"Why do I bring all this up? Free stuff sometimes ain't worth the cost"

Same thing I said. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Since I live in an area that is extremely "lab-heavily" due to all the hunting plantations, I probably have a higher chance of finding labs with the correct drives just sitting in Humane Society bouncing off the walls of their kennel, so I'm lucky there.

Free dogs? Pot luck.

My best two dogs.. equally as good, very intense, amazing drives.. one I paid a fortune for, the other was free .. failed miserably in the "pet" home he was originally given too.

If you are prepared to go thru some crap ones, I good one will come along.. eventually LOL

Having been very fortunate in obtaining single purpose detectors from rescues, shelters and pounds, I can assure you it's anything but free. First off, it's good to do a little PR. We've made a concious effort to work with the shelters etc showing them the particular behaviors we are looking for. That way, they do a little prescreening for us. We have pretty good cooperation from a 5 county area, which is also very Lab heavy, so we do get to look at a lot of dogs. Looking, as you well know, is much different that selecting. There are some really good dogs out there, for whatever reason, but as Mr. Sheldahl stated, you really have to know what you are looking for.

All dogs of course are given physicals and X rays prior to adoption. Perhaps the worst part of the selection process, using shelters etc is: 1. Seeing all the dogs you can't help and 2. Selecting one only to have to refuse it because of bad hips.

Being breed specific, what has shocked me is the number of really good looking Labradors that have no more drive to retrieve than my dead Aunt. Such a sad state of affairs for such a noble breed.

DFrost