Ok so my wife and I lost a dog recently that we have had for 11 years, and we are looking at replacing her with a hunting dog. Any advise on what to look for in an adopted dog?
We are going to get a puppy.

Getting a purebred lab from a rescue is hit and miss. It can be done though. Usually those that are owner surrendered are not puppies. The best place to look for a lab, as close to pure bred as possible, is through a dedicate lab only rescue. You may run across someone that had an unwanted litter. But you never know 100% what you are adopting.

Adoption cost vary but that covers the costs of vetting, spay/neuter if dogs are old enough, microchipping. I know we adopt our rescues out for 300-350. Less if it's an owner surrender and we have a history of health records and they don't need anything. Yes it sounds high but it's not a money making scheme I can promise you. When you get one from a rescue, most dogs are placed in a home and the fosters treat them as their own. You will get info from the foster about the dog, good and bad. Shelters don't do this all the time and you are not sure what type of health issues a shelter dogs may have. All of our rescues are fully vetted upon intake, hw tested and if they are positive, they undergo hw treatment as per the American Heartworm Society protocol. Unless the adopter is competent enough to go through treatment, the dogs stay in foster home till cleared by vet.

As far as making it a hunting dog. Any dog can be trained. However, if you are getting one from a rescue, there is a chance that it may not hunt or don't want to. Just don't get your expectations too high. Most rescued dogs aren't wanted for one reason or another.

petfinder.com has listing of all dogs that are looking to be adopted. This could include shelters and rescues.

I hope I touched on a few of your questions. If you have more feel free to ask.

I network through facebook with many other rescues. What is your time frame to get another? what color? sex? and max age you would like?

One of the best working labs I've ever seen was a stray. Drive always wins over pedigree

A few other things.
1. rescues will do home visits to make sure everything is OK in your home.
2. some require wood fences.
3. some even frown upon adopters that leave the dogs outside 24/7. we rescue for a reason. to mold these dogs into family members to give them a good life.
4. they should do vet checks and check refrences.
5. you may have to list all previous animals.


If you want to get an idea of what someone fills out when looking to adopt from NOLA Lab Rescue, you can take a look at our adoption application here.

Also My mother runs the animal shelter down here, pm me if your interested

Here is a pic of the 2 little shits I got suckered into fostering last week. They were 2 remaining of 5 that were dumped out of a pickup a couple weeks ago.
And no I have no idea what breed they are. 1 seems to have shar pei traits and the other resembles a viszla.

I did see a couple on NOLA's website, but it said they were what looked like Ontario (ON). I would like to see if my current dog would be ok with the new addition. Introduce them and see if our current pet is ok with the new addition.

All rescues network. So if you see another, we'll just have to transport it.

Ok so I got a lab today. Was looking at a couple, and when I told the wife, she locked in on a particular dog. This dog is to replace the fluffy little one she just lost (had to ut her down after 12 years of great companionship) thankfully no more little dogs for us. Got one with hunting pedigree so that I can spend the time and money on training him.

Now the fun begins. Thanks for all the emails on this thread.

I am shure that your dog shelter system is helping a lot of dogs a that is a good thing. Just don't let them get out of control . Next to PETA the human society here in Canada is the next hated anti hunting group. The liberals and gays have taken it over and are totally out of control. They have just put charges of animal cruelty on her cat because it was to fat! The head of the s.p.c.a. Makes over a 180,000 a year. They have been made special officers and don't need a search warrant to come on your land and check it out. Totally out of controller big government. There are rumours that they are trying to stop us from using dead birds for training and also for our H.R.C.H tests. If that happens it will be the death of all the Ontario clubs. Did you guys know that they ban the owner ship of pit bulls in Ont.? It's not the dogs falt they have assholes that own them I had one and they can be on of the best dogs you can own! I also know they want all trapping ban. I have no respect for anyone that puts an old lady in jail for letting her cat get to fat. No doubt because she loved that cat to death. Bottom line if you hunt you can not support this group in Canada. They are active in trying to stop all forms of hunting.