AKC Labrador Retrievers are kind, loyal, energetic, playful, intelligent, and the perfect family dogs! Recognized by the American Kennel Club since 1917, these chocolate, yellow, and black Labrador Retrievers are sure to provide a loving companion for all ages! Labs are fabulous hunting dogs, they love to swim, hike, and of course fetch balls, sticks or a drink just for you! Labrador Trails puppies are special because they have been raised on a two acre farm and are socialized with chickens, cats, and are friendly with other dogs of all sizes. The Labrador Trails breeder values the Labrador Retriever breed by rearing high quality, healthy puppies who are easy to train with basic and complex commands, crate trained, house trained, and love to play! This website will feature pictures of the breeding Labs and their adorable puppies that are available for adoption to their "furever" family. Puppies have received their first vaccines, have been dewormed, given health clearance from a veterinarian, dewclaws have been removed, and Limited AKC paperwork is provided. Find your perfect Labrador Retriever Puppy today!
Labrador Trails' Breeding Dogs
Heather has owned Labrador Retrievers for more than twenty years. She enjoys dog training and the genetic health aspects of breeding. With a scientific background specializing in genetics, the breeder's primary focus is to produce healthy, happy puppies. All of the breeding dogs have been genetic tested for Labrador Retriever breed-specific conditions to ensure quality breeding. The parents have been OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) tested for hip and elbow dysplasia, which are common among large breed dogs. Puppies come with a 12 month health guarantee to be free from inherited genetic conditions and congenital anomalies.
All breeding dams who come into season and throughout puppy rearing are provided a diet with high protein 29% and fat content 18% and carbohydrates 20% in approximately 150% volume of their normal maintenance diet. Additionally, multivitamins, fish oil, probiotics, and folate supplements are given daily to ensure healthy puppies and dams during the pregnancy, whelping and development stages. Calcium supplements are supplied to the dams while nursing to guarantee adequate milk production to support large litter sizes.
Dams are vaccinated prior to breeding so that they can pass antibodies on to their pups. The females are also examined by the vet twice during pregnancy - once during the ultrasound and once during the radiograph to obtain a puppy count.
Puppy development is key to increasing aptitude, stress tolerance later in life, and to improve growth and development of the pup's immune system and cardiovascular system. Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) exercises are used to stimulate the puppies neurological and endocrine system daily on puppies day three through day 16, a period when rapid neurological growth and development is occurring. Early Scent Introduction is also used to better develop puppies' adult scenting ability. Puppies are introduced to a new scent every day (grass, tree bark, leaves, dirt, pine cones, lemon, apples, bananas, cloves, tennis balls, leather, wood, cats, and plastic). This early training has been successful with working, service, competition, hunting and pet puppies.
Puppies are introduced to a separate potty box for training starting at three weeks old. As puppies begin to explore the outdoors, potty training is encouraged outdoors. Puppies are crate trained together as a litter. Crate training is recommended as the best way to potty train your puppy.
Toys and challenges are offered to the puppies and rotated daily. Puppies are exposed to crawling over and under items, stairs, different bedding textures, climbing, and swimming during appropriate weather conditions. The broader the scope of different activities, challenges, people, and animals young puppies can be exposed to, the better! Enriched environments are key in developing well balanced, brave, friendly, outgoing dogs!