THE START

Temperament is the most important quality in your lab. We started off with a chocolate  female whose call name was Dixie. She was such an awesome dog that I wanted her to have a litter of puppies. I wanted to own the father and when I was sure, I got another chocolate puppy. We called him Chester amongst too many nicknames but he also was awesome in a totally different way. Both were from hunting stock because as happens with many labs you get them with the intention of them being for hunting and they just become family. They were very different. Dixie would retrieve things for hours and Chester would just stay by my side. She was athletic and built like a rock. He was calm, relaxed, much more a "flubby " lab like I like to call those with thick fluffy hair and a little extra skin that wobbled when he ran which was not often. This is where it all began. Hard to believe it has been 17 years of enjoying the experience of puppies and being able to provide families the same love and joy that I have felt with our labs!

THE NEXT GENERATIONS

We had some great puppies out of these two. We would have beautiful chocolate and yellow puppies. Both Chester and Dixie had yellow and chocolate parents.

(People ask me how I keep it straight in my head how each generation unfolds. It easy when there is one female that spends her lifetime with a mate. For years we only kept one puppy from one set of parents.

GENERATION 2

When we finally decided to keep one of the puppies we kept a yellow female whose call name was Bella. When Bella was about 6 months old we got a mate for her. Diesel was and older puppy that was outgrowing his apartment life. And he kept growing and growing and growing. Bella was a totally standard size lab. Diesel reminded me of the movie Marley and Me except he was not as destructive. He was just huge. The two of them side by side looked like characters from The Adams Family, Morticia next to Lurch.  But they produced beautiful puppies. All yellow. 

In our family we do have three dogs out of Bella and Diesel. We have Danny. Our daughter has a middle litter sibling named Grace and we have another female named Brandy that was singleton. Brandy would be the last puppy Bella would have so of course I kept her. Bella was an exceptional dog, loving her human with all her heart. She just wanted to be close and give the best hugs. )

GENERATION 3

We had a litter of puppies born on my Grandmother's birthday and I kept a yellow male pups that captured my heart. Even today he has my heart. He is my boy. His call name is Danny after my Grandma Danielson.  I like when the mates are similar in age but I was having difficulty finding the right female for him. His temperament was ideal but I wanted more color after having all yellows for a while. I finally found a black English female that I named Leila and as fate would have it she was born on my other grandmother's birthday. A match made in heaven. Leila's father was silver and her mother was fox red. With this pair I got every shade of every color of yellow, chocolate , and black.  (No silvers since to this point the lines were primarily yellow and chocolate  on Danny's side. Silvers only come if both parents Carrie the dilute gene.)

GENERATION 4