Our puppies are raised with love and attention. We socialize our puppies every day, we let them run and play in the yard as well as in the house. We introduce them to new people, sounds, and other dogs. We allow our grandchildren to love, hold, squeeze and even rough house with them. The Parents of our puppies have excellent temperaments, they are friendly and loving, much like their pups…they want and receive attention! We also make sure the Dam knows what a good mama she is, we praise her and tell her how beautiful her babies are. We always give her a big love before she see’s us loving up her pups. We wouldn’t breed a lab that didn’t have a gentle disposition and sound temperament. We breed quality AKC labradors that make great family companions. We breed both English and American Labs, but the majority of our labs are English.
EXCERCISE:
Labradors need LOTS OF exercise; with that in mind our labs are free to roam our yard and fields for most of the day. We encourage swimming in the pond, running behind the ranger, rough housing, and of course….RETRIEVING! They will retrieve for hours….there is a lot of competition to see who can bring the toy; ball, bone, etc. back the fastest! Our labs love to explore, swim and chase butterflies…I have to tell you what a hoot it is to see 9 yellow labs all chasing the same butterfly!
FEEDING:
We feed our puppies twice a day, morning and evening. Some breeders choose 3 times a day, both ways work. Our 8 week old Labrador puppies normally eat 3 cups of food per day divided into two meals. When your pup gets home start him with 1 1/2 cups per meal and take up what he doesn’t finish in 15 minutes, than gage it that way because sometimes they eat more when they are all eatting together. By 3-4 months we are feeding our pups 2 cups per meal, at 6 months we switch to adult food and still give 2 cups per meal but really watch if we need to feed less.
VACCINATIONS:
Your puppy has received 2 straight parvo vaccinations given at 4 and 5 weeks and its first in the series of “5 way” (Parvovirus ,Canine Distemper, Parainfluenza & Adenovirus type 2) puppy vaccination at 8 weeks. Your puppy was wormed several times, mainly once every other week until at least 8 weeks old. It is important that your dog be protected against distemper and Parvo. We do not “over vaccinate”. We follow the recommendations of a trusted vet for vaccinations necessary for our area, such as for Lyme disease in areas with deer ticks. Too many shots are neither necessary nor good for the health of our pets. We boost rabies shots every 3 years after the 1 year booster. We boost 5 way shots every year for the first 2 years.
SPAY/NEUTER:
We used to tell our customers to not spay and neuter before 6 months but we are wiser now…lol. We hope you will wait until 2 years of age before you spay or neuter. There are many reasons and I’m not really sure what ones are more important but for Labs especially early spay and neuter can cause hip dysplasia. I know you have heard that hip dysplasia is genetic, but not always. 1. When estrogen producing orans are removed prematurely t can lead to hip joints developing abnormally because there is no estrogen. 2. When puberty approaches, estrogen is responsible for healthy maturation of the skeleton and the closing of growth plates. It’s possible that removing estrogen (i.e. the ovaries or testicles) in puppies will keep the growth plates open longer than is natural. This allows more room for the bones to grow larger than they’re meant to. For example, the femur, has a natural stopping point at eight months of age. But when the dog is spayed or neutered at 6 months old, the tibia, which should stop growing at about a year of age, will continue to grow, causing the knee bone to grow at an unnatural angle which puts stress on the ligaments, leading the risk of a torn knee ligaments. With puberty a release of hormones that help close the growth plates on long bones, the long bones grow beyond their intended length so your dog could grow taller but not fill out to his potential 3. There’s a higher rate of ACL ruptures. This could be due to the previously mentioned bone growth issues that place stress on the ligaments. 4.Data collected from Veterinary Medical database from 1980-1994 showed that the risk for bone cancer in large breed purebred dogs doubled when compared to those who were spay and neutered.
We have been told forever that neutering a male dog reduces their chances of developing prostate problems, especially cancer. Michigan State University did a study and it proved there wasn’t any evidence that neutering would prevent dogs from developing prostate problems or cancer.
Dew Claws:
We stopped that practise of removing dew claws a few years ago after being questioned by our vet. We were led us to do some of our own research and we began watching our dogs who had dew claws and we began noticing some really exciting things, like how they actually use them like the thumbs they are, and how when they run it touches the ground giving them an advantage, and they can turn on a dime. Kevin then spoke with our gun dog trainer and he has never understood why so many breeders remove dew claws.
Many people automatically assume dew claws should be removed so they don’t rip, but I think that’s just been ingrained in us for years and years. Back when our vet asked us why we removed them we gave him the genetic “so they dont rip them” answer, even though we’d never had a ripped one. He educated us a bit about tendons and muscles. Then after speaking with our gundog trainer we made the decision to stop removing them. He told us when the dew claw touches the ground it gives the dog an advantage when she’s running, she can turn on a dime. The deciding factor for us both was understanding the front dews are attached to functioning tendons and the tendons are attached to muscles, so by removing them there will be muscles that will atrophy because they aren’t used. They actually prevent excessive torque on the leg.
We keep our dog’s dew claws short and I believe that’s the key. Our dogs are in the woods almost daily, they all run together, some hunt and we’ve never had a ripped dew in all our years breeding.
Puppy Growth Chart:
