There is no way I would choose a pup at 3wks. You can not tell anything at that age. Since you are only 2hrs away you should make it appoint of seeing them at 6-7 weeks before making a choice. 2hrs isn't that far. I would ask the breeder what she does with her dogs. Does she show them, work them, do they live with the family or in a kennel away from the family. Are they out going labs or lazy labs. what are looking for in a lab? Have you told her what your plans are. will she help you pick a pup or are you on your own?
Depending on what style of Lab you want, I would ask about the parents Hunting or Field Trial Titles, or Show Titles. We prefer the Field Style dogs, because they tend to be thinner, and taller, and in our experience easy to train. We want to see at least pictures of the Sire and Dam, if we can't actually go visit, and also some pictures or video of the pups. With Tilly we visited the kennel two times before we picked her, and then took her home. With Cooper the kennel was about 7 hrs away, and the breeder was delivering the two chocolate pups to two families in Portland. We had never actually seen Cooper until they came in for a Field Trial, and we got to chose one of the two pups. We saw pics of the Sire and Dam, like they way they looked and their accomplishments, (Master Hunter, Senior Hunter) even though I had no serious plans to hunt Cooper. These are things I would look for, beyond the medical clearances. In both cases we had deposits on a pup, to secure our position, before we knew which pup we would take. I don't recall if we had a deposit down before they were born, but it is not uncommon.
will be impossible for us to visit at 6/7 weeks as we will be on holiday in Dorset at the time which is 7 and half hours away. I will probably hold off a visit until a bit later, and to be honest haven't even decided whether to go for this litter as sire is a show type and dam a dual type & I would prefer field type due to preferring the look of them. The daily search continues
If the breeding is thoughtful, and they working with good temperaments, I think the puppies from a good dual purpose dog x show line dog would be spot on, if everything else is in place, meaning comprehensive health tests going back a few generations. Definitely worth considering.
