Dogs matter - lab breeders

[Coco H]

I doubt I will find useful help here but who knows. We are looking for a lab puppy to join us preferably by the end of 2010. I have spoken to lots of breeders and have found one that I like and they may well not be having a litter until late 2011.
So has anybody any recommendations. I like my dogs to be able to work but also to be family pets. I never show and am not fussed about show winning lines. We are in East Anglia and will travel.

[Robatr0n]

Drop Fidgits a line. He has just got himself a lovely Lab Puppy from (I presume?) a breeder.

He may be able to offer some advice or recommend them?

[oliverjthomas]

Coco H said:

I have spoken to lots of breeders and have found one that I like and they may well not be having a litter until late 2011.

.... which means they might be one of the good ones. We have a chocolate bh, Willow, that came from a breeder nine years ago. The breeder only had a litter when she wanted a show dog for herself and she'd had a fair amount of good fortune in the show ring. I'd travelled all over looking for a Lab and it was fairly evident there were loads of 'puppy farmers' who made a business out of breeding. The differences were significant and when Willow was taken to our vet for the first time, we were told it was nice to see a puppy from a well managed line that had been bred properly. Your best bet will be to talk to the people in the show world, because everyone knows everyone else and they all know who is having a litter and who isn't.

As an alternative, Willow's black predecessor Rosie was a Drakeshead working dog. We didn't work her though and she was a fantastic family dog. There are significant differences between working dogs and show dogs, when you've been around labs for a while, but it's another avenue to look at where you'll find excellent breeders.

Couple of websites for you, although neither are particularly local to you:

http://www.dakross.cc/index.htm
http://www.drakeshead.com/

It might be worth giving them a call though, because they may know of someone near to you.

[MissMarple]

We will hopefully have a litter in February. We already have a few people waiting on pup's from Winnie but if you are interested then you can visit our website.
www.bryntaillabradors.com

[rhinochopig]

My only advice would be to get a Black in preference to the other colours if you want one that can work. IME the yellow and chocs are not as intelligent, although make for better children's pets. Blacks are also more outdoor to indoor friendly as they don't seem to drop as much and are more waterproof.



Our two.

There's a lot of Breeders up here with it being a shoot area - N Yorks - so I'll keep an eye out. You've just missed out on a litter from the same bh that our Black Lab "Bramble" came from, which is a shame as he's a cracking dog.

[philmots]

Where in N-Yorks are you?

We got our Lab from Church fenton just out of Tadcaster.. From a working background, they're not 'do it for a living' breeders and are brought up in the house rather than in kennels with plenty of person contact but have all the papers (not that the mean too much)

If anyones interested they've just had a litter of Spaniels (cocker)

[rhinochopig]

philmots said:

Where in N-Yorks are you?

We got our Lab from Church fenton just out of Tadcaster.. From a working background, they're not 'do it for a living' breeders and are brought up in the house rather than in kennels with plenty of person contact but have all the papers (not that the mean too much)

If anyones interested they've just had a litter of Spaniels (cocker)

Helmsley. Foot of the N. York moors where the photo was taken (Top of Rievaulx moor looking east, if you know the area). My daily dog walk route.

The black lab was a local dog from working stock with no papers / pedigree - Bread on one of the local Farms. However, we met both parents and older sibling. All were very well fettled dogs.

The yellow is a poncey pedigree with lots of history with excellent hip and eye etc. - but he's not as good as the black by any stretch. I suspect he'll suffer medically when he's older.

I don't tend to hold much stock in Pedigree and hip scores etc. TBH.

[niva441]

My parents current chocolate came from a lady on a farm just east of Bungay, I think it was Shipmeadow. She only has chocolates, so if your interested in more details let me know. It was quite a good environment for them to grow up in.

[Mr Darcy]

Not sure when they are ready or how much they will be but my neighbour offered me a cookridge lab yesterday however these are from purely working dogs so not sure what they would be like as pets.

[Bluebarge]

We got our lab from this breeder. Don't know if they have a litter available but ours has been a v.healthy, good-tempered dog

http://www.champdogs.co.uk/breeder/26046.html

[Blakeatron]

We got Blake from a great breeder - denizes labradors

http://www.denizeslabradors.co.uk/

[Simpo Two]

My ex-bird found a nice black Lab at a small Lab rescue place (private house) on the west side of Bury StEdmunds; can't remember the name though.

[rhinochopig]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Breeders? These came from a mate over the border....



(another local one for you Rhinchropig)

Captain Cook's?

[anonymous-user]

Have you thought of trying the Labrador Rescue Trust

[SWH]

I'd suggest finding a breeder local to you... less likely to want to give a duffer to someone who lives close, and they tend to like to check progress, which is fair enough. We're down near Eastbourne and got our nutcase from a breeder about 10mins drive away (more of a fluke than anything).

We found price wasn't an indication of quality particularly, with somewhat unknown history pups actually being more than the one we got - who's got many a show champion in the history, complete with a family history chart, KC registration and good hip and eye scores and a massive pack of what to feed, how much, when to worm etc all written up by the breeder.

If the breeder wants to meet you before even discussing price, then you're onto a good one I'd say - if you expect that they should be interviewing you as suitable owners for their puppy, you're probably doing about right. They shouldn't want you to take the pup before 8wks old and be happy to hang on to them for a bit longer too. We looked on the KC website for breeders, then went from there.

http://www.the-kennel-club.org.uk/services/public/...

....and here's the pup, only 7mths old and actually sat still for once:

[james12345]

All I would add to this is to try the Labrador Lifeline Trust. We had a black Lab from them 7 years ago, and a chocolate 4 years ago (sadly the black Lab developed cancer and had to be put to sleep)

http://www.labrador-lifeline.co.uk/

You wont get a puppy, but they will match up a dog to each application. They don't hold dogs, but every time a dog comes up in need of rehoming, they match that dog to the best new owner.

Well worth a look, in my opinion....

[drga]

Quite a bit of a trek for you however my father breeds Labradors. A litter is due in a couple of weeks.

http://www.farbraelabradors.com/

[dmitsi]

Over the years I've had labs from breeders and from farms, seen with their parents. The ones from farms have been hardier and less prone to illness. Last two dogs have been rescued mongrels and seem to be immune to injury and illness.

My family have always had labs, we started moving away from breeders and pedigrees after seeing too many dogs suffering. I'll second not paying too much attention to hip scores. With labs it's livers and other internals that cause them real problems.

My advice would be to speak to some local farmers, see if they know any other farmers thinking about breeding. You'll hopefully be at less risk of genetic cross breeding.