All litters are born and spend the first 2-3 weeks in the house and are then moved outside together with the dam. The puppies are handle daily, enjoy outside playtime and are socialized as much as possible. Before leaving, all puppies are KC-reg. fully wormed, frontlined and comes with an extensive puppy pack including sales contract. No puppies leave earlier than 8 weeks and all puppies will be micro-chipped before leaving.

Contender puppies are sold to shooting homes, trialling homes, active pet homes but also as detection dogs - some stay in the UK but others have found homes abroad. Should you be interested in any future puppies, don't hesitate to get in touch as puppies are often sold/booked before they're born. We really only breed a litter whenever we would like a puppy ourselves.

Contender is part of The Kennel Club's Assured Breeder Scheme which is your guarantee that both the sire and dam has been hip scored and has a current BVA-eye cert. but we also DNA test for PRA, CNM and are also aiming to have at least one of the parent's elbow scored.

It is a bit too early to claim our own line as this takes generations of dogs but we have most certainly laid a very good foundation. We like for our dogs to look and behave like labradors, to have a sound temperament and to have the stamina to work and retrieve on land as well as in water all year around.

Contender is first and foremost a shooting dog kennel and the dogs are expected to prove themselves in all aspect of the shooting field being it out vermin shooting, pigeon shooting, picking-up, Wild fowling or as peg dogs.

We take great pride in the fact that also amateur gundog handlers are able to bring on our Contender bred dogs from puppies to fully trained shooting dog and/or test/Trial dogs as only when a complete novice can succeed in doing so have you proved yourself as a successful breeder!