Jenny & John both grew up with different breeds of dogs during childhood.
Our first dog together was "Sky" a border collie bred from the renowned sheep dog trials champion and trainer; Willie Stevenson from the Isle of Arran.
We bred Skye her in 2006. Although she was considered a pet to us, she was the smartest & easiest dog to train, either of us had every had in our life. She gave us 2 litters of clever, confident well balance pet home puppies, and we enjoyed seeing them grow up with their families when out and about on the Isle of Arran over the years.
In 2006 we couldn't resist getting that gorgeous yellow girl Labrador puppy "Storm" born just a mile from us. Her parents were from the well known Scottish champion show line Kennels of Frewlings & Confier (now known as Kinchyle) with a fine touch of Ramsayville within her pedigree lineage.
When Storm was 3 we knew we wanted to experience life with having a daughter from her. She had the looks and we wanted to choose a sire with a bit more working line to have more of a dual purpose of 'beauty & brains.' We choose a sire with a good pedigree back ground with a balance of show & working, he was a local Labrador here on the island.
in 2009; Brigh of Bogarie & in homage to her mother 'Arran Labradors' was born. We have had 5 generations from 'Storm' and over the years we learned a lot about being a 'hobby breeder.'
2012 we lovingly brought into our home Frewlings 'Dubhmhor' and he taught us about the show world. Jenny began taking him into ring craft classes at 4 months of age and his first show was a championship at 11 months and he placed in a group of 15 other dogs from the highly experienced Labrador breeder & judge Andy Metcalfe of Baileydale Labradors. We knew at that time our focus would be on breeding labradors that would be judged by our peers to ensure we were breeding quality breed standard labradors.
Over the years it has been the amazing people who have come to us to get labradors, some who had always had labradors some that had a one time experience or no experience with the breed. Many of these people brought to our attention, informing us about the serious health issues that can come with the dog if 'both' parents were not tested for common Labrador genetic issues.
DNA Health Tests
First and foremost it is imperative that one understands that 'both' parents must be tested, do not rely on a dog that the breeder states they are "clear from parentage or hereditary clear." We learned this first hand from a dog we brought in 2017 and the breeder said she was hereditary clear and we went ahead and DNA tested her 'prior to breeding her' only to find out, not only was she a 'carrier' of a well known genetic disease of HNPK that her brother was affected with that disease and these results were advertised on the Kennel Club website . This meant that both of the parents were carriers and a percentage of the litter would be affected, some pups would be carriers and some pups clear of that disease.
A breeding dog can be a 'carrier' of a disease as long as the other parent is 'clear' of that disease.
If you go on line to the RKC they will advise a 'Comprehensive set of DNA tests for Labrador Retrievers' however only list 8 genetic diseases. All ethical breeders should be testing 'both' parents for all 8 of these diseases within the United Kingdom.
Further research you will find that there are 28 Labrador Breed Relevant genetic tests currently available with a further total 246 combined tests for all breeds. These genetic DNA tests are available for anyone, not just for breeders, who want to test their dogs, and they are available with EMARK, laboratories.
Please refer to EMBARK website directly to learn about all these genetic tests.
All of our labradors are tested with EMBARK with the known tests available at the time, prior to breeding.
Both parents should also have had their hips & elbows scored by the BVA.
Further understanding of these results numbers is required.
Also do keep in mind; what 'you' do with your puppy the first 2 years of life can contribute to hip & elbow dysplasia. It is important to understand that nutrition, environment, over exercise & timing of spay / neuter can play a big role in the growth plates of the Labrador retriever from 8 weeks to 2 years of age, that has nothing to do with genetics.
We have met many wonderful people over the years who have a Arran Labrador from us. You can see many testimonials on our old Face Book page "Arran Labradors."
Please visit our website: "Arran Labradors" for more testimonials, to see some of our purebred labradors and all of their health test results, pedigree lineage and their kennel club championship show accolades. And find out our procedure for getting a Arran Labrador from us.
We are hobby breeders and only breed when we are wanting to keep a puppy for ourself.
Purebred Labradors Only come in 3 colours: Black, Yellow & Chocolate.
Keep The Labrador Retriever's Pure: Ensure your Labrador has been tested "Clear" of the Dilute Gene.
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