[MJM]

So myself and my wife have been looking for years at acquiring a dog, but now that we finally have the space and backyard we are going to go through with it (wasn't fair to the dog when we lived in a condo downtown). We've been looking at labrador retrievers and breeders for a while, but unfortunetly I made the mistake of taking the wife to petland last night, and sure enough they had just got in an 8 week old labrador retriever. My wife wants this guy to come home with us, but i'm concerned about buying a dog from petland and not a breeder. It's not the "certificate" you get from a breeder that concerns me, it's the health of the dog and whether it would have the temperment of a lab given it's from a pet shop. Petland showed me that both it's parents were labs and that it came from Homestead Kennels in Saskatchewan, but I still have some concerns. I'm very scared of getting a dog from a puppy mill (not saying Petland does that, but it scares me more than dealing with a breeder).

Any information/educated opinion someone could provide wpould be greatly appreciated.

On the other hand, if other people on here have a labrador retriever and know of any breeders they could share their experience with it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,