Frequently Asked Questions
Breeding
We don’t screen people. We just talk and see if what we offer is what you really seem to want. Things work themselves out during the course of conversation.
We assume if you’ve driven all the way out to our place and are willing to spend good money for a top quality registered purebred Labrador Retriever, then you’ll more than likely love it and take care of it/her/him. That’s pretty much it. Diana spends a lot of time with buyers and gets a feel for what they want and like. Because you are investing in us as a breeder as well as the puppy, it usually works out just fine. We don’t use check marks on a list to qualify anyone.
I disqualified one potential buyer years ago. The government of Saudi Arabia called me one day. Yes, it was true. They wanted me to supply them with quantities of bomb dogs. Their idea of a bomb dog was to not only to sniff out bombs but to be the unfortunate animal that diffuses it, or trips it. They wanted me to raise whole litters to 10 months old at which time they would select the ones they wanted and give me a price for them well below my going rate for 7 week old pups. They wanted no training whatsoever on them.
I respectfully declined.
If you would like a health guarantee on paper, we’ll give you one. The normal hip and eye guarantee to two years old is normal. However, we do much more than that. Read on…
If you would like a guarantee on paper, we’ll give you one. It’s 2 years hips and eyes replacement. That’s a normal guarantee we’ve used for years. We use OFA for certification so that’s what we recommend. However, we’ve been breeding for so long and are so confident in our breeding program that we offer something we feel is much better.
1. You will not find a person that we’ve not helped if they had a genuine health problem with their puppy.
2. I can honestly say we’ve replaced less than 5 puppies in the last 30 years.
Here’s how we generally address this issue. If you’re not happy with your pup for any reason, ANY REASON, we will help you. If it’s a non health related issue we can discuss and help re-homing your pet to a more suitable home. If it’s a training issue, we can discuss solutions to that. If it’s a bonafide genetic issue, we will discuss any and all options with you to try to resolve the situation.
Replacing a dog is a horrible thing for a dog owner. Your pet is a family member and you love him/her. It can be devastating to own a pet that may be suffering or unable to live a happy normal life. We know, we’ve been through it many times with pups we’ve bought from other breeders. That’s why we try to breed the cleanest bloodlines that we can. But, if it happens, we can do many things, a replacement, money back or simply help to understand that perhaps it may not be a problem at all, but an expectation issue or misunderstanding. It’s complicated.
I don’t dwell on health issues. That’s not because we’re not aware of them. Quite the opposite. We know all about CNM, EIC , and all the other ailments of today. We were around before most of them were discovered or became mainstream. For instance, Dr. Sue Taylor, who developed the test for EIC bought a dog from us years ago before that came along. FTCH AFTCH Clubmeads Autumn Breeze. We keep an eye on all that stuff but don’t feel we need to bring it to the forefront for everyone to see. That’s our job as professional breeders. It used to be that the only thing we had to worry about was bad hips. Then along came eyes. Then along came everything else. As I’ve stated before, we are a performance breeder. We tolerate a balance of the things our breed is susceptible to without cutting the gene pool of the talent it can provide. When we see something pop up, we deal with it. Generally the dogs are healthier genetically than years ago but keep this in mind. 35 years ago we didn’t know about EIC and CNM. Now we do and that’s great. What don’t we know about today?
We do all the pertinent genetic and physical testing required to know what we’ve got. All our breeding dogs have the required clearances.
That’s why we just deal with any health issues as they might pop up and don’t want you to worry about them when you buy a pup from us. We’ve been here a long time and have our eye on the ball. We will deal with them with you. That’s our reputation and guarantee.
Here’s a few thoughts on paper health guarantees:
- A health guarantee isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if your breeder isn’t there to help you later on. Know who you are buying from.
- A health guarantee should not be used as a sales pitch to inspire confidence, because that’s a potential false narrative. Health disclosures from your breeders history are much more useful. Know who you’re buying from.
- A health guarantee given by a breeder can simply be a legal document and outline limitations on what your breeder might feel obligated to do for you. Know who you’re buying from.
Know-who-you-are-buying-from.
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We don’t have any restricting contracts. Pups you buy from us are yours outright. We can offer suggestions later if you decide to breed your dog.
When you buy a puppy from us, it is yours. We place no restrictions such as non breeding contracts, spay neuter contracts or anything else. All pups are registered with the CKC as purebred dogs. All our breedings are done with the intention of furthering the breed. If you breed them yourself, we are always happy to make suggestions on suitable dogs.
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The short answer is no. We breed blacks for several reasons. The first is we are a performance breeder. Second is we don’t want to deal with genetic problems.
- No, we predominantly breed blacks, not chocolate or yellow. Statistically speaking, your chances of winning a field trial are much greater running a black lab. The gene and talent pool for blacks is so much larger.
