays and we are currently competing with one of the daughters, Int Ch Chambrays Strike Of Genius (Frida)

Am/Int Ch Chambrays Chance N Counter CGC (Connie) is well on her way to match or best her mother, Chancey's record number of champions produced. Already she has the distinction of having produced the best 3 litters ever for Chambray and also having produced the top 5 rated 8 week-old puppies in 38 years of breeding. She currently has 2 champion offspring in Charm & Rocky with Hogan and 5 other offspring that are champion pointed.

BIS Am Ch/Int Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff CGC TDI K9K (Hogan) our first-ever AKC BEST IN SHOW winner has become our super star dog extraordinaire. He finished the 2007 show season as the #18 Labrador USA and competed at Westminster in 2008. As great as his show career is to date, it his progeny that is setting the Florida show scene on fire. So far up to August of 2008, he has sired 2 champion, Ch Chambrays Charmed N Counter & Ch Chambrays Rocky and has 6 other offspring that are champion pointed.

So, right now I would have to say the Chancey is our Number 1 Chambray Labrador female of all times with her daughter Connie fast approaching the same status and with Hogan our number one Labrador of all times .

7) How many litters do you breed?..................In the last 10 years we have averaged 3 litters a year, most of which have been out of my co-owned bitches. We haven't kept a breeding bitch here since 2001 and another in 2004 and recently in 2007, since I place my best bitch puppies on co-ownerships and hopefully one day we will see if they will be used in our breeding program.

8) Are you or do you aspire to become a judge?....................I have thought about it and have completed most of the requirements made by the AKC. I will apply for the Junior Handling Judge's license soon, as I have all those requirements already. I judge 2 or 3 times per year at local matches and enjoy those occasions very much. It will probably be 10 more years before I give up handling in conformation to actually pursue judging in the ring.

9) What is your stand on the breed revisions of the past 18 years?............Water under the bridge that will never come back! I fought tooth and nail alongside the likes of George Bragaw and Mary Weist against the powers that be way back then. It was downright deplorable that the fancy was not involved in the breed standard revision process, rather that 3 individuals with very little conformation or anatomy background were totally responsible for all the changes. Although the revisions did not affect my breeding program adversely, it was the principle of the whole fiasco that  was so offensive to me.

10) Do you own studs dogs?................Yes, Int Ch WinQuest Major Storm is now a fulltime resident at Chambray Acres since we gave him a home (back to breeder return policy) as his owners fell into hard financial times, I also manage several stud dogs for my partners and there are some that I co-own with them, including BIS Ch/Int Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff CGC TDI.

11) How many other dogs, besides your bred-by show champions have been titled, including hunt test, field trials, obedience, working certificates, agility, SAR, and any other service or sport titles from you kennel?.................Besides the 22 AKC Chambray champions, 11 outside kennel champions and 65 International Champions,  There have been about 26 dogs with Obedience titles, a dozen or so with agility titles, a Flyball title, several WC's that have trained with us that went on to earn their titles. More than 400 with CGC's that I have trained and that passed the 10-item test for that title.
 

12)Do you do clearances (eyes, hips, elbows, etc.) on your breeding stock?.................All breeding bitches and dogs are X-rayed. They are also CERF & Optigen DNA for eyes.

13)** Do you offer guarantees on your puppies and do you sell your puppies on Unlimited or Limited Registration?....................Yes, I have a Health Guarantee, a Genetic Guarantee, a Temperament Guarantee and for the puppies sold as "Show Quality", a Show Guarantee. Our Show Puppies are sold with show and breeding conditions and the pet puppies are sold with Limited Registration

14) Do you have a Website or email address?................ Yes, www.chambraylabradors.com 
email at  labs@chambraylabradors.com  and also at info@labradorwell.com

15) Where are you located?.............the exact same spot since 1973, Miami Fl. I have grown old here at my home, farm and kennel, although there have been a few setbacks (Hurricane Andrew for one), it truly has been a wonderful experience all these years with my family and my Labradors.

 

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