Welcome Home Labs – Adoption Process

We ALWAYS ask questions about each prospective adoptive family. Don’t be offended,
we just want to do all we can to make this a great experience for all involved. This helps us to make the best matches.

Complete The “Tell Us About You” Form

Overall, we are looking to place our puppies into Forever Families and we try to make the best fit we can for the puppy and the people. We want our puppies to have endless love, plenty of space to play around and a family that is in a good position to Welcome Home a Lab. A doggie companion is a 10-14 year commitment that must be made with much consideration. There is time in training and play, there are vet costs, you may find that you are not as free to come and go because you have another to consider. Please, don’t ever jump into getting a puppy. Do what is best for you and for the puppy and if you decide that now IS the time…we would be happy to try to help match you with your forever friend. 

A $215 ($15 is MN State Sales Tax which we are required to collect) deposit
will hold a spot for you on the our Reservation List which goes towards the total fee.  (PayPal deposit payments are $223)

Contact Us to join the Reservation List

We accept deposits for future puppies only after we have had a phone conversation determining that adding a puppy would be a good fit for you and the prospective puppy.  Call 320-838-3636.

We reserve according to your color and gender preference for your new puppy and to be fair to ALL families they choose their puppy in the order of the deposits received.  All of the puppies have strong genetics and have been tended to and loved with the utmost care making it that each puppy is a super option.  Some people will just get a choice and others won’t.  You can’t ‘buy’ a pick position.  

Please let us know if you are open to more than one color and/or gender. If you are flexible with color or gender it will increase your likelihood of welcoming your pup home sooner. We will place you on your 1st choice list and we will make note of other possibilities that may work for you. Having a ‘set’ color and gender preference is absolutely fine as well.

We will share with you which Labs we plan to pair over the next several months. We try to keep the reservation lists somewhat proportionate to the number of litters that we anticipate in any given 5-9 month period.

We don’t pick pups for people, but we are here to guide the selection with our knowledge of the individual personalities.

We do a comprehensive temperament test when the puppy is 6 weeks old and then again at 7 weeks. We will give the puppies a “grade” in several areas so that you have something a bit more measurable when you come to choose the right fit for your family. They are all adorable and they have great healthy genetics so we want to have a formal assessment to assist in your choosing. If someone absolutely wants a pup based on a physical characteristic rather than temperament we will honor their request, but we are very honest about which pup we feel would be the best match temperament wise.

While any of our pups would be a good fit for most anyone, we always want to make it an excellent fit if possible.

Puppy selections are made on the Welcome Home Day, which is at 8 weeks of age.  We choose at 8 weeks of age because we can see their temperaments and tendencies more fully which aids in making the best matches for you and puppy.  They also have enough puppy confidence built by now and a natural timing of being ‘ready to connect’ with their new families along with a prime trainability in the puppies so we believe that this is great timing.     

If for some reason someone is unable to make their pick at the established time we will pass over their pick in fairness to others (unless it is arranged ahead of time). The family would still get a puppy but they would just forfeit their pick option position.

Our prices are determined by the confirmed quality of the lines, the health/genetic testing that we do, care and services that we give each puppy, the teaching we offer and follow-up care that we give to our adoptive families.

We have top quality puppies with the best individualized family care. We do not “market” (word of mouth is our advertising) our puppies and we do not base price on coat color or one trait alone. Our prices are based on health, quality and care and we believe they are very fair. We want our families to have the whole package of a healthy dog with the temperament and looks. All puppies are placed in homes with Limited Registration and with a neuter/spay policy agreement unless discussed and agreed upon prior to the adoption.

The price for 2022 is $2200.  A deposit of $215 will hold your spot on the reservation list which will go toward the total.  The balance is due at or before the time of pick up. In addition, we are required to collect and submit MN State Sales Tax a rate of 7.375%.

At eight weeks you would come to pick your puppy and welcome him/her home.

We will schedule you for a one hour visit.  If you are choosing between two or more puppies then you will have time with those puppies to observe and connect.  We will then give you our temperament assessment information.  We send you puppy preparedness videos that we made about four weeks before you pick up your puppy.  We ask that you be sure to watch these videos. Once you choose your puppy then we will review any questions that you may have had from the videos or any other questions that you may have to help equip you for this special time. 

Through the videos and our time together we cover the health record and the continued vaccination protocol, microchip information, we discuss the potty spot and how to continue with the training.   The feeding schedule is discussed (we also send you with 5 pounds of Fromm Large Breed Puppy Gold), we talk about puppy nipping and correcting that behavior.  We discuss crate training, obedience training and the first days together.  We share our view on spaying and neutering and we hope you consider the benefits of waiting until your Lab is older before having a procedure done.  We clean ears and clip nails on each puppy before they go home and we teach you how to do this on your own. 

You would now get to cuddle up your newest family member and let the adventures and puppy kisses begin.