About Us
Sugar Pine Labradors has been raising magnificent English Labrador Retrievers since the mid-1990's. We are sisters who jointly share our hobby and passion for the breed. We are located in the beautiful Sierra Mountain Foothills. We're about 40 minutes from Sacramento, two hours from San Francisco and one hour from Reno.
We fell in love with this breed when our daughters joined a dog 4-H project and we were lucky enough to find a breeder that mentored us and trusted us with one of her gorgeous English girls. Once we began showing our labs we became knowledgeable and this cultivated our love for the breed. Our daughters are now grown, but we continue to enjoy this passion together and have litters of labrador puppies occasionally.
Home Environment
Our labradors are our family and they are raised in the serene surroundings of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Foothills. They enjoy daily walks and swimming in our local lakes and rivers. Because we are small they don't live on cement floors like they might at a large kennel. Instead, they are raised as our a part of our family. Our labrador puppies are carefully thought-out and well planned. We only have a couple labrador puppy litters a year. Our labrador puppies are in great demand, most litters have deposits before they're born.
Why do our dogs cost so much?
We have been raising labradors for over 25 years and we are very small. This is not our business nor do we make our living on our pups. Our dogs are our family. Trust us we spend much more than we ever receive back. Why on earth would we do it then? We ask ourselves that a lot. We enjoy it, we know we produce puppies that are not only gorgeous and healthy, we love our Christmas cards and emails. Our pups are an extension of our passion. Bottom line we love doing it and we only have a few litters a year. Pups that come from us have been thoughtfully planned and things you should know are:
We only have a few dogs we are not a true "kennel" our dogs are our family.
Our dogs are thoughtfully purchased by looking at pedigrees, genetics, testing, temperaments, titles, and confirmation.
This takes time and we have been on wait lists for years before we actually get the exact pup we want and they are not cheap.
Before breeding, we do the necessary testing and certifications.
Breeding is not as easy as most would think. Yes, it is a lot of work but getting a dog bred and having a successful litter of pups is much harder than most will ever know. We have more problems with litters (vet bills, C-sections, bitches that won't conceive after thousands being invested, etc., etc. etc.) than we ever have successful litters and this is true with most breeders, even the big ones.
We love it and are proud of the puppies we produce and the joy we get from the extended families that come into our lives is why we continue plus, let's face we love puppy breath.
Lastly, there is always the old saying, "you get what you pay for." This is a huge commitment and a new family member for many years. You will LOVE one of our special thoughtful bred babies.