Depending upon what you are looking for in a labrador retriever puppy, first and foremost find a respectable breeder and explain what you are looking for in your labrador retriever puppy. Over the years I have meet a lot of breeders and they have been very helpful and informative. The best sales person is a happy customer and a happy customer sends more customers.
Should you be a person looking for show quality labs then our suggestion to you is to find a breeder that advertises show quality labs. They can help you chose from their litters and should be able to help with all your questions. Here at http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/ we do not advertise show quality and there is nothing wrong with show quality it just was not my cup of tea. Arlene and I both watch dog shows on TV but our true love is for the working and companion retriever.
There are a few things to be sure that you do receive when buying a new puppy. First a written health guarantee. Be sure you receive at least a two year guarantee on the hips and eyes. You can look at our guarantee at this address: http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/guarantee.html
Not all owners have the same written guarantee but the hips and eyes are very important. Request to see an OFA certification on the sire and dam of the litter, OFA is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals; they have been around for over 40 years and are dedication to the advancement of canine health. One of their major responsibilities is to evaluate hips and elbows of canine’s and issue certification papers on their findings. Their website is http://www.offa.org/ This is a very informative website and all of our labs are OFA certified before they are bred. The OFA will not certify hips or elbows until the canine is 2 years old. Usually a Veterinary will x-ray a dog at 18 months and give his our her opinion and will x-ray again at 2 years old and again give you an opinion and if the hips and or elbows look good they will send them to the OFA for certification. You should also receive a puppy registration paper with your new puppy; this is for registering your puppy with the American Kennel Club. There are two types of registrations, full and limited. Full means you have the right to breed your lab in the future and the off spring can be registered with AKC. Limited means that any off spring in the future can not be registered with AKC. A limited registration can be changed to a full registration by the breeder of the litter. Some breeders give limited registrations until your puppy becomes an adult and are evaluated by them they will ask see OFA certification papers.
You would also like to meet the sire and dam of the litter. You can see the size and temperament of both. Some times the sire is not owned by the breeder but they should have a picture available for you to look at. You should have a list of questions to ask when you go to look at a litter of puppies, puppies can be extremely noisy and active and can make you forget questions you may want to have asked the breeder. Puppies are very quit but they do grow up and you are about to commit yourself to them for their life span so be sure to ask questions. There are no dumb questions, they all have a meaning to you and the breeder should answer them all.
I have been one over the years to look at litters of labs for hunting, working and retrieving purposes. Every litter we have ever had I always narrow my chose down to one that I would keep, I usually drive Arlene crazy doing this because she thinks I want to keep one. It is just a force of habit and I have done this for every litter I have ever been involved in. We have kept a few of our puppies and they all have worked out, the one’s that I have chosen that is. Some of the others I won’ get into now. Most breeders let their puppies go between 7-8 weeks.
Next time we will concentrate on the Critical periods in a labrador retriever’s life.
I like your writing style. It’s rather more unique than others.
Thanks very much for sharing this interesting post. I am just starting up my own blog and this has given me inspiration to what I can achieve.
I love your blog. It is a real treasure. I hope you don’t mind but did you buy this theme and modify it? I am constantly seeking to improve the design of my bullet proof vest site.
This theme was not purchased. The theme was downloaded from Wordpress and modified then uploaded to mysite.
I completely agree with everything in this post. If only all dog owners thought this way!
The author of http://www.sunsets-labradorretrievertraining.com has written an excellent article. You have made your point and there is not much to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not argue with: The less you know about something, the easier it is to hate it. Thanks for the info.
You post surely was one of the high points of my Saturday. I was on MSN searching for something totally unrelated when the blog caught my attention. I’m glad I took the time to read your post! Feel free to comment on my blog at The Tweet Tank Review!
I enjoy browsing your site, always learn something new facts.
Emily RandallHusky Training
Lots of Great information in your blogpost, I bookmarked your blog so I can visit again in the near future, Thanks, Caleb Bardney
Its so wonderful to see so many dog lovers out here. I have 3 dogs and I just love to read so many interesting comments like the ones I find here.
Hi, It’s a rare find for a nice blog like this. I enjoyed it. Kudos to you. Have a nice day!
FjisFY Excellent article, I will take note. Many thanks for the story!
http://www.sunsets-labradorretrievertraining.com is the best. Thank your for this article. I enjoyed it very much.
AAA Toronto Payday Loans 1172 Bay St #101, Toronto, ON M5S 2B4 (416) 477-2817
I’m looking forward to getting more information about this topic, don’t worry about negative opinions.
Hi excellent blog yea nice job our blog will soon be adding reviews on websites and add them to our blogs as the top best 50 websites to visit we also do reviews on Product Reviews all types of reviews thank you
HI You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
In reference to the written guarantee, health, etc:
I recently purchased an AKC chocolate labrador retriever of amazing bloodline. She just recently turned 17 weeks and upon which I began to notice a spot above her eye and on the side of her cheek that was losing hair. When I took her into the vet they did a skin scrape and discovered she had demodex. When a puppy contracts demodex it is then recommended she be spayed and not able to breed. I would never ever give up my Dakota, however I did pay for a show and breed quality dog. Both of which are now tarnished. I paid very good money for her and now I’m wondering where to go from here? I had the vet right up a formal letter so as to send to the breeder. However, I am in uncharted territory as to what to do or ask of the breeder. Do I ask for money back? Also, another breeder I first contacted had recommended me to this breeder I purchased Dakota from. She also bought a puppy in the liter. Should I also contact her and tell her of Dakota’s demodex?
Thank you so very much in advance for you help! I honestly am in a place of uncertainty and concern and no idea of what to do from here (breeder wise).
You should contact the breeder, also I would contact the other breeder that recommended you to where you purchased your Labrador. You should also go over your contract to see exactly what the guarantee covers. I also did some research on demodex and found a few websites you might be interested in. I will contact you by email with the websites and information you might be interested in.
I stumbled onto your blog and read a few post. I like your style of writing.
My sister just purchased a Golden Retriever . What a crazy ball of fur that guy is. Amazingly cute and cheerful. Only issue is that he destroys everything in the house. lmao
Frequently there is confusion in what we create, a lose of what’s reality and fantasy, maybe even fantasy in our personal minds of the way see the world and people around us.
Naturally, what a fantastic website and educational posts, I’ll add backlink – bookmark this web site? Regards, Reader.
I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
You manufactured some great points there. I did a search about the topic and discovered most people will agree with your weblog.
This article is pretty informative. it actually provide me what i’ve searching for. Thank you for Posting
Wow, your blog has really put some ideas in my head. I would like to know some more on this subject. Please keep writing.
Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.
I find myself coming to your blog more and more often to the point where my visits are almost daily now!
You certainly have some agreeable opinions and views. Your blog provides a fresh look at the subject.
I just sent this post to a bunch of my friends as I agree with most of what you’re saying here and the way you’ve presented it is awesome.
You certainly deserve a round of applause for your post and more specifically, your blog in general. Very high quality material
I really appreciate the blog post. Thank you for sharing and keep up the excellent work in the dog community.