My foray into the dog world started off as a volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs of America. After a decade of puppy raising, I was ready for a different canine challenge, so my husband and I decided to pursue upland hunting as a new joint hobby.  My experiences had always been with Labs but we wanted a pointing breed to hunt over, so I thought my Lab days were done.

 

That's when we discovered naturally pointing, purebred Labrador retrievers!  I immediately became enamored with the breed and was intrigued by the training involved in producing a finished upland pointing retriever.  I founded the Northwest Pointing Labrador Club in 2014 to nurture connections with other pointing Lab owners and build a network for training, hunting, and hunt testing.

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Since then, I've been afflicted with the hunt test bug and have trained all three of my pointing Labs to the highest level in the American Pointing Labrador Association (APLA), earning the 4x Grand Master Pointing Retriever (4xGMPR) title on each of them. In addition, my “heart dog” Dillon, also an AKC Master Hunter (MH) and HRC Hunting Retriever Champion (HRCH), earned a qualifying score at the 2021 AKC Master National Retriever Club invitational.  Joy is my youngest dog and has already surpassed her unrelated older brothers, earning her 4xGMPR, MH, and HRCH titles, all by just 1 week past 3 years of age.  

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She is also my favorite duck and goose dog because she eagerly crawls into her mutt hut or cuddles with me in the layout blind, settles in to wait, and never makes a peep or moves until she's called for the retrieves.  She's tenacious on waterfowl and won't let one get away.  In the upland field, she is methodical and hunts in gun range naturally, checking every piece of cover and rarely misses a bird.  She can hunt for hours and is ready to go again the next day after snuggling in bed with me that night.

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I didn't set out to become a breeder, but Joy so impressed me with her biddability, intelligence, line manners, marking ability, perseverance, and nose, that I had to see if I could produce an even better dog using her as the foundation.  Besides the talent that makes her a phenomenal hunt test competitor, a quiet but observant and tenacious water fowling companion, and an energetic bird-finding upland dog, her good looks, playful personality, and easy temperament make her a natural family pet and hiking buddy as well.     

 

- Lily Lo (Joy's human)