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Page created 9/5/2013 Thursday. Modified 9/10/13 Sun 10:40 AM
How to help identify pure breed Labrador Retriever puppies.
All picture references can be found at www.teds-labs.com

Below are helpful hints to help insure you are getting a pure breed Lab puppy.

1) Labs have two coats of hair. There is a very short, very thick, and soft coat and a longer courser coat. See the litter from CoCo 7/6/2012, the very first picture. Notice the very heavy thick undercoat and also the longer hairs sticking out.

2) As puppies they will have short stubby legs. see Blondie's litter of 11/21/2013, picture 7675-375 about 1/3 the way down on the right and CoCo's litter of 7/6/2012, number 5507-375 about 2/3 of the way down. The legs will become slimmer as the dogs grow to full size.

3) As puppies they should have a very thick tail at the base and be evenly tapered to the end. As adults the taper is only in the last 2" of the tail. The tail should be round all the way down. For puppies see Miss Vader's litter of 12/27/2012, picture 8649-375 about 2/3 of the way down. For Adults see Blondie 7687-375, 80% towards bottom of page for a clasic Lab tail. Sometimes the tail will become slimmer the last 2/3 for a while but most usually return to the classic tail. The thick base of the tail was bred into Labs so the dog could be brought back into the fishing boat by grabbing the skin on the neck and grabbing the tail to hoist out of the water. Most present day Labs are too large to pick up this way as people started preferring larger dogs as pets and the labs have been bred to produce a larger dog. The Labs are no longer used much for fishing but water foul hunters still have to have a smaller Lab because it is extremely difficult to get a 100-140 pound WET Lab back into a hunting boat.

4) Very Important: Colors; There are only three (3) Lab colors that can be registered, Black, Yellow, or Chocolate. See the last picture of Blondie's litter of 11/21/2012. People are calling some Labs, Silver, Red, etc but these are not recognized as lab colors by AKC and can not be registered as such. Yellows or Blonds can have a color shade variations over their body but it should still be a Blond type color. The Yellow color variations can be from white to a dirty blond color but not on the same puppy. The shade variations can be seen in Taka's litter of 6/7/2013, picture 270-375-T near bottom of the page. The variations of Blond colors should be small, not from white to dark blond.

5) Very Important: Markings; Labs should be a SOLID COLOR. Pay particular attention to the tip of the tail and the end of the toes. There should be no white or color change on the Blacks or Chocolates.The only acceptable place white should appear is a small patch of white on the chest no bigger than a cigarette pack when the dog is full size but even this is undesirable to most people.

6) The parents should have the lab crown on the top of there head. See the first picture of CoCo on my home page. Hers is very prominent.

7) Weight: A well fed Lab puppy can weight up to 10-1/2 pounds at 6 weeks. See the litter from CoCo 7/6/2012, the very first picture. There are some puppies that will weigh less and some runts will be half of that but there is usually only one runt per litter. The litter average weight at 6 weeks old, ( not counting the runt - see CoCo's litter of 12/31/2012 - picture 8397-375 ) should be between 8-10 pounds. You may want to take a fish scale with you to get an idea of the weight. Some people prefer the runt as they are usually more active where as the bigger puppies may be more laid back.

8) Any WEB picture can be right clicked and copied, then go to a folder or on your desktop and right click and paste. Then you can print out to take with you when you look at a puppy.

9) You can highlight this page, right click and copy it, Then open MS Word, right click and paste to word so you can only print what you want which saves ink, Then print and this makes it easier to find the reference pictures on the web page.

 
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