I would love a golden labrador, but I am keen to ensure that I do not buy from a puppy farm. I have seen lots in the local paper but I am aware that these could be puppy farms advertising.  What is the best way to find a golden labrador puppy, and what questions should I ask the breeder?

Thanks a lot.

Hi there - and the very very first thing to know is that ANYONE advertising Golden labrador puppies  for sale doesn't know their labrador from toilet paper :D :D!!!  

You are thinking of YELLOW labradors - someone will be along soon with an address for the labrador breed society - they would be the best people to obtain a list of breeders from!

Regards
Margot

Have a look at this website. It is the Labrador Retriever Club and has a section on buying a puppy. It also has the phone number of the "Puppy Co-ordinator"

http://www.thelabradorretrieverclub.co.uk/

Cut and paste it into your browser.

Regards, John

ask as many questions as possible!!! :D  see the mother and rest of litter.  and also be prepared to be asked many questions about yourself, family, living arrangments and lifestyle!

It does not help when breeders on this site are advertising their Yellows as
                                      'dark creamy coffee to vanilla ice cream'

If they don't know what the colour of their puppies are then I guess that would be a good reason not to buy from them Fatso. They are obviously either not clued up on the breed or pandering to the mass market which to me indicated breeding for money rather with the best interests of the breed in mind.

Regards, John

My sentiments exactly John.

you can see why people get confused, & alot of yellows arent really yellowish,but creamy or red or golden,
like grey horses being "white"

Unless they're Lipizzaners, Michelle, when I gather (but could be wrong) that they're all white, even if they aren't ...

Actually there are bay lipizzaners, rare but they exist and only the chief wotsisname rides them in the Spanish School of Vienna.

I thought I remembered a programme some years back, where they said that even the dark-coloured mares were officially 'white'? Maybe I'm muddled. :)

And the foals are born black and take years to turn white :)

Daisy

& of course the most prized of the "spanish"horses is the leopard spot !

The whole point Michelled was to avoid confusion with the Golden retriever. Although the Labrador was accepted by the KC first, the Golden retriever people were at that time lobbying the KC for acceptance. The KC, recognising that it was only a matter of time before the Goldens became an accepted breed, and in view of the fact that the name Golden retriever was already in use for that breed, made it a condition that the colour in Labradors would hence forth be called yellow. The actual standard of the breed states:-

YELLOW: may range in colour from fox red to light cream with variations in shading on ears, back and underparts of the dog.

I quite understand confusion on the part of people new to the breed or people looking for their first Labrador puppy but I would hope that breeders would know enough about the dogs they are breeding to get the terminology right. I wonder if, if they cannot get a simple thing like this right then how much more of their breeding did they not get right. I expect a good breeder to be a font of knowledge about the breed. (Although I do question these days just how many GOOD breeders we have left in the breed.)

Regards, John