In 1982 the original Diamond R dog, Diamond R Sexy Sophie, encompassed all the qualities Peter Rothing found ideal in an American Labrador. Hard working, aggressive entry to brush and water, 'birdiness', willingness to please, and an extremely easy-going temperament. Most importantly, she had the ability to produce the same or better in her offspring.  Sophie’s bloodline was one of the very few bloodlines in the country to purposefully contain chocolate at the time and to this day the Sophie line consistently produces top-quality performance dogs that are a joy to have in the home.  

We select our dogs not only on temperament and ability, but their ability to pass on those traits. We don’t breed titles to titles, because at the end of the day, most of us don’t need champions. We need a healthy, hard-working hunting dog that will retrieve a bird and be a joy to have at home at the end of the day. Even the most used hunting dog will need to be manageable at home the other 200+ days a year!  We work our dogs each season in the field, in real-life hunting situations, so we know exactly what they are capable of.

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We know our waitlist may feel like a long wait.  As an intentional breeding program, we do things differently by design. We are not a volume-based operation, and we don’t breed on demand. If we were simply filling orders, we would become the opposite of what we stand for. 

 This means we only breed our girls when:

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1.  They are in good health.

2.  They won’t miss a whole hunting season.

3.  We have enough committed, intentional homes for the litter (We do not breed without deposits).

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It’s important to note that heat cycles can be unpredictable. While we try to estimate based off a six-month schedule, we’ve seen variations of +/- two months, or more. Nature often has its own pace. If you’ve placed a deposit and are waiting on a specific sex, color, or pairing, we absolutely understand! You’re welcome to have narrow preferences, but please be aware that this may extend your wait.

We don’t breed to meet demand. If this were the case, we would own 3x as many dogs. We breed for sound structure, steady temperaments, and lifelong hunting and family companions. That takes time, and we believe the right pup is worth the wait.

We produce all three colors of labs in mixed litters, with color as the last thing we breed for, which gives us more freedom in breeding to concentrate on working ability, health, and temperament first. 

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If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via our Contact page.  Thank you!