Does anyone have any experience with Hargrove Heaven Farms in Caddo Mills, TX?

We are starting to look for our next family lab.

Does anyone have a better recommendation for English style labs? Not looking for a competition gun dog, nor the price tags associated with most breeders up here in CO. Just a nice big, blocky, lovable family dog (we would like chocolate, red fox, or silver), that we can pour into and train for what we want to do.

And yes, we have been and are keeping our eyes on shelters in our region (CO). But they are pretty infrequent for what we are looking for- which is why we are looking at TX breeders.

Thanks in advance.

I'm sure you'll get quite a few recommendations here, but you should also consider the price of travel to pick up that dog. Hard to believe there isn't a breeder in CO that meets your price point.

Most of my experience is just from my latest search, and I just ended up getting one off of here from a guy down in college station. She's been a great dog.

What prices are they charging? Because if you want to personally pick your puppy in person and travel from Colorado that's probably $2-300 minimum + cost of your time. Then do it again 5 weeks later when it's time to take it home... that is Far East Texas and isn't going to be a quick trip.

Buck Compton said:

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I'm sure you'll get quite a few recommendations here, but you should also consider the price of travel to pick up that dog. Hard to believe there isn't a breeder in CO that meets your price point.

Most of my experience is just from my latest search, and I just ended up getting one off of here from a guy down in college station. She's been a great dog.

What prices are they charging? Because if you want to personally pick your puppy in person and travel from Colorado that's probably $2-300 minimum + cost of your time. Then do it again 5 weeks later when it's time to take it home... that is Far East Texas and isn't going to be a quick trip.

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You raise some great points, and I appreciate give insight. We travel back to DFW and Houston fairly often already- at least every 3 months. So, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to schedule a trip when needed, and spend some time with family to boot.

Most of what I have found here in CO is pretty high. The nearest I have found is about 4 hours away, and most being 6-8 hour drive. Dallas isn't that much further, and we have family there. Plus, there are a lot of the extremes here- $2500-3000 hard charging gun dogs, or "crazy dog lady". I Just can't find the breeder that's right for us, and shares our approach and mentality to training. I'm not saying there isn't one, I just haven't found them yet. I've even looking in NM some as well, there are some sketchy looking operations there. Churning them out, and charging crazy high prices right now because everyone wants a puppy with the quarantine.

That's why I wanted to see what TexAgs might recommend!

The weird people and the expensive people hang out in the off-color world of Labs. Your odds of a healthy dog from a reputable breeder are lower here.

Think yellow or black and you will find what you are looking for.

Silver is a lab/weimereiner mix.

I have a Wildrose lab who is everything they claim their dogs to be. Will be a Wildrose owner for life. Main kennel is in Oxford, but they recently started having puppies at their Dallas kennel. They also have a facility in Granite, CO but no puppies. Cheaper than the prices you quoted.

Oruc Reis said:

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Silver is a lab/weimereiner mix.

I have a Wildrose lab who is everything they claim their dogs to be. Will be a Wildrose owner for life. Main kennel is in Oxford, but they recently started having puppies at their Dallas kennel. They also have a facility in Granite, CO but no puppies. Cheaper than the prices you quoted.

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Thanks for the recommendation. I didn't know Wildrose had facilities in TX. I'll be calling them soon.

Shipping a puppy is easy. You don't have to go pick it up. We had our dog shipped to us from Wyoming a few years ago. Picked him up in his crate at the cargo shipping area at the Austin airport. We got lots of pictures and videos from the breeder before hand and I'd have no problem doing it again. I think it cost about $150 to have him shipped also. Don't limit your dog search based on location if you can find a knowledgable breeder familiar with shipping.

Oruc Reis said:

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Silver is a lab/weimereiner mix.

I have a Wildrose lab who is everything they claim their dogs to be. Will be a Wildrose owner for life. Main kennel is in Oxford, but they recently started having puppies at their Dallas kennel. They also have a facility in Granite, CO but no puppies. Cheaper than the prices you quoted.

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I totally agree. Mine came from Duckhill Kennels, which is owned by Robert Milner. Milner was the founder of Wildrose Kennels. I would have gotten one from Wildrose, but they only had pups in their Mississippi facilty. And I knew Milner from our old field trial days and knew he would also have good dogs. The lab I have now is everything I could want in a hunting dog and family dog. If I get another one, it will be from Wildrose now that they have pups here in Texas.