Any Labrador owners here?

We had a black lab once when we were kids. Once of the best natured dogs. He was a stray and kinda kept coming round, no one claimed him so we kept him.
 
Any excuse... ;)

When we first got him.

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With Jasmine, parents' Alsation

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Fressed up in a hoody that was on a teddy bear :D

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Last but not least, love this picture..."I ******* hate you. Don't look at me" :D

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You should get the book "Marley and Me" - lovely story about a man and his lab (albeit an American Labrador). It's not overly dramatic or any kind of amazing story, but it's so interesting to read about this bloke (a journalist) and how his dog grows up with his family.
 
hlw86 said:
What to ask a breeder at first contact:

...be that contact in the street, by email or telephone.... this will save so much heartache later when the answer is negative to any of them but you are staring at a bunch of cute pups which you REALLY want to buy. So many times we hear people saying they KNOW they shouldn't be buying, but they got there, and the pups looked basically healthy, and the breeder seemed nice....and so.... they went for it knowing they should be walking away...

Lets lay out the first contact BASIC Questions so you can save that heartache, possible wasted desposits and huge embarassment:

Absolutely essential:
1) Are BOTH parents hip scored? What are the scores for each?
2) Do they BOTH hold current (dated in the last 12 months) CLEAR eye certificates under the BVA/KC eye testing scheme?
3) Does the breeder own mum and can she be seen?
4) Have the puppies been Kennel Club registered?
5) Can you see copies of not just mum but dads hip score result sheet and eye certificate?
6) Were the puppies wormed at 2, 4 and 6 weeks of age (and 8 weeks if that is relevent age wise)?
7) Does the breeder give you a diet sheet, copies of the documents for the sire and dam and a basic puppy pack when yu pick your puppy up?
8 ) Were the puppies born and raised in the house to a certain age OR well socialised if raised outside, with plenty of human contact and access to sounds and smells of a day to day household?


Desireable:
9) Have mum and dad been elbow scored? What is the result? can you see the certificates?
10) Have mum and dad been Optigen tested? can you see the certificate?
11) Are they fed on an easy to obtain food?
12) Do they fall between about £450 and £700 in price? (If not you have to ask yourself what is missing as they are too cheap or WHY they are overcharging - adjust that to where you live in the country - London may be MORE expensive, Scotland may be cheaper!).
13) Will the registration documents be ready to take when you leave with your puppy?


I can explain any questions if you like but if you ASK at least the first 8 questions, even in pleasant conversation, not necessarily firing them like a firing squad, you will save yourself a lot of trouble later. They are the basic essentials.... and will be found in many hundreds of litters a year!

The actual SCORE you would be looking for for a positive hip score result is between 0 and lets say, 20.... OR if one parents is slightly higher than a total of 20, then the other should be a fair bit lower.... even if they are hip scored, if BOTH parents are over or well over 20 (combined score from both hips e.g. 8:9 = 17 hip score) walk away just as if they hadn't been scored.

Elbows, the only result you would really accept would be a total of zero or one for each parent IF scored.

Caring for a lab:

1) Feed good quality food or BARF (biologically appropriate raw food - google search).
2) Exercise 5 minutes per month of age (3 month pup = 15 minutes A DAY MAXIMUM) until a year old (then about an hour to an hour and a half a day). This is for forced exercise e.g. walking out, chasing a ball etc ... mooching in the garden etc doesn't count as the pup can stop when tired
3) get them well socialised with people, dogs, kids, traffic, loud noises etc
4) strongly consider a basic obedience class
5) GET INSURANCE AND THEM NEUTERED WHEN OLD ENOUGH

Bitch vs dog:

1) dog will possible try and roam when a near-by bitch is in season
2) bitches come into season twice a year or so (resolved by speying)

There is an absolutely excellent forum for lab owners that will give you all your answers and more.

Lab pups are very hard work, are 'puppies' in behaviour until about 2 years old and most chew a lot. They are very intelligent however and need mental stimulation daily to stop boredom.

I strongly recommend a crate for when they are still pups for their safety when alone.

Sorry for the long reply!
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Thanks for this post, very informative. We are going to see them at 2pm and thanks to you guys and all the other research that i've done i now feel prepared (excited too tbh).

They are currently 4 weeks old and if we buy we won't be able to collect for another 4 weeks. I'll try and take a couple of pics if i can.
 
Time for you all to meet the little fella.:D

Was an agonising decision as they were all so lovely. In the end and as a family we went with our instincts and this is the chap that stole our hearts, he was the chunkiest one of them all and the breeders call him Charlie. We may change his name but i quite like Charlie tbh.

Sorry for the pic quality, was taken on a cheap camera phone.

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Will be another 4 weeks yet before we can take him home.:(
 
Teki187 said:
Thats not always a good sign. It can mean they have the most worms inside them.

Don't mean to be rude, but erm does he always have eyes facing away from each other?
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I know that you have a handsome lab yourself, saw the pics in an earlier post, as you are an owner i have to take seriously your comments. I have to say that you just made my heart sink!

However, the pics were taken after more than hour of being with and playing with him and he was really sleepy at the time. Did not notice anything unusual about his eyes tbh, i'm sure that he doesn't have any issues in that regard. However, i'm more concerned that you say chunky is not always a good sign! I'm sure you will understand why that appealed to us though. I'll do some more research to find out about that though.

The dam and sire were both there and they were lovely, looked a picture of health and the documents backed that up.
 
Aww hes lush, cant imagine the gert big black lab currently conked out on the bed here was ever that small.
 
Yozz76 said:
I know that you have a handsome lab yourself, saw the pics in an earlier post, as you are an owner i have to take seriously your comments. I have to say that you just made my heart sink!

However, the pics were taken after more than hour of being with and playing with him and he was really sleepy at the time. Did not notice anything unusual about his eyes tbh, i'm sure that he doesn't have any issues in that regard. However, i'm more concerned that you say chunky is not always a good sign! I'm sure you will understand why that appealed to us though. I'll do some more research to find out about that though.

The dam and sire were both there and they were lovely, looked a picture of health and the documents backed that up.
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I didn't mean to sound rude when i said about the eye thing, just wanted to make sure you noticed it if you didn't, etc.

Best thing you can do is what your doing already, tons of research.

If im allowed, then you should check out a forum called http://www.labradorforums.co.uk/ (Sorry mod if im not allowed to advertise other forums)

That is a gold mine of information and is a amazingly cheap resource. There are tons of really experienced members, people who have wrote best selling books, people who train dogs for the blind etc. So its very worth joining them.

Anyway, my girlfriend will be along soon im sure to give you some more information.
 
Tefal said:
My lab partner used to use it all the time, every time i wanted to smash her head into the fume cupboard glass.
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Cheers for that, im terribly sorry I have offended you so badly, but im actually proud of where im from and the way I speak. Just dont read my posts then.
 
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