Competing in field trials is not as easy as it sounds. Firstly, you have to spend a couple of years training your bitch to the required standard. Then you have to become a member of every Labrador Club and society in the country as balloting preference is usually given to members. Not to mention becoming a member of the Countryside Alliance and several other shooting and gamekeepers societies. Then you have to enter every field trial in the country in the hope that you will get a 'run' at one of them. At an average 2 day field trial there may be 50 places available and 150 dogs entered, so the contestants are decided by ballot. In a good year, you can count yourself lucky if you get to compete 4 times. If you still want to go ahead, contact your local Labrador Club, they will have a field trials secretary who will be able to put you in touch with trainers in your area.As for breeding from your bitch, all well and good if she can prove herself in competition but if not you will simply join a long line of people with puppies to sell. The trouble is, people who breed purely for profit read somewhere that the Labrador is the most popular breed in Britain, they then think to themselves 'I'll have some of that thank you very much' and start churning out poor quality puppies with no thought to quality and type. I'm sure we've all seen these ropey specimens, some of which don't even look like pedigrees.

Pinchy - you are obviously in touch with your girls breeders - arent they offering advice regarding the right lines to look for and giving advice on competitions to enter? If she is classed as "the right stuff" by them, and they compete, then surely they should be giving you much of the guidance you need.

we are in touch with the breeders, however they no longer compete and are 'getting on a bit'. The bred mostly in Ireland and Holland before moving next door to my in laws, our bitch was part of the final litter. We have asked their advice but as with everything I like to have more than one view as everybody has different opinions and different ways of doing things.

In answer to your original question :

First critically assess your bitch for her faults and failings as well as her attributes. If you're looking at producing working type pups then the only way you can fairly assess her is by working her. A labrador that doesn't work isn't really a labrador its just a dog!

For me she would need to have a soft mouth (which can only really be tested on wounded game), be completely silent working, be confident in cover and water, and personally I wouldn't bother unless she had sufficient pace and drive when working. A good temperament with both humans and dogs is essential coupled with a nice, easily trained disposition.

Once she is trained and working you get an idea of what her working temperament is like. Is she hot on game? Is she laid-back? Would you want to inject more (or less) drive?

The best start would be to get her to some gundog training classes. If she shows some promise then try and find yourself somewhere to work her in the shooting field. If you haven't done much training yet then you may have left it too late to get her good enough to trial. However a knowledgeable trainer should be able to give you some good advice about whether she has the natural attributes you are looking for.

It's not necessary to trial a working bitch before breeding. Personally I wouldn't breed from a bitch that I didn't feel was good enough to trial but realistically the demand for working pups would far outstrip the supply of successful trial bitches that are suitable for breeding. Also the progeny of trialling bitches can occasionally be a little hot for the average novice gundog trainer. However, I'd suggest that seriously testing her in the field should be a prerequisite - you are basically looking for a sound working bitch.    

On top of the working considerations you can look at the health issues. The scores of the parents are important, but you get more information if you can look back at previous generations and get information about what they have produced.

Once you really know the bitch and her breeding you can start to assess what you are looking for in a stud dog. Adverts for stud dogs can be found on the internet, and in shooting magazines. Superficially they will all look suitable, but the more knowledge you get, the harder the decision becomes.

Visiting some field trials and working tests is a good start to look for a suitable stud. However, the number of runners are limited in each trial, and thus you need to get to a few to determine what is available. You are really looking for the quality of the offspring that the stud dog is throwing. Personal recommendation is also good as long as the person doing the recommending know what they are talking about. (You only know this when you've got a bit of experience yourself.) Getting to know some field trial judges and competitors will pay dividends.

The 'best' stud for your bitch may not be the 'flavour of the month' Field Trial Champion, it may be a young novice stake winner that is just starting to make his mark. Alternatively with a really hard going bitch it may be better to use a consistent performer (that perhaps doesn't quite have the fire in his belly or even just the luck to be made up), but could tone down the progeny of your bitch. You only find out about these dogs by being 'in-the-know'.

Acquiring the knowledge to do a really good job takes quite a bit of time. Perhaps too long for this particularly bitch (or perhaps not), it depends how much effort you put in and you can find to guide you.

Best of luck.

thanks havoc, some really good points, her soft mouth has been noticed and she scents throughly and perfectly with scented items we have scented up and hidden for her to find to various degrees of difficulty - just thru fun more than anything. She's very very quick and when told to 'work' goes into that sort of mode. She's a little shy around other dogs which is a slight fault in my eyes as I'd prefer her to be slightly bolder but is that just my opinion? She's a strong swimmer in all types of water. I'd really like to take her to some proper classes as what little training she's had (all by my wife and I and we're no experts) she has really responded to and impressed her breeders greatly.

>Just goes to show how trustworthy and kind the breed is for them to be so popular!

haven't heard of many labs mauling children or being ankle biters!

If only all labs were trustworthy, kind and didn't bite ankles! It's a breed I absolutely love and over the years I've seen a very definite change for the worse in temperament as labs have been irresponsibly produced for the "must have" market.

Pinchy - if you tell us where you are in the country, those of us that work our dogs may very well give you some names locally to you (by private message) who might help you..

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

we're in lancaster.