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Chambray Labradors Sandy Herzon Florida's Top Champion Labrador Retriever Breeder |
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Please visit our Chambray Labradors website at You may also contact us at info@labradorwell.com or call 305 232-5227 We
currently have several expected litters of yellow and black Labrador
Retriever puppies available. We
breed exclusively for show purposes, producing All of our puppies come with an extensive training package for free. Those
puppies that do not have the competitiveness for show,
Show Quality Puppies come with
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 2013, so that makes 43 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?................
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 served in that capacity for 2 years from 2007 to 2009.. I am involved in any activity that benefits Labradors and their owners.
5) How many champions have you bred?..............35
to date. These champions were bred by Chambray. There have been 15 other
champions that were either purchased by us or came into the Partners Program
and were titled by us. 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 43 years of breeding. She currently has 4 champion offspring in Charm & Rocky, Bailey and Cher with Hogan and several other offspring that are pointed as well. BIS BBE Am Ch/Int Ch Chambrays Out Of The Ruff CGC THD (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. BIS BBE Bronze Grand Champion Chambrays Celestial N Counter {Kika} has re-written the record books for a female champion on a state and national level. She finished her AKC championship by the age of 14 months, won an AKC BEST IN SHOW at 15 months (one of only 2 Labradors in the USA in 2012 to win a BIS), her Grand Champions title at 16 months and her Bronze Grand Champions title at 20 months. Besides being Florida's winningest female ever she is also Florida's first-ever female Best In Show winner and she was the #1 female in the USA for 2012. As of April 2013 she has amassed an incredible 27 BOB's and 12 Group Placements in 1 year of becoming a champion. So, as of 04/2013 Kika is Chambray's greatest show dog ever. With Chancey and her daughter Connie tied for best producer with 4 champions each. Hogan is our top male show champion and by far and wide our best producing stud dog ever with 8 champions. 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 20 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, but all of them live with their primary owners and are major contributors to our breeding program and also are standing at stud to approved outside females.
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 35 AKC Chambray champions, 15 outside kennel champions and 100
International Champions, 17 UKC champions there have been about
35 dogs with Obedience titles, a dozen or so with agility titles, several Flyball
titles, 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 & also EIC tested. 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 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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