Buying a Labrador these days
Discussion
We lost our Labrador during lockdown 1 and with a new build starting in the spring I'm thinking it 's probably a good time for the family to become five again. Plenty of 1 to 1 time with a dog and training etc.
Had a quick google and it looks like a bloody minefield out there! Being rural, it used to be just ask a couple of gamekeepers who had a littler or a spare gun dog and £400 later you had your dog. Now its silver this, foxed that and £4k please.
To be honest, everything I've found just looks like a bunch of chancers looking for some numpty with more money than sense.
Local gun shops are all closed so that's out. I won't actually go shooting but I've always had dogs off the gun as they're so good for training.
Anyone have any ideas that isn't just word of mouth?
Had a quick google and it looks like a bloody minefield out there! Being rural, it used to be just ask a couple of gamekeepers who had a littler or a spare gun dog and £400 later you had your dog. Now its silver this, foxed that and £4k please.
To be honest, everything I've found just looks like a bunch of chancers looking for some numpty with more money than sense.
Local gun shops are all closed so that's out. I won't actually go shooting but I've always had dogs off the gun as they're so good for training.
Anyone have any ideas that isn't just word of mouth?
I suspect you could be right about rehoming later this year but it’s been almost a year since lockdown 1 and that puppy boom and nothing g yet.
To be honest I’m not even sure I’d want to rehome a dog that’s been “trained” by the people who simply must have the next big thing. I’ve seen how they train their humans never mind their bloody dogs!
To be honest I’m not even sure I’d want to rehome a dog that’s been “trained” by the people who simply must have the next big thing. I’ve seen how they train their humans never mind their bloody dogs!
Ours was £550 cash with a bag of feed thrown in, champion lineage right back to the duke bringing his ancestor in from Labrador in the early 20th century!
Trained on the gun, I didn’t have much to bargain with as he was going in horse and hound the following month, I thought that was a fortune!
What a beast though, never needed a lead just walked on my left for life. I could put a Sunday lunch down in front of him and he wouldn’t touch it.
Trained on the gun, I didn’t have much to bargain with as he was going in horse and hound the following month, I thought that was a fortune!
What a beast though, never needed a lead just walked on my left for life. I could put a Sunday lunch down in front of him and he wouldn’t touch it.
paulguitar said:
SHe's lovely.
Please be sure to join us on the dog thread:
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Please be sure to join us on the dog thread:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Cheers for the positivity, we're away with the kids this Sunday so not picking her up until we get back-then it'll be the hard work beginning! Parents are all fine working stock so I'm anticipating she should be good to train but with three other girls in the house (of the human breed) I'm expecting a battle on my hands for any tough love!
What sold me on her was the circumstances of her litter. They first bred the mother last year so their sons could get a pup each, the stud was another working lab from one of the large shoots on one of our local fells. The litter, and their two sons dogs were so good they decided to repeat the litter again this year as the father was approaching retirement and the mother was getting on.
They had the pick of the litter, the stud took another as fee and that left two-a dog and a b
h.When I rang up on Sunday, out of the blue as someone else shared a litter on Social Media that linked to a pets4home listing I knew immediately that it was the type of stock for me.
Dropped the remainder of the money off yesterday and found out one of the other members of the shoot had come round about half an hour after us to take her only to leave disappointed.
9 weeks old so quite old for the usual advert but so much easier seeing a fully formed puppy.
Thanks to the invite to the other thread, I'll see how it goes. I find it a little...I'll be polite and say it's a little more "pet enthusiast" than I'm used to
PushedDover said:
OP, whilst unsavoury to talk money on PH, , did you pay pre-covid prices?
Certainly not what some of these daftys are paying/asking. , did you pay pre-covid prices?More than my last who was descended from field champions going back to the early 20th century but then this one has similar and it’s 13 years later.
Allowing for inflation it’s about the same give or take.
In my opinion, the twerps paying thousands are the same twerps who’d pay thousands for anything else easily available/in demand.
Plenty of good working stock around here for the right sort of price. For reference I paid £1200 for the one this thread is about.
Now that is an awful lot more than the £550 I paid for my last gun dog but that was 13 years ago now and stuff has gone up.
Proper dog though, I could have easily paid £800 or so for one without the pedigree but when we saw the dog, we’ll you know when it’s right don’t you?
Someone else I know paid the fox Red premium, another paid even more for a grey lab-I didn’t even know they’d been invented!
The owner of the fox Red paid over twenty g for a Rolex Daytona and the grey ones wife needed a new defender.
Horses for courses.
Plenty of good working stock around here for the right sort of price. For reference I paid £1200 for the one this thread is about.
Now that is an awful lot more than the £550 I paid for my last gun dog but that was 13 years ago now and stuff has gone up.
Proper dog though, I could have easily paid £800 or so for one without the pedigree but when we saw the dog, we’ll you know when it’s right don’t you?
Someone else I know paid the fox Red premium, another paid even more for a grey lab-I didn’t even know they’d been invented!
The owner of the fox Red paid over twenty g for a Rolex Daytona and the grey ones wife needed a new defender.
Horses for courses.
Do you not know anyone who goes shooting or farms? I'd say that's the simplest way of getting a good dog at the right price, The_Doc from here was putting me in touch with a few working dog litters but in the end I ended up seeing this one on pets4homes website.
Now that might be running the gauntlet but you could tell from the advert it was a proper lab, phoning the bloke only confirmed it.
Now that might be running the gauntlet but you could tell from the advert it was a proper lab, phoning the bloke only confirmed it.
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