Oh I'm in love!

Clodagh

Clodagh

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Cluanie. He is absolutely my perfect labrador to a T! He is related closely to Brandy, our first amazing bitch and to Tawny. He has a good inbreeding coefficient with Ffee.
Ffee is meant to be going to be spayed soon as due to a lot of complex reasons an entire bitch is very difficult right now. She also hasn't set the world on fire her first shooting season, although it was very short. BUT on Saturday I took her out on her own and OH carried a gun and she was much better, she just won't work with Tawny. She is well bred and has a great nose she is a bit dim and needs revving up a bit but she isn't 2 yet.
Spaying is a bit final. Do I want and give her another year if it all works out? Once its gone its gone! Or do I just do the easy thing and by a pup by that dog in the next few years?
 
satinbaze

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Maybe have the health tests done and then review the situation. ATM hip scoring is taking a long time for results and routine eye tests are not being done during lockdown. If I are you I would keep my options open a little longer as she is still very young, but then I am used to flatcoats that are slower to mature than labradors
 
Clodagh

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As for the health tests I have got her eyes booked in for when the local ringcraft group have a session. Hips and elbows will be done later on this year. If I spay her I won't get them done. So I've sat on the fence with it.
I admit after Saturday I am unsure, she is such a different kettle of fish to T that perhaps I have been a bit dismissive of her. She is timid, which is partly my poor socialisation skills but has improved over this winter, she doesn't like being touched by strangers but that suits me.
 
Clodagh

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JennBags said:
I was surprised when you said you were going to spay her in the first place; definitely wait to keep your options open, and in the meantime start the health tests.
Breeding doesn't necessarily give you the dog you want, but you're a responsible enough person to find good homes for them all.
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I bred one foal, which was an unmitigated disaster, the thought of being responsible for a litter, and finding good homes, is terrifying. She came from a litter of 13!:oops:. That is actually the bit of breeding I would dread the most, just how do you know that people are who they say they are? And the risk of theft, spayed is safer.
As you can tell I'm mighty undecided!
 
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He is a rather nice looking Lab and I can see that if he has links to some of your other dogs, you would like him as a stud but I would want to see a better photo of him before 'falling in love'. He looks to be sitting awkwardly, imho.

Ffee is still very young so I wouldn't come to any final decision just yet. Perhaps the dog's owner will have some tips for finding good owners.
 
SAujla

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Ffee isn't dim! That dog is majestic though got the face of a show Lab and body of a working one. If you did have a litter you could easily find homes by asking people you know if they or anyone they know wants a Lab, don't advertise it so you reduce the risk of theft. Stud fee might be a bit steep though, it's usually the price of one pup or the stud owner gets pick of the litter
 
Christmascinnamoncookie

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I doubt, given your acquaintances, that you’d have a difficult job find homes for a litter, but unless the dog is an amazing example and complements the bitch, I’d be reluctant. I always think if you want a similar pup, go back to the breeder. I couldn’t do it, I’d worry they were in excellent homes. I know you know this, but labs are one of the registered breeds: what would be your aim in producing a litter?
 
Clodagh

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Cinnamontoast said:
I doubt, given your acquaintances, that you’d have a difficult job find homes for a litter, but unless the dog is an amazing example and complements the bitch, I’d be reluctant. I always think if you want a similar pup, go back to the breeder. I couldn’t do it, I’d worry they were in excellent homes. I know you know this, but labs are one of the registered breeds: what would be your aim in producing a litter?
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It is the finding homes that is the main downer, the responsibility would lie heavy. Why breed? Interest, education, breeding the pup you would most like to buy (pedigree wise).
I agree getting one from the breeder would be much easier. I also wouldn't breed unless I had several names on a list. Its mainly should I spay or nay at this point.
 
Equi

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I have often fought being a "lab" person cause i went through a phase of them just being sooo boorrring. Ive now grown up and wised up and realized that a good lab (esp a bitch) is worth their weight in gold and i would kill for another lab bitch but mum won't have another dog in the house so we won't be getting one lol but my point to posting this is that in the 30(+) years i had labs the best were always working bred. In kennels, the same applied. The working ones were always so much easier to care for than the bigger and more annoyingly undertrained pet/show types. So im a fan of anyone with a decent working bitch continuing the lines as i fear in the future the pet lines will take over and the lab won't be the same anymore. My yard have a beautiful working bred bitch and she reminded me of how brilliant they are as dogs...just mooches about with you all day and doesn't require loads of telling off every 5 seconds. Shes also small and compact, not big and leggy/brutish.

