I'm ready to take on a new puppy but where to look? I'm looking for a show bred Labrador retriever because I like the type of them rather than the working strain. I've looked on petsforhomes and the kennel club website but there are a lot of pet breeders or working types on there and I want to buy from a show breeder. Should I go to a club and ask the secretary and if that's the way forward can someone point me in the right direction please. I live in Dorset.

In a word yes .breed clubs at least have certain expectations of breeding wjere as one of the others you mention doesn't.
You also could look here under breeders but it's still buyer beware. Make sure you ask all the right questions and check health test have been done on both parents and preferable the grandparents etc too.
Some.of the lab people will guve you more information

Thank you for the reply. What questions other than health testing should I ask furriefriends?

Def. via a Breed Club which as they have Codes of Ethics, should rule out you finding a BYB!!  

Yes, re the Breeders Section on here, but yes, again, re going to visit and seeing the set-up and whether you are going to get on with the breeders who over the upcoming years, especially early on, should be there for you and the puppy they have raised.

Go by your gut instinct about what you see (and see their ADULTS as puppies should always be aaaah puppy).

Be prepared to travel, for the 'right puppy'.

Sorry - Back Yard Breeder - to be avoided as usually they are only after INCOME.  Rarely do any testing and so don't care about conformation, temperament and so on.

One woman I spoke to on petsforhomes said her bitch was a pet and didn't need health testing. It's only breeders who do that and she's not a breeder she said.

Rubbish ! If she has a litter she is a breeder and you want a healthy dog

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/getting-a-dog/buying-a-dog/questions-for-the-breeder/

Thank you.

Pet-only dogs don’t need testing? Absolute nonsense. They can get health problems exactly the same as show dogs, genetic issues don’t just suddenly disappear because a dog will never be shown.

I did a full panel of genetic tests on my papillon who no longer shows and will never be bred from because of luxating patellas (corrected by surgery). Why? Because I know he was hereditary clear for NAD and pap-PRA as is parents are clear, but no one was testing for vWD1 or fVII then so I didn’t have results for that. Carriers for vWD1 can show a milder version of the disease (which affects blood clotting) so I thought it was important to find out if he was at risk.

He’s clear for fVII and carries vWD1, but luckily he doesn’t seem to show any issues with bleeding. But if he was likely to have any issues there I wanted to be forewarned, not find out only if he had emergency surgery or an accident and bled to death because we weren’t prepared.

And if nothing else, this information is useful to the breed as a whole. If River carries, either his sire or dam or both also carries or is affected. His sibling and half siblings should also be tested.

If I hadn’t known about this (and his knees were normal), my friend could have easily used him on her bitch because he’d make cracking agility dogs. But they both carry vWD1, so we’d likely get affected pups.

Thanks.

Does anyone have the contact details of the Labrador Retriever club. I'm in the south of England and live in Bournemouth.

https://www.thelabradorretrieverclub.com/  there are a few but this could be a start point. There is also one in the west of England and Kent sirrey and Sussex.  Worth a phone call

Pet dogs need testing more than any other.  They're the most likely to have problems, because they're not being bred to standard or for a functional purpose; they have the most pressure in terms of social requirements from their owners, kids, other pets etc; and their owners are arguably the least likely to recognise when something is wrong, because they just aren't well versed in health issues in dogs.  And typically not in behaviour either, so if something is wrong and the dog behaves differently, they don't tend to connect the dots.  So if any dog needs to be healthy, it's a pet dog!

Thanks.

And apart from the minority of strictly working dogs, most dogs are pets first, show etc second

Certainly mine are pets 365 days a year, show dogs maybe 20 days a year max, and breeding dogs (if at all), maybe 20 - 60 weeks  (half of which is pregnancy) in their 13 - 15 year lives.