04/04/2025
Dear English Mountain Labrador Friends, Fans and Family;
It’s been a year since my last post and a year since my last litter. During that time, I’ve done a lot of soul searching. You see, in the past 2 years, I had seven breedings and only 2 achieved pregnancies; one with 2 puppies and one with four. And one of those litters, I had to entirely nurse and raise those beautiful babies as we almost lost their mother. Not only were we heartbroken and stressed with nearly losing one of our girls, we were totally deflated at breeding attempts that did not take. Though we never bred for money, and proceeds we did make went directly into our kennels, fencing, veterinary care, food, etc for our beloved companions. But with the aforementioned, we had accumulated over 35k in debt in costs and life saving measures for our girl and attempts to have puppies. Breeding correctly is NOT inexpensive and we also sought the best studs, the best for our nursery, and the best in veterinary care. With that in mind, we elected to pause our breeding program. This was not a decision made lightly. In the over 15 years of enhancing the breed we all love, we produced over 300 beautiful babies, and have remained in contact with over 95% of those families. We donated puppies to Police K-9 programs, had several AKC Champions, several Therapy Dogs, Service Dogs, and a multitude of fabulous couch potatoes which we are very proud of. Of those puppies, only 2.8% had a genetic issue which we directly attribute such a low ratio to adherence to the AKC Standard, and stringent testing to include hips/elbows/heart and other DNA genetic tests. But even ONE with genetic issues is too much in our book. But I can say with certainty, we did our very best and are proud of the integrity we brought to our breeding program. Oh, how we miss those puppies. But after weighing the pros and cons and possible consequences to our gorgeous Labradors, we have decided to stop breeding for the time being. In the future, we may jump back in the show ring, and try our hand at breeding again. But know this; a properly bred Labrador Retriever that adheres to the AKC Standard in structure, color, temperament, and personality is by far the BEST BREED out there. I am so proud of our dogs and the 5 generations we produced (esp TROOPER😉). Thank you to the over 6000 fans and friends for your support through the years. If it’s meant to be…. It’ll be. A favorite quote of mine “The greatness of a Nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Our Labradors health and well being will always come first. Hugs~n~Biscuits to ALL those Labradors out there!!!!! What a fabulous breed. Blessings to you all ❤️ (Attached photo is a sketch of our RAVEN drawn for the worlds largest Labrador Retriever Specialty Show at the Potomac)