- As a performance breeder, we focus on trainability, natural talent, physical prowess, and temperament. Color is irrelevant to us so naturally that means black is dominant.
- From a breeding standpoint, the recessive color genes have a higher chance of genetic problems, especially if the dogs are continually bred color to color without reverting back to black every second generation or so. Simply put, black dogs are cleaner genetically and have fewer health issues.
- As a result of our breeding only black, we have not seen any genetic problems for years.
- Refer to our blog, ‘Lab Talk’ for a more in depth explanation of our breeding practices, to be published soon. I’ll be addressing many issues about breeding.
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Puppies
We outline our feeding guidelines and what we do ourselves. Generally young puppies are fed freely. They learn to moderate them selves this way.
Our puppies are fed freely so they can eat when and as much as they want until 4 month of age. I do not believe they will eat more food than they need at this age. If you are not able to continue free feeding than puppy should get as much as they want in 4 meals a day when they first go home. You will find they start skipping one of those meals and by four months will be down to 2 meals per day. They will do a LOT of growing until about 10 months of age and may eat up to six cups a day. After that you will be able to regulate the amount. You can continue twice a day feeding or switch to once a day depending on your life style. Our dogs eat last thing when they are put to bed for the night so that we don’t have to worry about working dogs on a full stomach during the day. Our adult females eat 3-4 cups per day and males 4-6 cups depending on weight and activity level.
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Don’t play tug of war. That’s the worst thing for puppies of a retriever breed. It establishes dominance and is counterproductive to retriever training later.
Please do not buy rope toys for your puppy, the fibres can cause a serious blockage if they chew them. Rope toys also end up in the game of “tug”. This is the very worst game to play with your puppy. The tug game teaches your puppy to challenge you and he learns that he can win. On another note, it’s pretty hard to teach a retriever to deliver to hand when they are used to playing this game.
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Absolutely! Puppies like the security of feeling like they are in a den. It should be the place where they sleep and gives them a place to feel safe.
Absolutely! Puppies like the security of feeling like they are in a den. It should be their “safe” place where they sleep and gives your puppy a place to be when you have to go out. Crate training makes house training much easier as well. Your puppy will have been introduced to a crate however this will be his first time away from his siblings. The first night is likely to be the worst so be patient, it’ll get better. It is VERY important to make sure he is tired and pottied when you put him in the crate. No food or water during the night. He may cry for a while but DO NOT let him out. If the crying becomes hysterical try tapping loudly on the top of the crate or covering the door with a towel. If he wakes up during the night, take him outside but put him back in the crate as soon as he’s done. Puppy has to learn that night is for sleeping not eating or playing. Puppy should be able to sleep through the night by 10 weeks if not sooner. If that’s not happening try limiting or taking water away in the evening. If they are waking for a poop, start feeding the last meal later not earlier.
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You can choose any name you like to call your puppy. Take some time to get to know your new addition and let us know a week or so after puppy goes home.
You can choose any name you like to call your puppy. Take some time to get to know your new addition and let us know a week or so after puppy goes home. We also need a name you want to be on his registration papers. The Canadian Kennel Club requires this name to either start or end with “Clubmead” and you can use up to 35 characters including spaces. Registered names can be simple like Clubmead’s Sally or Sally of Clubmead or fancier, Clubmead’s Sassy Sally. All the puppy names are submitted to the CKC at once and it takes some time for CKC to print certificates and get them back for us to send out.
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Yes, your puppy is permanently identified with a chip that has been implanted under the skin between the shoulders. The chip is the size of a grain of rice.
Yes, your puppy is permanently identified with a microchip that has been implanted under the skin between the shoulder blades. The chip is the size and shape of a grain of rice. It can move around the neck and shoulder region until it finds a place to settle. Animal shelters know to scan the entire region in the event a pet ends up in their care. The microchip number appears on the CKC registration papers. We are registered as the emergency contact unless you wish to provide an alternate person.
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Your puppy will have had a veterinary check up prior to going home. She will have had her first vaccinations and been de-wormed at least twice.
Your puppy will have had a veterinary check up prior to going home. She will have had her first vaccinations and been de-wormed at least twice. You are most welcome to set up a “new puppy visit” offered by several clinics when she goes home. She will need an appointment 4 weeks and again another 4 weeks after going home for 2 sets of booster vaccinations. We recommend that you include the Bordetella vaccine. Do not hesitate to seek veterinary attention if for any reason your puppy does not seem well.
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Your puppy will be eating dry kibble when he leaves us. We encourage you to feed a good quality diet. We use Authority brand available at Petsmart.
Your puppy will be eating dry kibble when he leaves us. We encourage you to feed a good quality diet. We use Authority brand available at Petsmart.
Regular puppy food for the average size pup and large breed puppy food for the larger females and most males.
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