How to find a good labrador breeder

[ajandjjmum]

It's one year ago on Saturday since we lost our beautiful black lab, and we're all feeling it!

Our plan had been to get another dog in a couple of years, but curiosity has driven me to look for the original breeder and I've found that they're no longer working.

I'd like to start exploring reputable breeders now, and wondered if anyone could give me any pointers?

Thanks for any input.

Honestly?

Kennel Club or your local Labrador group (for Goldens - which I know isn't what you wanted - https://www.sgrr.org.uk but I am linking as an example!).

I spoke to SGRR first and asked for any breeders they knew of (they usually do keep a list as most of the 'members' or 'chairs' etc are breeders themselves). Then I cross referenced with the Kennel Club breeders near me. I found four breeders I was happy with based on:

• How many litters they had a year (I never go for more than one or two, some have five litters a year and I am sorry you cannot be a responsible breeder if you are breeding that many litters because how the hell are you looking after your other dogs?! Litters take up a lot of time)
• Coefficient (you can see that on the kennel club if they have bitches they have bred before. Lower the better.)
• Hip/elbow scores of other dogs they had bred
• Who they had used to stud their dog (that way you can be sure they are picking the best stud each time and not just whatever dog catches their fancy etc)
• Location.

Then I rang the four I shortlisted up and spoke to each breeder. Most breeders are really happy to chat over the phone because a good breeder will want to know each and every person interested in a puppy. I narrowed it down to two in the end.

One of the four said no to me (she specialised in working dogs and felt I wasn't the right fit for one of her litters), one said they wouldn't have a litter that year and the other two sounded great.

Both ended up having a litter at the same time (using the same sire!). I viewed both litters twice and in the end there was nothing between the two breeders. I ended up going for the one who I just preferred more as a person (although the other one was nice). Whole process took me six months from start to picking up the little bundle of fluff.

My main thing though, avoid breeders who churn out multiple litters a year.
Nine times out of ten they are not responsible breeders and are not doing it for the 'breed' or to produce the best puppies. They are doing it for money. And those dogs are discarded when they get to old to breed (they phrase it as 'a retirement' but what they really mean is they dump them off with someone once they have outlived their usefulness). People like that do not love their dogs. They do not love the breed. A proper breeder IMO keeps the bitches they breed from until the dog dies because they love them - they don't see them as a source of income. The one I got my Golden from had mum (3), grandma (8), great grandma (12).

I hope that helps! And I am sorry for the loss of your lab

I followed the excellent advice that @Devilshands outlined above, though I used the Champdogs website as recommended on here. Instead of looking at only the available litters I looked at breeders where I could see frequency of previous litters, and all the bullet points outlined above, plus KC registration.

I then wrote to a shortlist of breeders that ticked all the boxes, asking when they were planning a next litter, and followed all the rest of @Devilshands process. I got on the waiting list with one breeder who was planning a litter later that year.

Our breeder that we ended up with had the mum, aunt and grandmother of our pup as family pets and offered to facilitate us meeting the dad as well as they were close by.

Sorry for the loss of your dog 💐 another won't take their place but somehow we grow an extra space in our hearts for them.

We breed one Labrador litter a year, are five star licensed and KC registered, health test and always check co efficiency levels and have many years of experience breeding and raising dogs for both working and family homes. We also offer lifetime help and advice and membership of our owners and friends group as wanted.

We will be breeding a litter of labs from our beautiful black girl later this year.

Thank you so much for your help and advice! I was surprised at how sad I felt yesterday when I found that our original breeder has stopped working. I was pretty thorough when I was looking for our dog, but still feel very lucky that we found the perfect dog.

@Devilshands What great information - thank you. The fact that we aren't looking for a puppy in the very near future is great, as this gives us time to research and wait. I really appreciate your detailed information - a level of detail that DH will appreciate even more than me!

@Xiaoxiong I hadn't heard of Champdogs, so will look at that site too - thank you.

@ToHellBackAndBeyond I think we'll be looking for a puppy around Springtime next year - but very jealous of you having lots of bundles of fluff to snuggle!

Really appreciate your time and suggestions all.