My other friend also has a dog, who is working bred and well at that. Must ask her about his breeding, cause i often think him and my YO dog would make beautiful puppies lol
 
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Equi said:
I have often fought being a "lab" person cause i went through a phase of them just being sooo boorrring. Ive now grown up and wised up and realized that a good lab (esp a bitch) is worth their weight in gold and i would kill for another lab bitch but mum won't have another dog in the house so we won't be getting one lol but my point to posting this is that in the 30(+) years i had labs the best were always working bred. In kennels, the same applied. The working ones were always so much easier to care for than the bigger and more annoyingly undertrained pet/show types. So im a fan of anyone with a decent working bitch continuing the lines as i fear in the future the pet lines will take over and the lab won't be the same anymore. My yard have a beautiful working bred bitch and she reminded me of how brilliant they are as dogs...just mooches about with you all day and doesn't require loads of telling off every 5 seconds. Shes also small and compact, not big and leggy/brutish.

My other friend also has a dog, who is working bred and well at that. Must ask her about his breeding, cause i often think him and my YO dog would make beautiful puppies lol
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The best Labs always used to have dual champions in their pedigrees. I wish breeders would get back to that.
 
druid

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Clodagh said:
To look at or in his way of working?
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A touch of both - I like yellow labs, not pale and not the godawful "red" trend and he's on the pale end. His hunting just isn't as driven as I like but he has had some fabulous eye wipes in trials so it must work for him!!
 
FinnishLapphund

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Clodagh said:
I bred one foal, which was an unmitigated disaster, the thought of being responsible for a litter, and finding good homes, is terrifying. She came from a litter of 13!:oops:. That is actually the bit of breeding I would dread the most, just how do you know that people are who they say they are? And the risk of theft, spayed is safer.
As you can tell I'm mighty undecided!
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If you wait, you can always spay her next year, or later. But if you spay, it can't be undone.

I've only had one litter, but I worried like you about finding good homes for the puppies. Eventually I decided to view it as that I could only do the best I could, and both have it in the contract, and make sure to tell the buyer, that if they couldn't keep the puppy/adult dog, I was the first one they should contact. Offered continued contact, and support, if they where interested in that, etc.
And after all, most dogs I meet out and about seems to be reasonably happy, and well looked after, even though I might think both this, and that about their owners (and they probably thinks the same about me).

Even though some bitches have large litters, the opposite also happen. As I recall, Jonna had 7 or 8 siblings, but her litter had 3 puppies, which I could have sold... But I had already decided that I wanted to keep 1 bitch, then it turned out my mum had fallen in love with the other bitch, so both of them stayed, and I only sold the male puppy. We don't have regular contact, but 12 years later it still happens that I meet Boris + his owner occasionally.

Something else to worry about besides finding suitable buyers, is what to do if things go wrong. For example, awhile after the puppies are born, you need check them over so that everything is there, like an anus, and that they don't have a cleft nose/palate. If something does turn out to be wrong, it's best to have at least a vague plan for what to do.

But if responsible persons like you, don't consider breeding their suitable bitches, due to the risks, I don't understand why responsible breeders should want to risk their bitches either, and who are future dog owners going to buy their new dogs from then?
Besides, who knows, something might turn up in the health tests, and the whole question becomes irrelevant. And then you can spay her without thinking what if.
 
DressageCob

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I tend towards the view that breeding should be reserved for the best. I'm not a lab person, I say that at the outset. So I may well be wrong! To my mind, if your bitch doesn't have the wit or the drive you require, why would you want to breed form her? Why should anyone else buy her offspring? Better to get a pup from a bitch which does have the qualities you seek, by a sire who also offers what you're after. Then you don't have the stress of breeding, marketing, vetting prospective owners, selling etc. And you have a better chance of getting what you're after.
 
Clodagh

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druid said:
A touch of both - I like yellow labs, not pale and not the godawful "red" trend and he's on the pale end. His hunting just isn't as driven as I like but he has had some fabulous eye wipes in trials so it must work for him!!
Click to expand...

I saw the mention of his eye wipes - a 3 dog one at a championship I think it said, that can't be dismissed. He seems quite careful on his outrun but then anything that doesn't just crash into things and hurt itself is a plus for me these days. (Just been out training now and Ffee clipped a gatepost :rolleyes:).
I like yellows, my OH has blacks and I have yellows, which means when we split up on a shoot day I get to say 'To me, the yellows' which never fails to make me happy. BUT Tawny has been endlessly lame her whole career, Ffee missed days with cracked feet earlier this season and now Peril, @stiffknees, appears to also have bad feet - is it a yellow thing? I had said I was going black in future.
 
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