Female · Chocolate
- Collar
- Green
- Sire
- Birch
- Dam
- Hazel
- Born
- 12 Apr 2025
- Ready
- 07 Jun 2025
Available
Est. 2024
44.4°N 72.7°W
Three litters a year.Every one of themaccounted for.
A family kennel in the Vermont hills raising Chocolate Labrador Retrievers for shooting, for service work, and for families who want a dog that settles. Both parents cleared on hips, elbows, eyes and a full DNA panel, with every certificate published on this site.
Available
03
Puppies looking for homes right now
Every one of these has both parents cleared on hips, elbows, eyes and a full DNA panel. Open a card to read the certificates.
Male · Chocolate
- Collar
- Blue
- Sire
- Birch
- Dam
- Hazel
- Born
- 12 Apr 2025
- Ready
- 07 Jun 2025
Available
Female · Chocolate
- Collar
- Red
- Sire
- Birch
- Dam
- Hazel
- Born
- 12 Apr 2025
- Ready
- 07 Jun 2025
Reserved
Male · Chocolate
- Collar
- Orange
- Sire
- Birch
- Dam
- Tessa
- Born
- 26 Apr 2025
- Ready
- 21 Jun 2025
Available
Why people drive six hours
- Both parents cleared, and you can read the certificates
- Hips and elbows scored by the OFA at two years or older, eyes examined annually, and a full DNA panel. Every certificate is published on the dog's own page. If a breeder will not show you these, that is your answer.
- Raised in the house, not in a run
- The whelping box is in the sitting room. Puppies are handled every day by the whole family, and they meet the noises of an ordinary house long before they ever meet yours.
- You meet the dam before you commit
- In the house she lives in. We will not do car park handovers and we will not sell you a puppy you have never seen in person unless we have spoken at length first.
- We take the dog back. Always.
- At eight weeks or at eight years, for any reason, with no questions and no fee. It is written into the contract, and it is the promise we would judge another breeder by.
The parents
You will meet every one of them before you decide
These are the dogs that live in our house. Their clearances are on their own pages, with the certificates attached and the dates they were taken.
Chocolate · b. Mar 2021
- Reg
- SR000000/01
- Hips
- OFA Excellent
- Elbows
- OFA Normal
- Eyes
- CAER Clear
- DNA
- 5-panel clear
Chocolate · b. Apr 2021
- Reg
- SR000000/02
- Hips
- OFA Good
- Elbows
- OFA Normal
- Eyes
- CAER Clear
- DNA
- 5-panel clear
Chocolate · b. Aug 2022
- Reg
- SR000000/03
- Hips
- OFA Good
- Elbows
- OFA Normal
- Eyes
- CAER Clear
- DNA
- 5-panel clear
Health clearances and registries
- AKC Registered
- OFA Hips
- OFA Elbows
- CAER Eye Exam
- EIC Clear
- PRA-prcd Clear
- CNM Clear
- Embark Tested
Pairing to pickup
How a Golden Pup puppy gets to you
- 01
Pairing
We choose the sire for what the dam needs, not for what is convenient. Both dogs are cleared before a mating is planned, and we skip a season if the pairing is not right.
- 02
Whelping
Puppies are born in the house and stay there. Somebody sleeps beside the box for the first ten nights, and the vet sees the litter at forty-eight hours.
- 03
Weeks three to eight
Crates, car rides, stairs, gunfire at a distance, a vacuum cleaner, children, and a floor that moves. By eight weeks a Golden Pup puppy has met the things that frighten dogs.
- 04
Going home
You collect, we deliver within four hours' drive, or a flight nanny brings the puppy to you. Whichever way, the folder comes with it.
From a family we placed a dog with
Photo slotOwner placement letter — awaiting copy
One long quote from a family who has had their dog two years or more. Ask them what surprised them, not whether they were happy — surprise is the detail that reads as true. Around forty words. Their own photograph of the grown dog at home works better here than anything we could shoot.
Roughly 45 words · attribution and town below
Placements
What the families said afterwards
We ask everyone the same question two years on: what surprised you? Surprise is the detail that reads as true, and it is more use to you than another sentence about how happy somebody is.
Sample copy · awaiting real lettersThe four below are written examples showing the tone and length to aim for — the families and dogs named in them are not real customers. Add genuine letters under Placements in the admin panel and they replace these automatically. This notice comes off at the same time, not before.
What surprised me was how little of the work was left to us. She came home already used to the crate, the car and the vacuum cleaner, and slept through the second night. Two years on she is the calmest dog at the pond.
We asked for the hip scores and had them by email the same evening, with the registry numbers so we could look them up ourselves. After four months of talking to breeders who got vague at that question, it decided us.
They talked us out of the litter we first asked about. Wrong timing for our two children, they said, wait for the spring one. Nobody selling you a three thousand dollar dog tells you to wait unless they mean it.
He is four now and has hunted three seasons. They still ring us at Christmas to ask how he is getting on, and still send photographs of his sister. It does not feel like a transaction that ended when we drove away.
Talk to us
Ask us anything before you decide anything
Nothing is paid on this website. Message us and you will usually hear back the same afternoon — and we would rather spend twenty minutes talking you out of a Labrador than place one badly. If we are not the right kennel for you, we will say so and give you two other names.
- Phone
- (202) 643-8872
- Monday – Friday
- 8:00am – 6:00pm
- Saturday
- 9:00am – 2:00pm
- Sunday
- Visits by appointment
- Where
- PLACEHOLDER TOWN, VT
Open in maps ↗
Visits by arrangement — there is usually a litter in the sitting room and we would like to know you are coming. Full contact details.