we had a phone call from our lovely breeder to say the puppies were born Tuesday. She has told us that in 4 weeks we will be a be able to see the puppies and there are 3 black dogs to pick from. Is there anything I should be particularly looking for when choosing between the 3 puppies. Any advice very welcome. Thank you
First, it helps if you know what kind of Lab you want. High energy like a field dog or calmer as bench dogs are supposed to be. The pups in a litter are all the same breeding, but they will often behave differently. With Tilly we got to see the whole litter, and picked one or two that we liked and one that we did not want, because while she was big, she was not out going. Tilly was a pretty high energy pup, but easy to train and live with. With Cooper, we only had a choice between two pups. Cooper came over to meet us and the other pup did not, so we chose Cooper, or rather she chose us. Be aware that the size of the pups is not necessarily a good indicator of their full grown size. Cooper was a tiny pup, but grew up a little bigger than her mom, and looked like both her mom and dad, tall fairly thin field dogs with more forward ears and a little less blocky head than a bench dog, though she can still get two tennis balls in her mouth.
Lay the puppy you want on its back in your arms and even invert it a little. If it stays calm during this, that is a good thing. Good breeders will be doing this with all their puppies from a young age. so you might find that they all are calm.
I kept 2 from my last litter. One was the one which wanted to be with you, would come and curl up on you or at your feet. She was also the smallest in the litter. She is now a year old, completely aloof, doesn't like fusses and is the largest out of the litter. The other was much more aloof puppy, hated being held etc. He is now a really sweet fuss pot and the happiest boy ever!
I kept 2 from my last litter. One was the one which wanted to be with you, would come and curl up on you or at your feet. She was also the smallest in the litter. She is now a year old, completely aloof, doesn't like fusses and is the largest out of the litter. The other was much more aloof puppy, hated being held etc. He is now a really sweet fuss pot and the happiest boy ever!
Interesting question which gets asked a lot and offers many responses from people. Perhaps my view is a bit different. First find the right breeder and build a rapport with him or her. Tell them exactly what type of dog you are looking for and what your circumstances are. The more they know the better the allocation becomes. Then let them pick the puppy for you as they will watch the puppies grow 8 weeks. But you need to recognize that is you have a preference for color or gender or both like we did with wanting a black bitch you limit the puppies to pick from. Although we had first pick from our breeder we ultimately had only choice out of 2 from 12. He stressed that a male would have been better suited for us but we insisted on a female. Therefore with these odds I would have picked the same dog myself just love the little girl but she keeps us on our toes. So Even if you go there a couple of times and care to take your pick it will be a crapshoot frankly. Many of the criteria mentioned above are emotional driven. You could still end up with wrong dog for your circumstances as a couple of hours are not enough to tell you much about the dog in my view. Certainly not at 4 weeks of age. Of course the breeder will want to place all dogs which likely leads to a misplaced dog ultimately for someone. Therefore dialogue with breeder is most important as not all puppies are the same in terms of drive, energy, etc. Good luck and remember training and socialization will count for more than what specific puppy you bring home to have good relationship with dog the next 15 years ;-))
