Von Bussler Labrador Retrievers & Labradoodles

11/20/2024

Update: Pups are home!

VBL families! 2 labs have been picked up in the Birmingham, Alabama area. Since their owners did not register their chips, the call came back to us. I am not home to check litter records. Both are male, one yellow and one chocolate. They are 7-8 years old. If these are your boys, please get a hold of us.

10/17/2024

We have 2 retired females looking for forever placements. Although they are welcome to live out their days with us, we feel they would enjoy living in a household with fewer dogs and less competition for attention. Both are housetrained and we will only consider indoor homes with opportunity for lots of love. Both are spayed, microchipped and up to date on vaccinations and heartworm preventative. Both are trained to use a doggy-door.

A little about each:

Bailey is a 5 year old chocolate Lab. She is friendly with kids, other dogs and cats. She has a tendency to gain weight, so she will need a family to keep her active. She has had DNA disease trait testing, and OFA hip, elbow, patella and cardiac exams.

Dahlia is a 5 year old black Labradoodle. She is a "wirehair" and looks more like a small Irish Wolfhound. She does shed. She is the sweetest girl ever, but needs a home without cats. She requires very little grooming. She has had DNA disease trait testing, and OFA hip, elbow, patella and cardiac exams.

We will begin accepting "inquiries of interest" and will accept a placement we feel is best suited to each of our girls. We require veterinary references, an indoor home and a fenced yard area.

Please send us a message with any questions.

09/16/2024

Update: He is home with his family. All hail the power of the microchip!!

VBL families! A black male lab has been picked up by Clay County Animal Control in Louisville, IL. His family did not register his chip, so the call came back to me. If this is your fur baby, get in touch with me ASAP!!

06/03/2024

I just read a thread and wanted to beat my head against the wall. Sadly asking an opinion on Facebook is not a great way to educate yourself unless it’s a group of professionals, and even then….

So what was the post that made me feel this way?

“DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YELLOW, BLACK AND CHOCOLATE LABS
For those who have owned and lived with different colors of labs, are there any characteristics that are similar to the other.
Hoping this might help those fur parents looking into getting a new furry family member.”

Let’s throw some actual facts and education out instead of old wives tails and crazy town. As a Labrador Breeder, judge, and someone in vet med, let’s break it down with science instead of opinion. We will simplify.

Answers were all over the board saying things like yellows always have allergies. Black labs are lazy and overweight. Soooo much misinformation. My head was ready to explode, so I needed to blog!

Let’s start with color genetics.
Black is dominant, and chocolate and black are on the same gene pairing on the B locus. In fact all labs are either a black lab or a chocolate lab. Let me repeat that. All labs are either black or chocolate. Now you think I am a nut, because what about yellow? Yellow is on the E locus and is a masking gene. Mask gene means it covers up the existing color with yellow. The dog is either masking a black lab or masking a chocolate lab. How can you tell? Does the yellow lab have black pigment around the eyes and on the nose or is the pigment chocolate, or is the pigment as lab breeders call it “liver?” Sometimes the slang term used is Dudley, but that is a completely different conversation.

So Labs are either black or chocolate and can be masked by the yellow gene.

What comes next?
Color inheritance.
Chocolate and yellow gene traits are double recessive so to produce chocolate or yellow it must be carried by both parents, and the offspring must get a copy from each parent to express the color, meaning that you can see it with exception to black. Black is dominant and the default basically. Only takes one copy to produce black, not two.

Here is why all the stuff above is silly.
Let’s say the Sire/Dad is black, but he carries chocolate and carries one copy of yellow. He can produce all three colors. Let’s say the Dam/Mom is chocolate and carries yellow. They have ten puppies. Same mom and dad, same genetics, same gene pool. Because of their color genetics this litter could produce black, chocolate, and yellow. All three colors. Are you telling me each color is going to have different traits because of their color? No. It doesn’t work that way. It’s just an uneducated opinion. The puppies will get similar traits to mom and dad and other dogs in their pedigree no matter the color. Hereditary traits like activity level, temperament, and ability are passed down no matter what color. Same with most health issues and allergies. Color doesn’t matter, unless you are adding dilutes in and then again there are a couple of additional factors.

That being said there are a few things you should know. Yes, chocolates have a shorter lifespan. They don’t know why, but they do think it has something to do with chocolate being a double recessive gene trait. On average, they live almost 2 years less than their black and yellow counterparts.

Why do people say chocolates are crazy? Well, that one’s not so much of a wives tale or opinion. Unfortunately, back in the 1960s after the first chocolate started winning in the show, chocolate became very popular. With their popularity, the demand became very high and every chocolate lab out there whether good bad or ugly, was being bred whether they should have been or not. This did create some high drive and unintelligent dogs. Unfortunately, this had nothing to do with color and everything to do with a boom in bed Breeding and backyard Breeding. That has changed to some extent but there are still breeders just breeding for color.

Let’s talk shedding. That depends on how correct the coat is and if they are on a good food. Show lines tend to have a more even coat with better under coat. This can mean more hair. Yellow shows up a bit more. Again, it’s not coat color as much as coat traits.

Hope this helps. 

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine’s Day, from our doghouse to yours!

02/11/2024

To ensure a happy Valentine's Day, keep in mind the potential dangers of certain flowers and opt for pet-friendly alternatives. Our furbabies are counting us. 💕💘

02/06/2024

01/30/2024

Love it! ❤️

01/25/2024

Tripp (formerly Trace) living his best life with his new mom! 🐾💙

01/23/2024

A tip to keep in mind this coming Valentine’s Day.

01/22/2024

Did you know this was a risk to your pet?

01/19/2024

Update: Brooks is reserved, pending deposit.

I can't believe I'm posting this again...

We thought we’d found Brooks a perfect family… three times now! Two families have ”ghosted” him. The other one has not been able to commit at this time. So, he is now available ... again. None of the familes that turned him down have actually met him. So, its nothing he's done. It's merely tough luck. He's healthy, gorgeous and sweet as can be. If you’re considering adding a VBL puppy to your family, message us to see if Brooks is the right fit.

Brooks is AKC registered, microchipped, has all age appropriate vaccinations and dewormings, has had a full veterinary exam, and will come home with his first month of heartworm preventative, 30 days of free pet insurance through Trupanion, and lifetime breeder support.

Both parents have DNA disease trait testing (tested for 180+ disease traits) and OFA hip and elbow xrays, along with patella and cardiac testing. All OFA testing was submitted and scored by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals.

01/15/2024

The best way to spend these cold days. 💙❄️