28/04/2022
Guardianships:
We have some exciting guardianship opportunities available now and some coming up soon.
A guardianship is not right for every home but can be an outstanding arrangement for the right home. It allows a family to get a well-bred puppy for free or at a substantial discount, depending on the specific arrangement, to be theirs for life, in exchange for allowing a breeder to have agreed-upon breeding access. A guardianship also provides a family an inside track toward getting another puppy in the future, offspring from a dog they have come to know with the thoroughness that comes only from living with a dog. The guardian also gets valuable health testing results, paid for by the breeder. The breeder handles all breeding-related expenses, and all of the work (the female goes to the breeder shortly before her due date) unless a family wishes to host during puppy time, which some do. A guardianship allows a breeder to expand genetic diversity without getting spread too thin by keeping more dogs full-time, and it allows a dog to have a forever home where that dog gets all of the attention he or she deserves. Two interesting aspects of guardian homes are that people who enter into a guardianship often enter into a second one (a testament to how well they like it) and that homes which enter guardianships often have levels of affluence more than high enough to purchase a dog outright, but they apparently see great value in guardianships.
Guardian puppies available now or soon:
Available Now Tucker-and-Rose Litter: Two females and one male are available as guardian pups now. We also have female siblings available outright, not as guardian pups--they come with a rare guarantee of OFA Excellent (or PennHIP equivalent) hips. These should grow up to be smaller than most Labs, very healthy, slender, and athletic, near the minimum weights of the breed standard, 55 pounds for girls and 65 pounds for the boy. They are not hyper but should be well-matched with active homes where, once they mature, they will be able to join in lots of hiking or running, and they should have long, healthy lives. They also have outstanding DNA test results from Embark, the broadest test panel available, so they will never suffer from any of the genetic diseases that are on Embark’s panel and plague a surprising number of Labs, such as Exercise-Induced Collapse, Progressive Retinal Atrophy, Centronuclear Myopathy, etc. They also have unusually-low genetic Coefficients Of Inbreeding (gCOI), far below the breed average, making them less likely to inherit the same recessive genes from both parents for a wide range of hereditary diseases for which there are not yet specific DNA tests available. Their parents both have outstanding PennHIP scores, and these pups are planned to be the beginning of one of our SuperHips lines,. A few additional, interesting characteristics:
o Mother was imported from England. She is a British (working) Lab, not an English Lab.
o Her sire is a titled field Champion in England.
o Both of sire’s parents are titled field Champions.
o The British influence runs strong in them. These pups don’t bark much, which is common for British Labs.
o They are inherently shy compared with most Lab pups. They absolutely love attention and being snuggled, but they are less extroverted and less likely to walk up to strangers. The ice gets broken quickly, though. Their mother Rose is an unofficial therapy dog who visits a retirement home regularly and is adored there.
o They should have outstanding trainability and eagerness to please.
Available Soon Brindle-Pointed Pups: One male and one female available soon as guardian pups. They are both black with beautiful brindle points on their lower legs, faces and butts. Every Lab puppy is cute; these two are extra-cute, especially in person. Both are very friendly, outgoing and healthy. Both also carry the genes for yellow, chocolate and dilute, so, when they mature, depending on their mates, they can have pups who are black, yellow, chocolate, charcoal, champagne, silver, tan-pointed, brindle-pointed, or brindle all over. The plan for these two pups is to breed them with dogs who have excellent health and excellent temperaments for therapy dog work, to create lines of therapy dogs who have unusual appearances, to help break the ice and get people talking. Background: When the Labrador Retriever breed was being developed, when the stud books were open and it was legitimate to breed a female Lab with a male of another breed and the pups were still officially considered Labs, numerous other breeds were blended into the gene pool. Occasionally, recessive genes for various cosmetic aspects, such as tan points, brindle points, silver color, long coat, etc. are inherited from both parents, and purebred Lab puppies with unusual appearances are the result. These pups have had Embark DNA testing already and will never suffer any of the hereditary diseases on Embark’s panel.
Available Soon Da Vinci Code Pups from “Secret Lines:” If you’ve ever read the Dan Brown novel “The Da Vinci Code,” or seen the movie, you’ll particularly appreciate these pups. The basic plot of the book is that Jesus Christ had a child, and throughout the centuries, direct biological descendants have been carefully protected and kept secret, evading evil-doers who would try to kill them. This is relevant to Labs because there is an oft-repeated conspiracy theory which holds that silver Labs are not purebred and result from illicit cross-breeding with Weimaraners in the US sometime after the stud books closed. The decade of this alleged cross-breeding and even the alleged breeder both vary widely, from the 1950s Kellogg Kennel to the 1980s Crist C**o Kennel; apparently liars don’t always get their lies straight. The conspiracy theory holds (falsely) that pedigrees of all lines of silver Labs descend from just two dogs at one well-known North American breeder, and that this breeder did the alleged cross-breeding. The conspiracy theory is highly flawed, has no supporting evidence whatsoever, and is contradicted by considerable evidence, including DNA and historical records of silver Labs in England as early as 1903, but it has been repeated so often that many people assume it must be true. The stigma on breeders who wish to avoid being accused of cross-breeding when they have an occasional, surprise silver puppy in a litter is so strong, there appear to be numerous lines of silver Labs that have gone extinct due to aggressive culling. It appears likely that some silver puppies were not allowed to live long enough to open their eyes.
Most surviving lines of silver Labs do have pedigrees which go through two particular Labs of the 1950s at Kellogg Kennel. Conspiracy theorists take this fact and run with it, claiming falsely that all silver Labs descend from those two dogs. There are numerous so-called “secret lines,” however, which do not descend from them. A secret line is a line of Labs who carry the dilute gene and do not descend from the two Kellogg dogs who are ancestors of most silver Labs. These secret lines have occasionally been sources of puzzlement, and even shame and fear among breeders not eager to be subjected to allegations of breeding impure Labs. The secret lines that survive are prized by fans of silver Labs.
We have two beautiful, female, English Labs from a secret line available soon to select guardian homes. We won’t reveal their color here, just that they are not silver, but both have had their DNA tested and both carry the dilute gene that makes a chocolate Lab silver when two copies are present. They both have impressive pedigrees that do not go through Kellogg Kennel. Our intention is to preserve this rare line by breeding them with high-quality Labs from other secret lines, or select non-dilute lines, which do not descend from Kellogg Kennel.
If you would like to learn more about possibly becoming a guardian for any of the pups described above, please send a PM. Thank you!
