Black and chocolate labrador breeder wiltshire

About us and history

We are a small hobby kennel in Wiltshire and we work and show black and chocolate Labradors. Our dogs all live in the house and are very much part of the family. We care very much about the breed and we aim to produce Labradors that conform to the breed standard, are capable of working and are healthy with superb temperaments. Temperament is paramount, as our dogs are expected to squeeze together in a vehicle during the shoot season with other dogs week after week and not a grumble is heard from anyone. Looks are important too as you have to like what you look at every day and our dogs have typical Labrador heads with soft expressions. Our dogs are biddable and the most important thing for us, is not how many awards or prize cards they win but how easy they are to live with.

We bought our first Labrador, a yellow called Lucy in 2001 and she was the reason we fell in love with the breed. The Latin meaning of the name Lucy is Lightbringer and that is how we decided on the name for our kennel affix. Although Lucy was a lovely dog, she was bought as a pet and was not the quality bitch we needed to start our kennel. I had always wanted a chocolate Labrador so after going to shows and doing lots of research, we bought in a chocolate bitch (Hazel) from Gail Dodd of Carriegame Labradors. I had seen her sire INT CH Ole at the Labrador Retriever club centenary show and fell in love with him. Hazel proved to be a super foundation bitch and is behind everything we have today. I will always be grateful to Gail for letting us have Hazel. We kept a black bitch from Hazels first litter (Megan) and then kept a chocolate dog (Bailey) from Hazel's second litter and after proving himself in the show ring, the shooting field and being fully health tested, we decided to stand him at stud. Bailey proved to be a useful sire and he has passed on his superb temperament and good hip / elbow results to many of his offspring. He has progeny in the UK, France, Denmark and Sweden. Several of his offspring have been shown and qualified for Crufts, one has a CC, while many others are reliable working dogs. We are very proud that six of Bailey's offspring from different litters have gone to Canine Partners to be trained as assistance dogs, while another is a qualified diabetic alert dog and several others are Pets as Therapy dogs. Our bitches are instrumental to our kennel and all have been great mothers. Hazel, Megan, Ebony and Emma have all produced quality offspring that are consistent in type. In 2017 we bred our first completely home bred litter from Bailey and Ebony and kept a black bitch (Emma) who in 2019 had a super litter and gave us our latest addition - a chocolate dog (Ollie) who is a Bailey Grandson. Sadly Lucy, Hazel and Bailey are no longer with us but without them, we wouldn't have the dogs we have today and I owe them a great deal.

Working and showing

We show at Open and Championship shows when we can and although we show lightly, we have had some good placings at open shows - including several first places and Best of breed awards. Our dogs are also regularly placed at Championship shows. We have qualified five home bred dogs for Crufts in the breed ring and our dogs also qualify to compete at Crufts in the BASC Gamekeepers ring. We are proud that Hazel, Bailey and Megan have all produced offspring that have qualified for Crufts.

Although we enjoy showing, our main passion is working our dogs and we have been picking up with our dogs on various shoots for ten years and counting. Most of my proudest moments with my dogs have been when out picking up. A very well respected Labrador breeder once said "Unless you test your dogs by using them for what they were bred for - you will never know if they are a truly sound working dog or just a pretty one". Bailey and Megan worked for six years and we now have Ebony and Emma as our picking up team. We are very proud that Megan, Ebony, Rosie and Emma have all been awarded the Kennel Club Working Gundog Certificate on game after being assessed working on a shoot day and every dog we have bred and owned has worked on a shoot picking up. Megan passed the Gundog Club Retriever test Grade one, scoring 86 out of 90 marks (a distinction) aged just nine months old. All our older dogs have passed the Kennel Club Good Citizen Dog Scheme - Bronze, Silver and Gold levels and the younger ones have passed the Bronze level. Megan and Lucy have also been Pets as Therapy dogs.

Breeding and health testing

We only breed a litter when we want to keep a puppy which is usually every couple of years. Our bitches generally have two litters, three as a maximum. All our dogs are hip scored, elbow scored and eye tested and we also test for PRA, HNPK, CNM, SD2 and DM. We DNA test our chocolate Labradors to ensure they don't carry the dilute gene and we now test our bitches for copper toxicity. This ensures that our dogs and any puppies we breed will never be affected by these conditions - see the health testing page. We choose stud dogs that compliment our bitches and that contribute to improving the next generation, while keeping our type and temperament. We are now on our fifth generation and are proud that (so far) we have lowered or matched the hip score of the previous generation, with two scores of 0.0 and six being the highest hip score produced in our kennel. Our puppies go to pet homes, although some are shown and worked and we offer a lifetime of support to our puppy buyers. We will always have a puppy or older dog back if anything changes. We have waiting lists for our puppies and several owners have come back to us for a second or third dog. We like to keep in touch with our puppy buyers and many of them have become lifelong friends.

We are very experienced at handling stud dogs and we offer a fully comprehensive stud service, offering advice on breeding, whelping and raising a litter. We are happy to help find homes for any puppies sired by our boy(s) and we advertise any available stud litters on this website. We can evaluate semen, perform Ai and ship chilled or frozen semen worldwide. We have frozen semen available from Bailey.

I offer the following services:

Breeding services - Stud dog handling & mating assistance, semen evaluation, artificial insemination (fresh or chilled semen) and litter microchipping. I also sell products to assist with fertility and breeding. .
Gundog training / WGC - One to one gundog training, group classes, workshops and KC WGC test days.

About me

I am a member of: The Labrador Retriever Club, The Midland Counties Labrador Retriever Club, The Cotswold & Wyevern Labrador Retriever Club, The Labrador Retriever Club of Wales, The National Organisation of Beaters & Pickers up and several gundog clubs.

I am on the C-List with the Labrador Breed Council as a breed specialist judge and I judge Labradors at general open shows. I have been on the committee for the Cotswold & Wyevern Labrador Retriever Club for five years and have recently taken over as Assistant Secretary. I completed my Kennel Club Hands on Assessment Certificate in 2006 (assessed by Mrs Carol Coode) and have attended many Breed specific judging and conformation seminars over the last fifteen years. I have previously been a temperament assessor and regional co-ordinator for the charity Pets as Therapy.

I am a fully qualified dog trainer (ADTB) with over eighteen years experience running pet dog training classes and the KC GCDS. For the last nine years I have been offering gundog training for Labradors and other retriever breeds. I run small group classes and one to one sessions and I am qualified to assess dogs for the Kennel Club Working Gundog Certificate both on dummies and game. Andrew and I are both qualified Microchip implanters and I have also completed a first aid course for dogs, specialising in treating working dogs in the field. In July 2020, I completed a canine reproduction course at the Canine fertility centre in Jarrow and I am fully trained and certified to perform Ai and semen evaluation.