What is the Guild of Labrador Improvement Breeders?

The Guild of Labrador Improvement Breeders (GLIB) is a simple Labrador breeding guild that aims to improve the Labrador population, through three main methods.   We have an emphasis on conformation, hunting ability, and health.   They might also be listed as appearance, drive, and disease testing.  The dilute Labrador has a rapid rate of growing population in North American and is starting to take place more rapidly around the world.  We realize that there is no turning back the clock on the dilute Labrador Retriever, and thus we want to be catalyst for mentorship, mentoring new breeders in to sound breeding practices, for the future of the Labrador Retriever.

The Problem and History

The dilute Labrador has been bred for at least the last 60 plus years in the United States and since that time the majority of the population has been bred to one another.  This site is not intended for public debate, only to react and respond to what currently is happening within the breed.  Some breeding to standard lines has taken place with dilute Labradors, however often those breeding’s are bred back into the main dilute population and in two generations can be lost back to the line bred bloodlines which have caused some of the health, and lack of conformation issues which currently exist within the dilute Labrador population.   Fortunately it’s rare to see a lack of hunting drive in dilute Labradors because most of them come from American hunting lines; however this occasionally has been diminished also.

How can we actively help solve the problem?

The mission of the Guild is to encourage dilute Labradors breeding mentorships which emphasize, conformation, hunting ability and health testing as a priority when breeding future Labradors.  We want to encourage these types of breeding practices, regardless if people are breeding the dilute gene or simply Black, Yellow, and Chocoalte without the diltue modifer.

These simple methods help improve the future of the Labrador breed when followed.

1. Add Conformation Labradors to your program.

2. Add Minimum Health Testing ( Required ) 

• Panel Testing
• OFA Hips and Elbows

3. Add hunt titled dogs to your program.

4. Purposefully breed DD to Dd or DD to dd, and refrain from straight dilute breedings.

How can we make a difference?  Through mentorships

We are inviting Labrador breeders, to join us to help one another learn and grow.  Under the membership page there will be an opportunity to sign up for a Labrador breed mentor.  These mentorship relationships are 100% voluntary, and won’t always be perfect however, these will be mentors and mentees all striving for these above goals.

Sign up for Membership for more information or read further the FAQ for more specific information on Membership and what it means to sign up to be  apart of the Guild of Labrador Improvement Breeders.