So you are at the stage of your puppy search for a Labrador retriever breeder Ontario, how far should you drive?
First let me say I am bias toward you finding your Retriever Puppy in Ontario. I am a professional breeder of CKC registered Labrador retriever puppies and take great pride in the work I do toward developing intelligence and even temperament in my Labrador Puppies who are eager and willing to please their owners. It gives my whole family a great sense of pride to be able to see one of our amazing dogs donated to a Veteran or a first responder with PTSD to help them through their daily lives. So the work we do as we import outside Labrador genetics and introduce those genes into our bloodline results in furthering the intelligence of this beautiful dog and their willingness to serve their handler.
So as you are looking for your black Labrador Retriever puppy, and it doesn’t have to be a black Lab but I wanted to use the black Labrador puppy because Black Labs matter (ok it is a pretty cheesy pun but it’s all I’ve got you must consider a few facts before you get your dog). Something we run into all the time with a person searching for a new puppy is how long of a drive is it to get my puppy? Of course driving distance will come into play but it should not be the first thing you consider. Here is how we recommend you look at going about finding a good breeder for your first Labrador Retriever puppy.
The first thing you need to do is a little research on weather or not a Labrador Puppy for sale is the direction you should go. You need to first look at the activity level of your family, your schedules, the activity level of the dog you want to get (do you want a dog requiring little exercise, moderate exercise, or a lot of exercise) and then shedding and allergies could also be considered. Once you determine that a Lab puppy is for you, and let me just say they are the best family dogs going, at that point you should begin searching for a good Labrador Retriever breeder with puppies for sale.
So what type of breeder will you choose to support, and yes, the decision is 100% yours. I however would like to toss out a few facts for you to consider while making your decision as there are many types of breeders out there. Sadly, not all breeders will focus on creating purebred Labrador retrievers with a focus on health, intelligence and temperament. The first and least desirable for me is a breeder who breeds simply for the money. These breeders will disguise their breeding by saying their dogs are purebreds they just didn’t get the paperwork, or they may have mixed breed dogs with behavior traits that could come out later as the dog ages. These breeders often use only word of mouth or possibly a quick ad in Kijiji and are only interested in moving their puppies to another home. They often don’t have an application process and will sell their puppies to anyone who will pay them. Ads often say “Hurry!” or get this puppy for (enter a holiday such as Christmas or Valentines day) or you will see them discounting their puppies like stale merchandise at Walmart. Puppies who come from these breeders are unpredictable and the breeders often have no or little paperwork to prove health, lineage or anything for that matter. They often don’t donate service dogs, or even provide a training service for your purebred pup.
I suppose instead of listing the reasons people breed I will simply give you my philosophy of what a good breeder is for you to consider. There are standards set by the CKC however there are many other standards left up to the Lab breeder to decide themselves. Our breeding program currently focuses on chocolate lab puppies and is designed to work on screening and selecting the healthiest, smartest, kindest Labradors available and mating them together to create an amazing bloodline of dogs. We have been breeding this way for over 12 years at the time of writing this article and our line has developed well during that time. Some of the things we do are early neurological stimulation on our Lab puppies from day 3 to day 16. We then implement a socialization program up until they are 8 weeks old and ready to leave us. Less desirable Lab Breeders will say they have kids who play with the puppies so therefore they are socialized. Don’t believe this. There is a lot more to socialization than playing with kids who by the way depending on their age are at risk for injuring the puppies if they drop them or pick them up incorrectly and are unsupervised. Puppy training is another important point worth considering. If you choose a breeder who does not train their puppies, sell trained labs, or doesn’t know how to train have a look here for some training tips. However, you should be asking the question why this breeder does not include training as part of their services when the Labrador retriever breed is one of the most easily trained dogs available. Good breeders have a great more to offer than just having Labrador retriever puppies for sale.
There are more things worth considering regarding a good breeder to support however I am getting side tracked. Let’s say you have found the breeder, they are doing a great job and you want your puppy to come from them but they are too far away. Those who get their Lab puppy from Lucky Labs frequently travel over 10 hours each way to pick up their puppy and most of the time those people go onto a waiting list for a few months. Why do people travel so far and wait for a puppy from a great breeder? It’s because the one trip they make will be the investment into their dog that they may have for 15 years. They will invest more into this puppy in the way of vaccinations, training, and other things and don’t want their dog to develop hip dysplaysia or maybe a different genetic disease such as EIC. Why not? Well once you get your Labrador puppy home and bond with them, yes bonding means falling in love with them, and you invest your time and money in them you don’t want that investment to disappear within the first year or two because of a genetic disease or possibly have a dog that is not easily trainable and causes you more problems than it does happiness.
So, for a 15 year buddy, making the trip is normally worth it over the course of your Lab’s lifetime. We often have people travel from Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo, Detroit, Thunder Bay and Manitoba to us to pick up their buddy. These people have decided that they want to support our mission and reason for breeding and also they want the best little buddy they can get. The one time trip does not outweigh getting an inferior Lab puppy nor does it justify for them supporting a back yard breeder with no registration papers, no written guarantee, no website, etc…
So the problem of the distance can be managed in a few ways. Lucky Labs will deliver your Labrador Retriever puppy to the Toronto area for a fee. For more information click here. Most airlines in Canada will not allow a puppy in a crate in cargo until they are 12 weeks old. They also cannot ship any dogs in cargo during the cold or hot months because the cargo areas are not heated and cooled. The Canadian airlines will however allow you to bring a puppy in a soft carrier and stow them at your feet on board the airplane. The fee for this is normally around $50 more than your flight, so picking up your puppy this way and flying home is not really much more than paying to have them shipped. It is though much better for your puppy because it will not be stuck in a carrier in cargo where it is cold, dark, noisy and scary.
In the end, when you get your puppy home from whichever Labrador Retriever Breeder in Ontario you choose, your 12 to 15 years with your Labrador begins. We hope you take this information and apply it to your situation whether or not you get your black Lab puppy from us or not. The few hours you saved in your travelling if you chose a close puppy over a quality puppy may come back to haunt you for years. Choose your Ontario Labrador breeder not only according to how far away they are from you, rather according to the reasons you should or should not support them. If after reading through our information pages we can be of service to you, please contact us at the bottom of this page.
