What   is   a CANADIAN LABRADOR RETRIEVER?

What is a truly CANADIAN Labrador Retriever?  According to the Canadian Kennel Club, for 30 years in a row, Labrador Retrievers have been the most popular dog breed in the world!  Canadians can be proud of our Canadian Labrador Retrievers.  How do they differ from "American" or "British" Labs?  The traits of the truly Canadian Labrador should more closely mirror the ORIGINAL Labs brought over from Canada in 1830 to Scotland for breeding and hunting by some of the Dukes of the day than anything else.  Amazingly, after almost 200 years, the Scottish Labs are still bred by the Dukes of Buccleuch from Drumlanrig Castle, at their Chapel Farm, and even more incredibly,  they have maintained the original look and function of the "original" Lab to this day.  

Fran (one of Trailrunners' owners) once met a Buccleuch Duke who was in Canada at a retriever trial.  He introduced himself because he noticed the Trailrunners Labs looked like their dogs. (Sometimes we enter up to 8 of our dogs at a Hunt Test) We were invited to visit their kennels in Scotland.  These are authentic old school people, and their dogs still look, act, and perform like the original CANADIAN Labs that their ancestors brought from Canada!  

A truly Canadian Lab will have the appearance and temperament, and health qualities of these “original Canadian bloodlines” and need not be stereotyped into categories like  “American” (lean long, fast, hyper) or British (short legs, wide, slower, with boxy head).  Maintaining the original Lab has always been the intention of Trailrunners in our breeding.  For up to 5 generations of dogs now, we have very intentionally sourced dogs that are as  "Canadian' as possible, even though we had to purchase dogs to breed from the USA, UK, and even Japan (JKC reg'd) as well as from many parts of Canada.  

Through the work of caring breeders around the world for 2 centuries, Labs are still the most popular breed.   Why is that?   Labs are only dogs that can do so many things and do them so well.  They are the fun-filled and safe part of the family. They hunt, retrieve, work for detection agencies, search and rescue, are intuitive therapy dogs, fill key service dog roles for the disabled, sniff out many diseases, including cancer, and occasionally become “models”! (featured in more photos in advertisements than any other dog in history!)  The Labrador Retriever's coat is best suited to weather extremes, and they are BUILT for fun in the water! 

There are plenty of good reasons to want to have one, including the fact that they come in 3 colours!    Trailrunners breeds top-quality Canadian Labs and proves it through OFA hips and eye clearances, real bird hunting, and CKC hunt test titles before breeding.  We test them for temperament, train them in obedience.  Many Trailrunners Labs now live all over the world, purchased by discerning individuals, families, or agencies.  

In 2024, Trailrunners'  trainers were able to train and compete with  2 of our Labs to the point where they qualified for the Canadian Master National Hunt Test.  It is now Summer 2025, and we hope to do that again with at least 2 of our dogs.  We do it all to develop better and better CANADIAN Labs for our clients who come to us as customers and leave with a puppy,  as a member of the Trailrunners FAMILY! Some have owned 4 Trailrunners Labs over the years, and some choose to have 2 at a time!  

We knew it was time to put the name of CANADIAN back into the breed, and we hope EVERY Canadian gets to enjoy the benefits of a Labrador Retriever at some point in their lives.