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Apsley Labs

Black Female
DOB:8-7-2000
- Pedigree
- Kennel Club Number:AA03386905
- American Kennel Club Number:SN1478580
- British Hip Scheme 3/5
- British Eye Scheme

However, in actual fact I have been able to satisfy both my mistress and my master due to the fact that my mother was a beautiful English lab who was a much loved pet and my father was a Field Trial Champion.

Although I was to live in doors I still had to undergo daily obedience training in front of the working dogs that would make rude comments from their kennel runs. When John noticed how intimidated I was by the others we moved my training sessions out into the fields until I became fully competent and confident.

I really enjoyed the comfort and the companionship of living with my owners and had no desire to join the workers in the kennels. However, I was jealous whenever I heard John unlock the safe and take a gun out because I knew that within a few minutes I would hear the excited barks from the working dogs when they were let out to go hunting.

When I was about ten months old John took me with him one summers evening just I was about to go into a depression because I was being left at home as usual. Ten minutes later we were walking along a hedgerow to a wheat field that was being destroyed by dozens of rabbits when John suddenly froze. He signaled with his hand for us to drop and stay before he began to creep forward towards some rabbits feeding about 50 yards away.

I didn’t realize at the time that this was a very serious training session for all of us. Firstly, we had to walk very quietly to heel, secondly whenever John stopped to look and listen we had to stop panting so as not to make a noise, thirdly when John has seen a target we were to lie down and stay as he moved forward to shoot, and lastly when we heard the bang we had to wait for him to return to select one of us to make the retrieve. With young dogs John would not shoot over them until he was sure that they were not gun shy.

The first time I heard the gun fire I looked around me at seven eager companions that were quivering with anticipation and realized that the loud noise meant that one of us was going to be lucky enough to get the retrieve, and there was absolutely no reason to be scared. Within a couple of weeks I not only understood what was expected of me but couldn’t wait to join the workers whenever they went hunting.

In the summer of 2002 I had a litter of pups with Toby, the handsome yellow who lived out in the kennel. There were 4 yellow and 4 black puppies and everyone was very pleased.

In the spring of 2003 we moved to the United States and I hear that my primary role is to produce beautiful English looking Labradors.