Why I love labs

[SilentBirdHunter]

I love all the pics as I have been considering a lab for a while.. The issue is finding a breeder near me that gives me the confidence in getting a healthy dog. Part of the problem is I don’t know anyone with a lab up here to talk to.. Anyone have a recommendation in the Sandpoint Idaho region? I don’t mind driving but definitely want to pick up the puppy in person. Thanks!!

I usually look in

https://www.retrievertraining.net/forums/lab-puppies-classifieds.31/

https://www.huntinglabpedigree.com/HuntingDogPuppyfinder.asp
I see there is a litter out of Ronan, MT
https://www.huntinglabpedigree.com/puppy.asp?id=62134

 

[MNElkNut]

I am planning on a litter with the breeder that I got mine from in the next year. But we are in MN.

 

[SaskHunter]

Got home one day and this was hanging in our bathroom. The goodest girl!!!

 

[fowladdict]

I love all the pics as I have been considering a lab for a while.. The issue is finding a breeder near me that gives me the confidence in getting a healthy dog. Part of the problem is I don’t know anyone with a lab up here to talk to.. Anyone have a recommendation in the Sandpoint Idaho region? I don’t mind driving but definitely want to pick up the puppy in person. Thanks!!

If your willing to drive south, Duck Busters in Emmett, Idaho may be worth looking into.
View attachment 241005 Riley Pheasant.jpg

 

[OntarioHunter]

I love all the pics as I have been considering a lab for a while.. The issue is finding a breeder near me that gives me the confidence in getting a healthy dog. Part of the problem is I don’t know anyone with a lab up here to talk to.. Anyone have a recommendation in the Sandpoint Idaho region? I don’t mind driving but definitely want to pick up the puppy in person. Thanks!!

Best dog of the seven I've owned during sixty years of hunting was Ethyl, half Lab and half golden retriever born on a bank clerk's back porch in Whitefish, Montana back in 1977. Ethyl (premium gasoline) was a guided missile in the field or off the field. People who didn't like dogs liked that one. She cost me $35 and only vet bill her whole life was for spaying. She was the smallest of my Labs, probably 55 lbs and looked like a black Lab. I often forget she wasn't purebred.

 

[MTGunner]

Happy labs aged 1.5 and 8 years, enjoying Montana springtime.
View attachment 319620View attachment 319621

Looks like the Missions.
She has been a true bird wonder. She will be 11 in 3/2025. Acts like a puppy but is showing her age. With hope she will have another season in her. MTG

 

[MTGunner]

Another thing I like about labs is their oily coat makes cleanup from houndstongue easy.
A quick swim and most are gone.
For me, I just shed a cheap pair of Frog Toggs pants.
Then we are ready to head home.
Before:
View attachment 348907
After:
View attachment 348908

Belle is a seed magnet. She gets combed and brushed. Still all over the house. MTG

 

[SilentBirdHunter]

With experience labs are cripple-finding machines.
Sometimes I get worried as the lab disappears in hundreds of acres of cattails
and then 20 minutes later appears with the rooster. I do run a beep collar so
I can locate lab, but typically stay silent and trust the dog.

 

[MTGunner]

Years ago we had a lab/shorthair mix. Perhaps my best waterfowl dog ever. She looked like a long legged lab. Had a shorthair head. Lab body.
BTW, she was one of five puppies that were dumped on the side of Canal road. All puppies went to good homes. Lost her at 11 due to cancer. Never easy loosing a family member. MTG

 

[noharleyyet]

Got home one day and this was hanging in our bathroom. The goodest girl!!!

View attachment 350805

So much to like about this thread but this'n made a big grin...

 

[fowladdict]

With experience labs are cripple-finding machines.
Sometimes I get worried as the lab disappears in hundreds of acres of cattails
and then 20 minutes later appears with the rooster. I do run a beep collar so
I can locate lab, but typically stay silent and trust the dog.
View attachment 352641

So true. Reminds me of Aspen, my late chocolate lab. She would swim in circles non-stop until catching a duck I winged that kept diving under the water to get away from her. She scared me once when I was not able to call her back after watching her disappear in a pipe culvert that went under the railroad tracks in hot pursuit of a wounded rooster. She came out of that pipe with the rooster.

 

[SilentBirdHunter]

So true. Reminds me of Aspen, my late chocolate lab. She would swim in circles non-stop until catching a duck I winged that kept diving under the water to get away from her. She scared me once when I was not able to call her back after watching her disappear in a pipe culvert that went under the railroad tracks in hot pursuit of a wounded rooster. She came out of that pipe with the rooster.

YES! My youngest lab's first "blind retrieve" turned out to be one of thoses "swim in circles" catch the duck retrieves:
(Notice I am silent and then praise the instant pup captures the duck)

 

[OntarioHunter]

We just finished a great upland season, the best my nine year-old Lab has seen. She lost a surprising number of roosters this year. Very unusual for her. I think the unuseasonably dry and warm weather had something to do with it. My thirteen year-old French Britt, Puppy, hunted like a dog half her age. Most days she outlasted both Ellie and me. Unbelievable. Almost lost her to cancer two years ago.

 

[Jape]

Rough day in our household. We lost our Maverick today. He was such a good boy and we will miss him tremendously. He was shaping up to be such a great hunting dog. Hug your pups. Never know when they will be gone.

 

[MTLabrador]

So sorry to hear that, what a horrible loss.