Labrador Retriever History

Labrador Retrievers continue to be the most popular dog in the United States since 1991. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever met a Labrador. Originating from Newfoundland, Labradors served as companions to fisherman. Labradors worked alongside fisherman all day to retrieve fish and tow in lines. At the end of a long work day, the dog would join the fisherman at home and was treated as a member of the family. The breed's history highlights how Labradors possess the need to please; resulting in an obedient and loyal dogs.

Smart and Easy To Train

Combine the Labrador’s obedient nature with their sharp intelligence and curiosity, and you’ve got the recipe for a dog who likes to learn. Invest in their continued training and they will impress you. They take well to obedience training, which is a must to help them learn how to please your family. Whether you work with a trainer or do it yourself, your Lab is ready and eager to learn. Keep a handful of treats ready as a reward!

Worthy of your Investment

A shelter rescue does not compare to the quality of our pups. Our puppies are properly weaned and feed on the highest quality food. While I am thankful that animal shelters are available, often the puppies were not weaned properly and may have suffered neglect and/or abuse before arriving to the shelter. Our puppies have a history of excellent genetics, temperaments and make a great companion as a service dog, hunting dog, or family pet.

We offer quality puppy adoption for less than standard boarding costs! Standard boarding fees in Colorado are $30/night which adds up to $1,680 for the first 8 weeks of care. Adopt a quality raised pup for less than half that! We provide a higher premium care and boarding service for the first 8 weeks of your puppies life, ensure the best genetics to improve the breed, administer vaccinations, socialize, and provide you with a new fur-ever family member.

Family Member / Emotional Support

Labs possess a keen instinct to love you unconditionally! They can sense your feelings and lend a loving, supportive paw when you need it. If you want a kind-hearted, lovable companion who will be there for you through thick and thin, there is no doubt we have the right dog for you.
Volhard's Puppy Aptitude testing helps us identify key traits amongst our puppies such as social attraction, following, restraint, social dominance, elevation dominance, retrieving, touch sensitivity, sound sensitivity, sight sensitivity, and stability.

Bird Dog / Hunting Companion

Puppies that enjoy retrieving meet the need for hunters and mobility service dogs. Our labs love to swim which is another great trait for hunting dogs. Other top traits for a great bird dog are intelligence and eagerness to learn. Our Labrador retrievers are bred for the genetic trait of being easy to train, high altitude tolerance, and food/treat motivated.

Inspiration to Enjoy the Outdoors

Rain or shine, Labs will love to join you on a walk, hike, hunt, retrieve, swim, or play sessions in the backyard. They enjoy having a purpose making them the most versatile as a career service dog, hunting companion, or family pet. Trade out that monotonous treadmill for a walk with your lovable Lab. They bound around with a zest and passion that is second to none. Their energy, cheerfulness, and invigorated approach to life is downright contagious. You can’t help but feel happy and alive when you’re with a Lab! This attribute is why they make excellent emotional support dogs.

Water Sports: Competitive or for Fun

If you are interested in competing in Dock Dogs' Big Air, Extreme Vertical, Speed Retrieve, Iron Dog Challenge, selecting a puppy with the drive to retrieve and swim increases success in winning competitions. Our pups easily win the hearts of families that love water sports, camping, or chilling out near a pool.

Scent Dogs

Puppies have unique personalities. It makes sense to select a puppy that loves to smell to do scent work. Scent trained dogs can find careers as a diabetic alert dog, epileptic seizure alert dog, hunting dog, search and rescue, bomb sniffing, identifying criminals, cancer detection, truffle mushroom hunting, help endangered species like whales.

Visit the Puppies - Pet & Play Session

Families may schedule 30 minute private visits once the puppies reach 4 weeks old of age.

Play and interaction with our puppies fosters learning correct social behaviors. We will review guidelines during your visit. Keep in mind that your family is not able to choose an exact puppy until day of pick up once the puppies personalities are more developed at 8 weeks of age.

Personality

Our puppies sense of humor is very entertaining. They are funny, silly, goofy bundles of fur that induce our laughter every day. Labradors know how to bring out your fun side.

Weekly Photo Updates

We recognize the excitement and anxiety of waiting for your puppy to go home with your family. To help, we post weekly photos of the litter. You can also follow along with the activities calendar to know what your puppy is doing each day. Once part of your family, you can create a unique post to update us with photos as he/she grows.

Selecting your Exact Puppy on Go Home Day

By placing a deposit, your family is reserving the sex and coat color of your puppy. We allow the puppies to develop their individual personalities at 8 weeks of age prior to families selecting their exact puppy. This personal selection is much better than the traditional method of picking out a puppy by a color collar in a photo.

Upon arriving for pick up, families may interact with all available puppies during their visit (matching reserved sex and coat color). Scheduling to arrive earlier naturally means their will be more puppies to pick from. We will always ensure there is at least one puppy matching the sex and coat color preference selected.

If it is important to be one of the first families to pick, upgrade to VIP Pick & Play.

If your preference is to pick up a day before normal pick up, upgrade to Early Pick Up.

Thought Behind the Gifts We Give

We provide several free gifts for each puppy adopted. It is vital for the mental health of a new puppy to have mom's scent. Thus, we provide a blanket and toys to keep as his/her personal belongings with mom's scent. It is important to slowly introduce a different type of dog food (if you choose to do so), thus we include a bag of our high quality puppy food. It is natural for puppies to chew. So to save on your shoes and to help teach the proper things to chew on, we provide something appropriate for him/her to chew on.