Kirby Labradors
Labrador Retrievers for Competition, Hunting, and Pets
Our family was given a Black Lab around 1976 and we have had an ongoing love affair with labs ever since. We bought a Chocolate in 1978 and started breeding to the best Chocolate factored field trial dogs in the country. Our goal: to produce good looking field trial quality Chocolates. Over the last 40 years we have produced 3 or 4 litters yearly and have shipped them all over America and Canada. Our preference is for our dogs to go to hunting or field trial families since our dogs are bred to work. However, our Labs are very adaptable and become happy family pets as well.
Around 2000, my daughter Laura Stryker and her children, Erica and Alex, joined us and assist with breeding, whelping and basic training. They are the proud owners of our beautiful breeding dog, Kirby’s Pretty Penny.
Most of the time we do the selecting of the pup for the buyer. Our effort is given to matching pup to people. We have never had a pup that didn't adapt to the new owner. Soft and easy dogs go to people of a similar nature.
On occasion, we select a dog for our own purposes that doesn't work out. We then sell that dog as a "started gun dog" and the buyer gets a great deal as the selling price never covers the cost of time and effort put into the training.
We have trained many of our own dogs to some degree but have depended on professional trainers at our Shady Oaks Kennel to do most of the work. We have run the dogs at numerous competitions and hunt tests.
