Labrador Retriever breeders
The Labrador Retriever (Lab) is an AKC Sporting-group dog descended from the St. John's water dog of Newfoundland and refined in nineteenth-century England into the dual-coat, otter-tailed retriever that has been the most-registered AKC breed for thirty-one consecutive years before French Bulldog overtook it in 2022.
Also known as: Lab · Labrador
Buying a Labrador Retriever, the working-breeder checklist.
A serious Lab breeder hands you four pieces of paperwork without being asked: OFA hips, OFA elbows, an annual CAER eye exam, and the EIC (exercise-induced collapse) DNA test result on both parents. They know whether they breed field-bred or show-bred lines and explain the temperament and energy differences without selling you on one over the other. Field-bred Labs are leaner, harder-driving, and built for working all day; show-bred ("English" type) Labs are blockier, calmer, and built for the conformation ring. They ask about your home: a working field Lab placed in a sedentary apartment is a recipe for chewed drywall. Ask to spend time with the dam off-leash so you can read her drive in addition to her temperament.
Typical price range
A Labrador Retriever puppy from a responsible breeder usually costs between fifteen hundred and three thousand dollars in the United States. Titled field-trial lines and conformation prospects from proven show kennels run higher, three to five thousand. Anything under eight hundred dollars almost always means the breeder skipped at least one of the four core clearances. Ask exactly what is included: shots, microchip, dewormer, vet check, AKC paperwork, and the lifetime take-back clause. "Silver Labs" carry color premiums that are real (the dilute gene is rare in true-Lab pedigrees and disputed in origin) but also marketing-driven; see the color section before paying a premium.
Health checks worth asking about
The Labrador Retriever Club CHIC requirements are OFA hips, OFA elbows, an annual CAER eye exam, and DNA tests for EIC (exercise-induced collapse), CNM (centronuclear myopathy), HNPK (hereditary nasal parakeratosis), and prcd-PRA (progressive retinal atrophy). Many breeders also test for dilute (dd) and SD2 (skeletal dysplasia 2). A breeder who can hand you all of the above on both parents and discuss the field-vs-show line genetics in their kennel is the breeder you want.
No Labrador Retriever breeders on Breed Ledger yet.
What buyers ask about Labrador Retriever.
Other sporting breeds worth considering.
Each link goes to the breeder directory for that breed. Labrador Retriever not quite the match for your household? These are the closest relatives.