Acquiring a Puppy
Questionnaire
The above link will take you to our Good Dog breeder page. Please return to this site after completing your form. Thanks!
Puppies
Current and Upcoming Litters
Puppy Questionnaire
Thank you for your interest in a Sioux River Retriever Puppy. Placing puppies with families is a joyous, yet serious undertaking for us, you, and your puppy. We care about the Labrador Retriever breed and each of the puppies with which we are privileged to be involved. We also care about your happiness and success in raising a Sioux River Retriever to its full potential. We are committed to that end and hopeful for a mutual, lifelong friendship with our clients. Let’s begin exploring the possibilities together!
Completing this questionnaire does not obligate you to purchase a Sioux River Retriever nor obligate us to transfer one to you. It simply puts us on each other’s radar and opens the dialogue to see if we might have a potential puppy for you or, if we don’t, aid us in helping you find a puppy with the attributes for which you are looking. Information collected is only used internally here at Sioux River Retrievers and never sold to or shared with any outside parties.
Our New Puppies
Sire:
GCH Harbor Run’s Art of Animation
Dam:
Sioux River’s Alice
Black and Chocolate litter arrived 05/25/24. Puppies $1900
Puppies have beautiful, correct conformation combined with alert minds for a variety of training disciplines; possess active retrieving skills in the field; and will always be a delight as friendly and quiet companions back at home.
Our Commitment To You
We like to think that when we place a Sioux River Retrievers puppy in your home, we are placing a little bit of ourselves with you, as well. We hope all our clients feel some camaraderie with us because of the link the puppy brings. Building lifelong friendships with people all over the country is one of our great blessings in breeding Labrador Retrievers.
Because of the ongoing relationship we will have with you, whatever your connection with Sioux River Retrievers, we commit time and resources in your success as a Lab parent. Some of the ways we do this are:
Doing all we can to provide a healthy puppy that matches your goals and lifestyle.
Timely answering phone calls, texts, and emails – for the life of your dog and beyond.
Working with you to troubleshoot any puppy-rearing challenges you may have.
Providing re-homing for your pet if you ever need that service – though we hope you never do.
Pointing you to experts that can assist you in training and care for your pet. Here are three of our favorite YouTube channels to get you started (click on names):
Stonnie Dennis – fun, all-around great training how-to and philosophy (You’ll become addicted!)
Bill Hillmann Retriever Training Lessons – developing top retrieving skills
Zak George’s Dog Training Revolution – especially good at troubleshooting
Communicating new things we learn that may be beneficial to you and your dog.
In other words: We’ll be here for you!
Our Commitment to Your Puppy
Your puppy’s success as a happy member of your family – and your enjoyment of your pet – starts before it is even conceived and continues beyond the sad day of your final goodbye. You will have many fun experiences and fond memories with your puppy. Your puppy deserves the best life we can give it.
To that end we have some serious responsibilities to each puppy we nurture, including:
Making sure the puppy has the genetic potential to be healthy, trainable, and friendly with other animals and people. Those are heritable traits we focus on when making breeding decisions.
Just like you screen breeders in your search for your ideal puppy, we screen potential clients to ensure puppies are placed in homes where they will be loved, trained, and cared for throughout their lives.
We get them off to a great start with early neurological stimulation that builds in them greater ability to handle stress throughout their lives – whether that stress comes from germs and disease, training challenges, isolation, social interaction, visits to the vet, etc. This can result in a puppy’s faster maturation and better problem-solving skills later in life. You may read more about “Super Dog” training by clicking here on the Breeding Better Dogs website.
Providing lots of human, animal, and environmental socialization to prepare them for new people and new experiences in their forever home. Of course, you will build on that socialization, but they will have a good foundation when they leave here.
Our Healthy Dog Promise
We screen for genetic health before we breed any litter. Both Dam and Sire for any Sioux River Retrievers puppy will have had laboratory testing completed that is recommended for Labrador Retrievers and no mating will occur that might produce a puppy with any genetic disorder common to our breed.
Orthopedic Foundation for Animals evaluations for elbows and hips will be certified for sires and dams to demonstrate the puppies will have the best chance for joint soundness from a hereditary standpoint. While non-heritable factors may contribute to hip or elbow dysplasia, we can give clear reassurance that there won’t be underlying tendencies for it from a pup’s family heritage.
All puppies, when they leave for their forever homes, will be up to date on all vaccines, de-worming, and nutrition. They also will have been examined and deemed healthy by a licensed veterinarian.
Any and all health test/evaluation documentation completed for puppy and its parents is available for review by anyone purchasing a Sioux River Retrievers puppy.
We warrant all puppies through 26 months of age against developing hip and elbow dysplasia or any genetic abnormality common to Labrador Retrievers. In the unlikely event that such would occur in your puppy, we will provide another puppy to you from the next available litter of similar breeding at a time mutually agreeable with you. We would not remove an affected puppy from your family and assume you will provide loving care for your pet throughout its life. If you are not able to continue to do so, we expect it to be placed into a loving home of someone who will provide the necessary level of care and we can help assure that placement. If it is in the dog’s best interest, to eliminate pain and suffering, it shall be humanely euthanized by a licensed veterinarian.
Click on Orthopedic Foundation for Animals to learn about canine disorders and review any dog’s clearances available on their site.
Animal Genetics Inc. is another good site to learn about genetic diseases common to Labrador Retrievers and other breeds.
Selecting Your Pup
The Right Puppy For You
Just as people have differing personalities and lifestyles, puppies have various character qualities and likes and dislikes. Forming a harmonious union for puppies and their owners requires more than picking the first pup that bounds up to a boy or having a stranger putting puppy through a battery of “tests” to determine the right choice. Lots of people have lots of ideas about how to pick the best pup in the litter. Here at Sioux River Retrievers, we have learned that when it comes to getting a good fit for both the puppy and its new family, nothing can substitute for TIME. Unfortunately, concerns about disease transmission, distance, schedules and household management, etc. prevent people from being able to spend enough time observing and evaluating a whole litter of puppies in the hope that they get Mr. Perfect. So, we help.
We invest hours and hours and hours in your puppy and its littermates. We develop a thorough understanding of each one’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, quirks, curiosities, fears, and ability to achieve its full potential when paired with a human partner who has his or her own interests and skills. By filling out our questionnaire and enjoying extensive visiting on the phone over a period of time, we hope to learn, as well as describe for you, what puppies might be the best potential match for you. We also give updates and send video as the puppies develop so you can check on their progress and start dialing in on the perfect pup to join your family. Working together, we find a terrific match always becomes evident and, when the day comes to get your puppy, we will all be confident that a great puppy is going to a great home.
Deposit
We field a lot of inquiries regarding available Sioux River Retrievers puppies and are happy to talk openly with anyone about them. Feel free to call or text or email your questions anytime and understand that if you are seriously interested in a current or future litter, it is important to let us know of your intent to acquire one as early as possible in your decision-making process. We usually accept $300 deposits on puppies when we know we’ve had a successful breeding and may do so for future litters when there is great interest in a particular mating. Folks who have made a deposit are those who are best assured of getting their pup from a desired litter at the timing of their choosing.
Delivery
Almost all our puppies go to their forever homes on days 49-60 after whelping. Most are picked up in-person at our location near Hawarden, Iowa. We can accommodate delivery by meeting clients somewhere mutually agreeable and we have, on occasion, successfully delivered puppies via premium pet care services on commercial airlines. Please inquire about any particular arrangements we may make with you.